The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1878-03-07
A SMALL Roy.

Ou say, Slit OUT, Sdlu small
Ned, as he opened the door. "She's
gone TO the dressmaker's, but she'll be
back sooD, cause she's got to friz her
hair for dinner. Come in and watt
I accepted the invitation, and in
stalled myself in the easiest chair in the
parlor, after rolling it to the bay-win-
dow, 80 as to command a view of the
street, while Ned "histed" himself, as
he called it, on a handicapped table
beside me, and sat there, with the
crispy cheekiness of early boyhood,
whistling and swinging his feet.
Ned was a 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 1 had met at picnic the
preceding summer, and with whom l
had Immediately fallen desperately in
love.
1 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
subiugated, had inthralled me most com
pletely.
True. before L cast myself at her
feet, I had felt a great tender
ness for a sweet little third OF
fourth cousin of mine-a slight, pale
young girl, with lair 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 insignificance It
was as though one placed a delicate,
cream-colored lily in the same vase with
n gorgeous, flame dashed with crimson
leaved, brown throated gladiole.
And SO I found, on becoming acquaint-
ed with Miss Conrad, that my feeling
for May, which had existed since our
earliest childhood, aO0s only a 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
latter, [ 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
upon me that there had been love af-
fair between them which had not entire
ly 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 suitor.
To speak frankly, had every reason
to believe, in spite of the flashes, it would
be as an accepted one. For, as much as
Thornton was distinguished by Miss Con-
rad above her other admirers, Just SO
much had / been of late distinguished
above Thornton. And we two were equal
in age, looks, family, education, and
(our lady-love thought fortune. I say
our lady-love thought, for the truth was,
compared to me, Charley was poor. How
rich I 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 to comfortable home of my own.
And, like Lord Burleigh and other ro-
mantle, poetical fellows, ] wanted to be
loved 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
not 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 a
much finer match than the one I 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 resplendent-e eyes grow larger and
brighter as she lea ms that in accepting
few thousands she has become the
mistress of half million - 4ltlt-.-
But to go hack to the small boy, swing
ing his feet and evidently anxious to en-
ter into conversation.
81 say" he blurts cut at last, do
you like to look ct photographs Char
ley Thornton does. He and Vic looked
at this book"-taking one from the table
on which he sat- for more'n an hour
the other day. I like him. He gave
me two white mice and gr1inea-pig; the
cat ate the white mice, and the guinea
pigs dead. But they wasn't looking at
il all the time either They was talking.
Your pictures there, you know. His
used to be on the other page, but he
coaxed Vic to put it somewhere else"
"WhyfS I asked, ceasing to watch
or the coming of my divinity, and turn