Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1878-08-02
A POSTAL GARD.

"Good-morning, Miss Laura said Mrs.
Bender stopping at the gate. "How are
the folks to-day?"
"All we'll, thank you, Mrs. Bender"
II didn't see any light in the best parlor
last night, Miss Laura; how's that? Any
unpleasantness 20
''None in the weather, SURELY" laughed
Laura.
''Ah! I'm going down to the post office;
shall l look in your box? 1 suppose you
want your letters early, and one likes to be
neighborly."
eyes, thank you, Mrs. Bender. l shall
be in school till noon and | love to find a
letter under my dinner plate, and there'll
be no one to go to the office, as Miss Fril is
here, cutting and basting. Yes, would
be glad to have you look in our box, not
that [ expect much of anything
Anything in Box 297 b. she asked, hav-
ing reached the Office and secured her own
mail. ga postal card! well, | never! pas
the clerk surrendered it. 'sMiss Laura
Vaughn!'' she read, as she trudged home
WNl0. 0AoC1Ooo! WIN . WA1OluS W fCO1
on postal card ? wouldn't thank my
folks to write in that public way. Every
body reads them. Of course; just as COM
mon property as a poster: Ahem! You
can hardly help reading one; he who runs
may read-you see every word before you
know it. Don't fail to be at the Studio
Building by IL A. M. on Wednesday.
Nuns the word. jack Jack! Who's
Jack, | should like to know? Pretty work,
Miss Laura, for d deacon's daughter
What next? An elopement maybe. And
there's poor Devens, too! He ought to be
told OF these goings on, and put on his
guard. It's a duty not to allow the young
man to remain in the dark. / shall have
to manage it somehow
Mrs. Bender left the postal card with the
servant at Laura's door, and proceeded
homeward. Mr.. Devens, as fate had or
dered it, boarded with Mrs. Bender, and
had been making himself too a. reeable 10
her young neighbor, when she had other
views for him-When there was Prudence
Bender sitting at home at the piano, in her
black silk and clicked stockings, waiting
for something to happen. Mrs. Bender had
somewhere read that the fate of future
generations had been decided by the toss
of curl OF the waving of a ribbon, and
she was determined that neither curl nor
ribbon should be spared to favor her case.
'Have you seen anything of our neigh
bors lately?" she asked Mr.. Devens at din
ner.
II met Miss Nell Newcomb this morning
and walked to the mail with herr he an
swered, evasively.
"Oh, mean those on the other side of
the house. Miss Nell was engaged, and a
man might safely walk to Jericho with
her, "Miss Vaughn and you don't see
so much of each other as you did, eh?''
ooh, don't we? May 1 trouble you for
the pepper Miss Prue ?''
Law, no trouble, Mr.. Devens. If you're
going into the city tomorrow, would you
mind matching some fringe for me ?"
81 wouldn't mind matching anything
for you, Miss Prue, (; but I've no more idea
OF going into the city tomorrow than Of
gong to the moon.''
Oh. understood that Miss Laura was
going, and l supposed didn't know
but"
'Miss Waugh hasn't mentioned the ex-
curslon to me. Aren't you mistaken ?"-
off his guard.
"Would she be likely to mention it if she
were going to meet somebody in particu-
lar ~ put in Mrs. Bender.
Law, ma, don It worry Mr.. Devens."
II only said 'supposing.' 1t well to be
prepared for the worst, isn't it, Mr.. De-
vens ?''
II am not in the least anxious, assure
you," averred that gentleman; but it
struck him little oddly that he should
have heard nothing of the projected Jour
ney, since trip to Boston was holiday