The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-02-22
A SMALL BOY.

vi bdy, suS y OUT, Sitlu bIuull
Ned, as he opened the door. "She's
gone to the dressmaker's, but she'll be
back soon, cause she's got to friz her
hair for dinner. Come in and wait"
accepted the invitation, and in
stalled myself in the easiest chair in the
parlor, after rolling it to the bay-win-
dow, so as to command view of the
street, while Ned " histed" himself, as
he called it, on handicapped table
beside me, and sat there, with the
.crispy cheekiness of early boyhood,
whistling and swinging his feet.
Ned was chap of 10 years, with a
remarkable memory-as was fated to
discover-the youngest brother of Miss
Victoria Conrad; and Miss Victoria
Conrad was handsome, dashing, clever
girl whom L had met at a picnic the
preceding summer, and with whom l
had Immediately fallen desperately in
love.
use the word desperately" advised
ly, for it was my first really serious en-
tanglement, and my charmer, being a
thorough mistress of the arts by which
young and susceptible male hearts are
subjugated, had inthralled me most COM
pletely.
True. before I cast myself at her
feet, had felt great tender
ness for sweet little third or
fourth cousin of mine-a slight, pale
young girl, with hair of the faintest
gold, and eyes of the softest blue, and
an innocent trusting, child-like look in
her pretty face.
But beside Miss Conrad, with her
magnificent form, glorious auburn tress-
les, and wonderful big black eyes, May
Newton faded into insignifcance. 1t
yves as though one placed delicate,
cream-colored lily in the same vase with
gorgeous, flame dashed with crimson
leaved, brown throated gladiole.
And so L found, on becoming acquaint-
ed with Miss Conrad, that my feeling
for May, which had existed since our
earliest childhood, Wds only tender
ness, while my feeling for Victoria, al
though but three months old, already
amounted to passion.
But, in spite of my infatuation for the
1atter, was not blind to the fact that
she vvaS finished coquette, and didn't
half like the way, after the very decided
encouragement she had given me, she
firted with my intimate friend Charley
Thornton. Sometimes, indeed, it flashed
uron me that there had been q love af-
fair between them which had not entire
ly ended even now, and it was after one
,aSf these flashes had sought her house,
determined to discover what her real
feelings toward me were, and resolved
That when l left her it should be either
Ms an accepted or rejected sutton.
To speak frankly, had every reason
TO believe, in spite of the flashes, it would
&e rs an accepted one. For, as much as
Thornton was distinguished by Miss Con-
rad above her other admirers, just so
much bad / been of late distinguished
above Thornton. And we two were equal
in age, looks, family, education, and
Qour lady-love thought fortune. say
our Iady-love thought, for the truth was,
compared to me, Charley was poor. How
rich / was had taken care should not
be known; for, though only three-and-
twenty, 1 had already grown tired of a
single life, with its attendant boarding
houses, and was looking for wife, with
a view 70 q comfortable home of my own.
And, like Lord Burleigh and other ro-
mantle, poetical fellows, j wanted to be
loved for myself alone.
Only Charley Thornton knew of my re.
Gently inherited wealth, and him L had
bound by all that is sacred in friendship
not to disclose it.
$50 in singing me out for favor"
argued, Victoria leads me to suppose
she loves me. And, if she consents to be
nay wife, that supposition will turn into
happy certainty, for she certainly, with
her beauty and talents, might make O
much finer match than the one / Offer
her. And what delight it will be, wher
the words are said that seal my happi
ness and make her all my own, to sec
her observation-disclosures grow larger and
brighter az she lea. ms that in accepting
few thousands she has become the
mistress Of half million I"
But to go back to the small boy. swing
ing his feet and evidently anxious to en-
Ger into conversation.
say" he blurts out at last. +" d,
you like TO look at photographs? Char
ley Thornton does. He and Vic lookef
at this book"-taking one from the tabl,