The Portland daily press., 1879-09-29

into the hall. I'd changed my mind about
the three or four. The band was playing
waltz that made my toes tingle, and the
flowers all around were breathing their
sweetest. when felt-Gore. There's moth
ing else to say When mans in love, he's
in love-and if you can find another word to
say about it you're bigger poet than the
world has known so far. Love isn't words.
And it's not much good trying to say what
she was like there when 1 first set eyes ON
her, for ten to one you're in love with some
body else and won't agree with me that she
was just the loveliest girl that ever was born.
But she was all the same: and that's the
only point on which I'm not open to argue.
She was just as fair as an angel, and pre-
cisely the height and size of one; and she
was about the age that angels are when
they are eighteen, or maybe little more.
It's true I'd just come from where angels, of
that sort, are rare; and before that evening
I'd never mixed much with them anywhere;
so that falling in love at first sight might be
a trife more easy and natural to me than to
landsmen in general. But that's neither
here not there. L; wasn't So much the
beauty that caught me, nor her look of
real lady, as something in her face which I'd
never yet seen SO plainly in any woman's.
For all her fairness she had eyes which
might have been the twins of Paul's for
Qcpll dilu udIhutSS-OlllS lllS llSNCI oCCHlCt
to say anything, but only to go through you,
while hers looked just like the very gates of
Fairyland. And just now ii seemed to be
sad story they were telling. All the people
round were talking and laughing, twenty
five to the dozen, or else whispering here
and there; but she was standing up all alone
under some call ferns, silent and lost in her
self, and yet seeming to be looking out, all
over the place, for somebody who didn't
seem to be there. She wasn't looking at me,
anyhow; so | could watch her at my ease,
and did too, wondering if there was any
way Il could help her, for she jus looked like
that; as if she wanted mans help in some
thing, and as if, among all Miles's company,
there wasn't one to hold her out straw TO
cling to. Every now and then | could see
her press her teeth into her lower lip, and
move her foot in quicker time than the mu-
sic went to; and it was all out of Impotence,
for she looked too sad and anxious for an
ger / didn't know her name, and l hadn't
seen her five minutes, and yet l caught my
self out in an uncomfortable wonder if the
somebody who hadn't come was young, and
a man-say one of Mles's military friends.
No wonder he had lots of friends about him
if this girl belonged to Mrs. Cregan. At
last got so full of the notion that began
to feel like fool and half like spy; and as
didn't like that sensation, / made my way
to the door of a big drawing-room where I'd
found out that Miles's wife was receiving
the guests as they came in. hadn't caught
sight of Miles yet; but to look for little
man like him in such a crowd, all scattered
about through dozen rooms, W S worse
than looking for needle in bottle of hay.
Even with poor Kate fresh in my mind $50
far as the girl on the stairs hadn't put her
out again) | couldn't but own that Miles
had gone more above himself in his second
match than if he'd married another Conner.
1t was just amazing how such lady could
have taken up with tailor-looking attorney
like Miles; but it's always hard for men to
make out what women see in other men,
barring themselves. If you'll realize your
ideal of what a princess ought to be, but
isn't always, you'll have better picture of
Mrs. Cregan than l can give you; and as to
her style and her manner, she might be
queen. 1t just took my breath away. She
wasn't young, but she was as handsome
woman of forty as I'd ever seen, with eyes
and the nose of an eagle, and the smile of
summer day. However, went up to her,
and made a bow as if I'd been to court and
said, as well as the moving crowd would let
me:
''Fm afraid I'm late, hut It's never too
late to find the way into Paradise. Do you
happen to know where I'll find my brother
in-law?'
| had not meant my second sentence to be
quite so sudden, but dozen people were
wanting to speak to her all at once so had
to put my question and my Standardization
into one and the same quick word. |
thought she looked half puzzled for just the
1.-THE of second, but she gave me fresh
smile all to myself, and put out her hand,
which l took warmly, and said
81 am very glad to see you indeed-early
or late. No; have not seen your brother
in-law for some little while. hope
l don't know what else she was going to
say, for just then somebody else came up,
and then second, and then third, for
there were later corners even than L; SO /
was obliged to give up the chance of chat
just then, and maybe an introduction to the
girl on the stairs, and move on to look for
Miles, " ordering more and more at the way
he was living now. l half wished-my an
cestors forgive mel that myself had been
bred an attorney. Ifelt sort of fascination
drawing me back to the ferns on the stairs;
but | fought against it hard, and looked
about honestly for Miles.
excuse me-" said gentleman in spec
tacles with whom L CHANGED to rub elbows,
4 am very near-sigbted. Can you tell me
where our hostess happens to be just now?"
"My sister-in-law?'' said I, feeling proud
of Mrs. Cregan and so might any man.
sab, you are her brother-in-law? It's
rather an informal way of opening an ac-
quaintance, but Pm exceedingly glad to
have made it. 1 daresay you have often
heard her speak of her old friend, Lord YER
ner? / am he. How is it we have never
met before? But ali, remember-you have
been abroad for long while, haven't you?"
eyes," said l. "About ten years"
"That accounts for.it, then. 1 did not
know your brother before he married Lady
s,,+ l. =
Think of Miles Cregan being married to a
Lady Anne. Of course Miles wasn't my
brother, but there was no occasion
just then to bother stranger with
the exact relation of the Cregans to the
Connors; and | wasn't proud enough of it,
for that matter, to take the trouble. And
moreover it wasn't becoming in me to lessen
the grandeur of Miles and his house by say
ing that their kinsman had been an ostrich
farmer at the Cape, and riverside porter
in Brooklyn, and even queerer things than
that now and then, when the devil drove
especially hard. So said:
'No, Pm not in the army. I've been in
India" which was true. And maybe I'd
have given him the tiger story if somebody
else hadn't interrupted-for noticed it was
a queer fashion among Miles's friends never
to talk more than half a minnie at time to
any one, which didn't seem sociable to my
mind and spoiled conversation. But L
thought to myself, eff 1 get introduced to
that girl among the ferns it isn't only half
minute that I'll ber'
Only how was that to be done? Somehow
of course-for it isn't likely that a man who's
fallen in love as I'd done won't find some
sort of a way. Unjust find Miles," thought
/, "and l will" But man proposes-the
way in which I did get introduced to that
girl is perhaps the most extraordinary occur
renee in the history of fiction. I've even
met with people who wouldn't believe it till
I'd given them my word for its being true,
and shown them the fact of it with their
own eyes.
On my way after Miles, went back to the
stairs, half afraid for fear I'd see her eyes
alight with talking to that other fellow who
hadn't come. But she wasn't there any
more-which made it the worse, if anything,
because when you don't see girl it's i'm
possible to know what she's up to. just as
was standing in the very spot where she'd
stood, to keep it sacred from common heels,
and was thinking how to steal the bit of
fern that might have touched her neck or
her arm-for L was just as gone as man
pould bn-9 man in a livery came nm to me