The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-02-21
A SMALL BOY.

cob I say, she's out" said small
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"
4 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
sstreet, 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 I was fated to
,dlscover-the youngest brother of Miss
Victoria Conrad; and Miss Victoria
Conrad was handsome, dashing, clever
giri whom [ had met at picnic the
preceding summer, and with whom
had Immediately fallen desperately in
love.
L use the word " desperately" advised
Ny, for it was my first really serious en-
tanglement, and my charmer, being
thorough mistress of the arts by which
young and susceptible male hearts are
subiugated, had inthralled me most COM
Pleteiy.
True, before 7 cast myself at her
feet, I had felt great tender
ness for q 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-
es, and wonderful big black eyes, May
Newton faded into insignifcance. It
was as though one placed delicate,
81 cFeam-colored lily in the same vase with
=, aIgorgeous, ame-dashed- crimson
dea1ed, brown, throated gladiole.
And SO I found, on becoming acquaint-
led with Miss Conrad, that my feeling
tor May, which had existed since cur
earliest childhood, was only tender
ness, while my feeling for Victoria, al
'though but three months old, already
amounted TO q passion.
But, In spite of my infatuation for the
laSter, / was not blind to the fact that
she was 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
%ulsa1 E2e that there had been love af-
Xalr between them which had not entire
~ ended even now, and it was after one
of these flashes had sought her house,
determined to discover what her real
feelings toward me were, and resolved
that when left her it should be either
as an accepted or rejected sutton.
TO speak frankly, I had every reason
f6o believe, In spite of the flashes, it would
he as an accepted one. For, as much as
Thornton was distinguished by Miss Con-
rad above her other admirers, just SO
much had I been of late distinguished
above Thornton. And we two were equal
In age, looks, family, education, and
four lady-love thought fortune. I say
our lady-love thought, for the truth was,
compared to me, Charley was poor. How
rich was 7 had taken care should not
Zoe known; for, though only three-and-
twenty, had already grown tired of
single life, with it's attendant boarding
houses, and was looking for wife, with
b view to comfortable home of my own.
And, like Lord Burleigh and other ro-
mantle, poetical fellows, ] wanted to be
Noved for myself alone.
Only Charley Thornton knew of my re-
Gently inherited wealth, and him I had
bound by all that is sacred in friendship
mot to disclose it.
$50 in singing me out for favor" I
argued, ''Victoria leads me to suppose
she loves me. And, if she consents to be
my wife, that supposition will turn into
a happy certainty, for she certainly, with
her beauty and talents, might make
much finer match than the one T offer
her. And what delight it will be. when
the words are said that seal my happi-
ness and make her all my own, to see
her observation-disclosures grow larger and
brighter as she lea MS that in accepting
q few thousands she has become the
mistress of half million p
But to go back to the small boy, swing
ing his feet and evidently anxious to en-
ter into conversation.
ct say" he blurts out at last, edo
you Like to look at photographs? Char
ley Thornton does. He and Vic looked
at this book"-taking one from the table