Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-06-09


place. This chill and gorgeous solitude Alex
had to himself for a quarter of an hour, be-
fore rustling on the stairs announced the
approach of the ladies of the family, and
Mrs. Ashurst and her daughters appeared in
a resplendance of French dresses. She,
stately dame of the conventional type, well
coined him graciously and invited him to
dinner on the next day but one. 1t was but
short notice to collect party, she remarked,
but they would do their best. The young
ladies, three in number, were handsome
creatures, very like each other, and like half
hundred girls whom Alex had met before.
They talked enough for animation, and not
too much for good taste their attitudes and
movements were studiously graceful they
had shrill high-pitched voices, and were so
perfectly at their ease as to give the impress
sion of having been born equal TO every So
cial emergency which could possibly arise
in the course of their lives. Alex mentioned
his mistake of the night before, and found
the tale received with rather contemptuous
amusement There was a family of that
name, Mrs. Ashurst believed, but she knew
nothing about them. They lived near Thir-
teenth street, did they All very odd, to
be sure Hadn't she heard somewhere that
they taught something or other Appealing
to her girls. Miss Ashurst thought that
they did, and with fant-very faint-de-
gree of interest asked, "Isn't one of the
daughters rather pretty ?" after which the
subject dropped
Alex Ashe was conscious of sense of
relief when, the call over, he found himself
again in the street. "What tiresome wo-
men ~ he muttered. Yet why were they so
tiresome ? lie had been familiar with Just
such women all his life, but never before
had found them uncomfortable. But then
had never seen Amy Ashurst," he med
itated. "Nlarry one of those girls Not if
they owned the mines of Golconda, and
Uncle Nat went down on his knees to me-"
His call Of inquiry after the note-case he
timed so as to hit what he suspected to be
the leisurely hour of the family, in the later
evening. He was fortunate the ladies were
at home, and evidently expecting him, for
the letter-case lay conspicuously on the
table, and Mrs. Ashurst began with an
apology.
81 should have sent it to you had we
known your address, but you gave us none,
you remember ~
al should have been most unwilling to
give you that trouble; and besides can
didly-" when missed it, l was very glad,
for it gave me pretext for seeing you all
again."
ave are glad to see you, without any
pretext," she said "And now, Mr.. Ashe,
sit down and tell us if your quest of to-day
has been successful if you have found your
uncle's Ashursts, the real Simon pures."
So began another evening of enchant-
ment. This time when our hero took leave,
Mrs. Ashurst cordially invited him to come
again, and while he eagerly thanked her,
Amy, taking the forgotten letter-case from
the table, handed it to him, with a wicked
little smile, saying, "You mustn't forget
this, Mr.. Ashe;" and he, quite unable to
keep from laughing, replied, " No, since Mrs.
Ashurst is so kind as to say | may come
without an excuse; otherwise | should try
hard to leave it for the second time" Other
evenings followed, each pleasanter than the
last There was the sweetest atmosphere
about the mother and daughters Alex
thought they were so cordial, so intelligent,
so unatfectedly fond of one another. Little
by little he gathered the facts of their his
tory, not from any formal revelation, but by
chance hints and casual illusions. Mrs.
Ashurst, as he conjectured, had been left
slenderly provided for on her husbands
death, and with far-sghted wisdom had used
her little capital in giving her girls first
rate education in Europe, with view to
their becoming teachers. They had but
lately returned, and were not yet thoroughly
at home in their own country; but already
Miss Ashurst was instructing large classes
in French and German, and Amy was giving
music lessons to a number OF pupils. Their
evenings they kept free for the enjoyment
of each other and for the little home which
they so much valued and entering into the
spirit of this life, so bravely busy, yet so
TRANQUILITY content. Alex realized for the
first time what the charm of home may be,
where each inmate has independent occupa-
ton, but where all interests are shared and
united as only they can be in those homes
where love is lord and king.
He dined duly with Z" the other Ashursts,"
and duly paid his digestion visit" but
there the acquaintance rested. The ill.,
sipidity of mere fashionable intercourse
struck him so keenly, as contrasted with the
domestic life he had just learned to under
stand the elaborate graces taught in worldly
schools seemed so poor and shallow com
pared with the mind, the music, breathing
in the face" of Amy, that it struck him as
sheer waste of time to devote his hours TO
them. Uncle Nat was grievously disap-
pointed when his favorite nephew, after
stay in Philadelphia so prolonged as to
justify his most sanguine hopes, wrote TO
announce his engagement to an entirely
wrong Miss Ashurst. "a girl without
penny, sir, give you my word" and it was
long before the old gentleman could forgive
the outrage. He never did forgive it, in
fact, till Mrs. Alexander Ashe came to Bos-
ton in propria persona, and then she made
such conquest of Uncle Nat as left him
nothing to say in his own justification or to
the reproach of his nephew. He lived
to thank heaven for his own bad hand
writing
"For," he would explain, if the tails of
my SIS had been one whit less indistinct than
they are, you would never have gone astray
in Hemlock street that night, my boy, and
we should never have had this little Jewel