Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1877-12-05


ness is favorable to meditation when
I Glanced to see young Mr.. Brown
come out of his own house and ascend
the Barretts' steps.
One OF the children admitted him,
and he went into the parlor, where
Immediately light appeared. Some
one drew down the shades, but they
were very thin, and could see the
shadows of the inmates SO clearly that
there was no mistaking them as they
were thrown upon the linen.
There sat Mrs. Barrett on one side
of the centre table, sewing diligently,
and opposite her, with their chairs
close together aud their heads almost
touching, sat Lucy Barrett and Mr..
Brown.
This discovery --torI felt it was
nothing less-amazed and excited me
beyond expression. Here was evi
dently love affair, and how angry
Mrs. Brown would be if she knew it !!
TO be sure, the diligent use of my
opera glass enabled me to see some
books on the table, from which the
young couple pretended to be reading,
but that amounted to nothing. Poe
try most likely and was not poetry
always the natural language of love
making?
Well, my sympathy with Mrs.
Brown kept me on the watch for near
ly two hours, and during all that time
Mrs. Barrett sat quietly sewing, and
apparently unconscious of the way in
which those two heads came together
over the book before them.
But at last Mr.. Brown rose to 60,
and then the mother seemed to wake
up, fur she went with him to the door,
instead Of letting her daughter 60, as
quite expected she would. But the
moment his back was turned, what
does that girl do? Drops her head
down on her folded arms on the table,
and seems TO be having good cry, as
if she couldn't bear to part with him
even then. Presently her mother re-
turned to the room, l.. ;anS ~. ;fstnod by,
eV.v.."t3 ~. So" hair aS IL 81
cousoling her. Then the light was
cxtinguished, and | suppose they went
to bed, but I was wakefal all that
night.
From that time forward | kept a
close watch on Leslie Brown, and |
soon found that he spent four evenings
out of six with pretty Lucy Barrett.
Always the programme was the
same; he sat close beside her, reading
the love sick verses such occasions al
ways demand, while Mrs. Barrett
sewed near by, or the old grandfather
sometimes took her place and played
propriety; though the poor old man
always fell asleep.
On the evenings when Mr. Brown
did not appear, Lucy occupied the par
lor alone, and wrote intermlnable let
ters, over which she sometimes cried.
AT other times she might be seen in
her little bedroom, standing at the
window in an attitude OF deep dejec.
ton, as if longing for her lover.
Little cause had she for detection,
however, for Leslie Brown was as de-
voted as he could be without exciting
his mothers suspicious. He, too,
wrote long letters Il could gee him
plainly enough, for he occupied the
second story front room. and he al
most always left his windows wide
open during the first part of the even
ing), but he seemed to be very tastidi-
Gus about the composition of his epis-
ties. Sometimes be would fill and tear
up half a dozen sheets of paper before
he was suited. Then he would put
his letter in a large yellow envelope
such an unromantic color, too!-and
send it by the negro waiter to his
young neighbor when he could not go
himself, and then was sure to see
her perusing the well-flled pages
afterward
What he could have found to write
about so continually was mystery to
me, as they met SO often; but suppose
lovers nonsense always was and al
ways will be endless.
Just about this time I made another
and most significant discovery. l was
selecting some Berlin woods for new
footstool, when Lucy Barrett entered
the shop and asked one Of the sales
women 1t she could get some hand
kerchiefs marked for embroidering.
"Lades' or geutlemen's handker-
chiefs?" asked the girl. | pricked up
my ears and listened.
"Gentlemen's,' was the answer. OF