Litchfield enquirer., 1880-01-01

pealing look in her big eyes. 'tBut yol
 should take take care of yourself for her sake You really must take my rug. Hundreds, oh
 thousands of young Englishmen come ou here and kill themselves their first winter b, ! imprudence. D .. ~a @aH ea5 Thus adjured, accepted the rug with man, thanks and apologies, and wrapped mysel warmly up in the corner, with splendit view of my Uis-G-gis -@@ Exactly at that moment the ticket collect
 or came round upon his official tour. Now
 on American and Canadian railways, you d.
 not take your ticket beforehand, but pay you fare to the collector, who walks up and dowr
 through the open cars from end to end, be tween every station lifted up my bag ol
 silver, which lay on the seat beside me, anC
 imprudently opened it to take few dollar,
 full in sight of my enchanting neighbor.
 saw her look with unaffected curiosity at tho
 heap of coin within, and was proud at being
 able to give such an unequlvocal proof of my
 high responsibility what better guaranty
 of all the doblest moral qualities can any mar
 produce all the world over than bag of dol
 lars?
 sWhat a lot of moneyi r she said, as the collector passed on. What can you wanl
 with 1t all n coita?n
 an going on tour in the Southern
 Sfates. Ioonfided in reply, and thought il
 Qetter to take specie. was very proud ter twelve years ago of that word specie.
 And suppose those are your initials or the reticnle What a pretty monogram
 Your mother gave you that for birthday present '
 You must be conjurer or clairvoyant, ,
 l said snliling. '.So she did;n and I added that the initials represented my humble pat. q nl ho onffc ,,aolA Aaosr
 Ny names Lucretia, said my neighbor artlessly ,as child might have said if, with. out word as to surname or qualifying cir scumstances and from that moment she be- Sclnle to me simply Lucretia. I think of her as Lucretia tothe present day. As she spoke, sile pointed to the word engraved in tiny lit- 5ters on her pretty silver locket. e
 suppose she thought my confidence requir- atl tle more confidence in return, for after a slight pause she repeated once more, My names Lucretia. and live at Richmond
 Richmond P cried. .sWhy,s that's just where I'm going. Do you know the rector?''
 MT. Pritchard? Oh yes, intimately. He's our greatest friend. Are you going to stop with him ?"
 For a day or two at least, on my way to Montreal. Mrs Pritchard is my mothers cousin.,' sa 4
 ''How delightful Then we may consider ourselves acquaintances. But you don't mean to knock them up to night? They'll all be In bed long before one o'clock"
 No, haven't even written to tell them I was coming, I answered. .They gave me a general invitation, and said might drop in whenever pleased"
 s Then you must stop at the hotel tonight Pm going there myself My people keep the hotel. '
 Was it possible l was thunderstruck. I had pictured Lucretia to myself as at least a countess of the G1acie,s regime, few of whom still finger on in Montreal and elsewhere. Her locket, her rugs, her eyes, her chiselled fea- lures, all of them seemed to me redolent of the old French ao5lesse And here it turned out that this living angel was only the daugh- ter9of an inn. keeper But in that primitive and pleasant Canadian society such things, thought, can easily be. No dought she is the pelted child of the house, the one heiress of the old mans savings and after spending a winter holiday among the gaieties of Quebec, she IS now returning to pass the Christmas season with her family. l will not conceal the fact that I had already fallen head and ears in love with Lucretia at first sight, and avoWuf made me love her all the nfore. Besides, the Canadian, hotel Keepers are often very rich; and was not her manner perfect, and was she not an intimate friend of the rector and his wife? All these things showed at least that she was accustomed to refined society. l caught myself already speculating as to what my mother would think of such match A
 In five minutes it was all arranged about the hotel, and l had got in the midst of swimming conversation with Lucretia. She told me about herself and the past how she had been educated at convent in Montreal, and she loved the nuns oh; so dearly, though she was Protestant herself, and only French on her mothers side (Thls, l thought was well, as safeguard against parental preju dice) She told me all the gossip of Richmond, and whom l should meet at the rector's, and what a dull little town it was. But Quebec was delightful and Montreal-oh, if she could only live in Montreal, it would be per feet bliss. And SO thought myself, if only Lucretia would live there with me but I pru- dently refraincd from saying so, as l thought it rather premature. Or perhaps blushed and stammered too much to get the words out. Had she ever been ill Europe ?" No, never, but she would so like 1t. ''Ah, it would be delightful to spend month or two ip Paris" 1 suggested, with internal pictures of honey moon floating through my brain. ''Yes, that would be most enjoyable" she answered. AL together, Lucretia and 1 kept chatting uninter- ruptediy the whole way to Richmond, and the other passengers must have voted us most unconscionably bores; for they evidently could not sleep by reason of our incessant talking. We did not sleep, nor wish to sleep. And 1 am bound to say that more frankly enchant- ing or seemingly guileless girl than Lucretia have never met with from that day to this.
 At last we reached Richmond Depot Gas the ~, tired externally. but lively enough as regards the internal fires We got out and looked af- ter our luggage, A sleepy porter promised to bring it next morning to the hotel. There were no sleighs in waiting g-Richmond is too much of of a country station for that-so took my reticule in my hand, thrcw Lucretia's rug across her shoulders, and proceeded to walk with her to the hotel.
 Now, the Depot" is in 8 suburb known as Melbourne, while Richmond itself lies on the other side of the river St. Francis, here cros- sed by long covered bridge, sort of rough wooden counterpart of the famous one at Lucerne As we passed out into the cold night, it was showing heavily, and the frost was very, bitter. Ltlcretia took my arm without word of prelude, as naturally as if she were my sister, and guided me through the snow covered path to the bridge. When we SOt uHuGF lHe SneiteT OI IUC WOOu6u cOVeTlUg, we had to pass through the long dark gallery, as black as night, heading oaly for the dim square of moonlight at the other end. But Lucretia walked and chatted on as unconcern- edly as ifsshe had always been in the habit of that lonely tnrret-li like bridge with a total stranger every evening of her life. 1 confess l was surprised. I fancied prim English girl in a similar situation, and be- gan to wonder whether all this artlessness was really as genuine as it looked. sfE E Al the opposite end of the brluge we emerg- ed upon street of wooden frame houses. !. In one of them only there was light. t'That's the hotel said Lucretia, nodding toward it, and again I suffered thrill of disappointment had pictured to myself great solid building like the St. Lawrence Hall at Montreal, for getting that Richmond was a mere country village and here found a bit of frame cot tage as the whole domain of rLucretia's SUD- posed father. It was too awful {! -'r
 We reached the door and entered Fresh surprises were in store for me. The passage led into a bar, where half-a-dozen French Canadians were sitting with bottles and glasses,