The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1878-04-11

couldnt get round marrying, what's
your notion about Lovisap According to
the best of your belief, would she be
favorable to changing her sitovation?"
He ended with his head quite on one
side, and tipped backward like chick
ems in drinking, which forced my moth
er TO address her reply to his occipital
.urls. She could hazard no opinion on
the subject, she said. She would ad-
wise him to confer with the lady herself.
81 hate to, masterly,'' groaned he
with engaging candor; ''but this I
know-if | ask any woman to have me,
it II be Lovisa."
Oddly enough, our minister on the
morrow preached an eloquent sermon
on the duty and the joy of matrimony
{" 1t is not good for man to be alone,"
ran the text, and David, in the corner
pew cast down his conscious eyes, feel
ing that he himself was the person in
dicated.
1t was not good for man to be alone;
he had suspected this for some months,
and now the Bible confirmed his sus-
picion. He wanted to be good; he
| wouldn't be alone any longer-fact; not
if he could help it; and he stole an in
quisitive glance across the aisle at the
lady of his heretofore hesitating choice.
He did more. Benediction pronounced,
he sidled over to her, his face glowing
like the perennial carnation in her bon
net, and asked her opinion of the dis
course. Didn't she think that was a
noble text?
Poor Miss Lovisa, taken quite by sur
prise, murmured something about it
being good sound doctrine, but hard to
live up to, and hurried across the way
| to open her house to her usual Sunday
guests. These were chiefly farmers
wives from different parts of the parish,
who found in her tiny cottage a conve-
nient retreat during the noon intermis-
sions. Here they ate their lunch, al
ways remembering to present liberal
offering to their hostess, who in return
poured out for them steaming libation
from the stumpy earthen teapot which
during the morning service stood
upon the kitchen-stove, putting and
blowing as if it had polypus in its ugly
little pug-nose. These Sabbath dona-
tions were important items toward the
support of Miss Lovisa, who,
save this house and its hum
BILE furniture, had no assured patri-
mony. 1t is true, she often helped her
neighbors in their sewing or household
labors, but never for wages. 1t would
have pierced her to the heart had these
been offered her. She wanted it dis
tinctly understood that she only went
" to accommodate. If her friends felt
disposed to give her presents, why, that
altered the case. She accepted them
with an alaerity worthy of Mr.. Dorritt.
AS these testimonials usually reached
her on Sunday, it followed that, wher-
ever Miss Lovisa might be during the
week, the Lords Day was sure to find
her in her queer little cottage opposite
the church. Hither came David in the
twilight of the Sabbath of which have
spoken, ambling up the narrow path
with his own peculiar gait, quite like that
of a small boy riding the paternal cane.
Lovisa, at the moment regaling herself
with the diluted dregs of the company
tea, spied him above the inclined rim of
| the cup, and in her perturbation scalded
her throat with the boiling liquid.
Good-evening, Lovisa," said he,
!
ed in at the open window.
! "Good-evening, Mr.. Yopp," return
ed she, pushing the tea equipage out of
sight with one hand while extending
him the other.
A tell-tale crumb of gingerbread in
her palm transferred itself to David's,
and he unconsciously rolled it between
his thumb and finger as he spun a sec
ond thread of conversation.
"It's been tolerably warmish day,
LoVisa."
"Tedious warm," sighed she, adding,
gratuitously, to cloak her nervousness,
sit gives me weak, all-gone feeling u
"Just so, just so,'' assented David,
with a sympathetic groan which would
sound too cheerful. Constitutionally
he took life easier than she. As rule,
he considered this pretty nice world,
this world of ours, but Lovisa knew to
the contrary. .s=s
ssDoes the old gentleman feel the heat
much?, she asked, presently, uneasy
because David made no move to go.
Desperately fact!" answered he,
chucking his chin backward and for
ward to pump out the words, which
clogged his throat more and more the
longer he delayed his errand.
An embarrassed pause succeeded
during which Lovisa's fingers steered
restlessly along the two curving bays o1
hair that encroached right and left up
on the bold bluff of her forehead, and
David anxiously watched their progress
Once he half opened his mouth to speak
but it sprang together again like his Q NJ
house-door in that dog-day weather.
Lovisa grew each moment more un
easy. She was afraid it did not looi