Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1877-12-05
A MANS MISTAKE.

di& ussing their FIVE o'clock dinner.
AT an adjacent table, half hidden be-
hind newspaper, sat another gentle
man, waiting for his order to be belived.
$50 Glenham has been caught at last!
You have heard of his engagement, of
: course 20
The gentleman addressed laid down
his knife, in the very act Of carrying a
slice of roast duck.
"Glenham to be married ! Mark,
where did you hear such astounding
news? Nonsense /; it can't be true
Glenham! Why, he must be-well,
nearly fifty"
"Forty-tour-I happen to know.
Well. he certainly is engaged to be
married, in very short time, to Miss
Lillian Caldwln? OH" and the tone of
voice said as plainly as words could
have said: well, if that is the case, I
don't wonder. Miss Baldwin is young,
pretty and a society belle, and it has
always been understood that she was
to marry money, and Glenham has any
quantity of it.
4 Yes, she is the lucky girl who has
secured the greatest match of the day.
Of course it is his mouey that has done
it-only. with his Unknown horror of
being married for It, it is decidedly very
much to the fair young angels credit"
ITS all very we'll, but you see am
not so sure Of it. l tell you Glenham
hasn't the girls heart for l know to a
certainty she was engaged tos Harry
Marion. and it nearly killed her when
people broke 1t off on account of his
impecuniosity. 1 shan't believe Glen
hams marriage to Miss B. until l read
it in the papers,"
Then these two noble specimens of
the sex that never is guilty of the weak
ness OF gossiping went out, and Mr..
John Glenham took his absorbing in
teresting newspaper from before his
face, behind which he had heard every
syllable.
Was it true? Had these gentleman
spoken the truth? Was his little Lily
only accepting him because he had so
much money wherewith to deck her out
like princess? His dainty affectionate
little betrothed, who had SO often clung
so lovingly to his arm, and looked in
his face with her sweet, pure eyes-was
it possible that she had simulated the
tender, modest love she had shown
while her heart really was with Harry
Marion?
Mr.. Glenham remembered young
Marion well-a ine-looking, dashing
fellow, over whom girls and women had
a way of going into ecstacies-a gall
liant, lazy, good-natured fellow, who
had made love violently to pretty Lily
Baldwin, and who, rumor declared, had
been engaged to him, and the engage
ment had been broken on account of
Marion's general shiftlessness.
Mr.. Glenham thought of all this as
he ate his dinner-with less keen relish
than usual-and the more he thought
the more uncomfortable he became.
He knew he was, as his noble friend
had said, on the shady side of forty
''pretty old for nay little eighteen-year
Lily" he thought, with a pang but he
did not take into consideration the fact
that he was the fine, manly, self-poss-
essed, cultivated gentleman, or that his
grave; NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. face, with
its luxurious whiskers of dark brown.
and the heavy moustache, and the
thick, curling hair, sprinkled with gray,
was far more attractive to most women
women of refined tastes than Harry
Marion's effeminate blonde beauty.
Mr.. Glenham's was q warmly-affec-
tomato nature, which had never gone
out to any woman but Lily Baldwin
but all his life he had suffered horror
of being married for his money.
II believe Lily loves me. 1 won't
believe she is so false as these tonguev.
jealous fellows would make out. There
is no reason why I should fret myself
into state of misery until I have some
foundation. at least"
And he gravely strove to put the hor-
rid little suspicion out of his mind, and
went on with his dessert as if he had
risen superior to the disturbances that
annoy ordinary mortals.
But after he had got into his carriage,
and was being driven slowly up Broad.
way, the thought came back again with
redoubed force.
''If she doesn't loye me I wonder
whether or not could be mistaken in
thinking she does? How could she act
and look as she does If she were play
ing game? My precious little girl
Am wronging you and Furnishing my
self by such thoughts +? Or is it one of
those subtle instincts of warning? If
I thought her people had forced her into
this, I'd released her now, for her own
sweet sake, even if it killed me! Ought
20 speak to her about it?".
The self-put question was still unans-
wered when Mr.. Glenham jumped out
of his carriage at the bank.
He went in, and was told by some
one of whom he inquired that the presi
dent of the bank, Mr.. Delarcher, whom
he wished to see, was specially engaged