The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-12-31

MISS Lyle PAID ner board, ana the house
was free from incumbrance, while moth
er Hill had modest income that suf-
feed to clothe her, and Pembroke was
cheap place to live in; but, for all that,
the price of an alarm was very large to
her; she could not afford such foolish
luxury, and she said so very decidedly
but it made no impression on the cool
persistence of the agent; he only drew
pamphlet from his pocket and present
ed it to her, saying, "Read this, mad
am, if You please. am sure, when you
think of this matter further, You will
change your mind. will call again. -
"Oh no! not at all; don't trouble
yourself, sir. am sure l sha'n't take
it.''
Sand l am quite sure you WILL" said
the bowling and smiling youth, as he
disappeared through the door.
There was something in his sublime
assurance that daunted poor Mrs. Lyle;
it 10 hard for any woman who has once
been under the lawful dominion of
man to resist the tone of masculine au-
thority. Perhaps from habit, perhaps
from nature, Mrs. Lyle began to be
afraid she should take that alarm. By
the noon mail, however, she had a diff
ferent sort of alarm; her brother-in-law
wrote from Chicago that the young fell
low who had SO persistently made love
to Annie had left for the East, and he
wanted her to be sure Annie did not see
him or meet him, for he himself never
could or would consent to his marrying
his daughter. The epistle was brief and
peremptory, and threw Mrs. Lyle into a
fiutter of apprehension. Inside was q
little note from her sister:
DEAR EM-Do not think hardly of Annie
Frank Chester Is a fine young man, well ed
ucated and well bred. Charles don't like
him because he is poor, but he is doing well in
his profession. You know, Charles keeps
thinking bow much suffered, when we were
first married, from his falling in business,
when / had such poor health,
and Annie is the apple of his eye; he can't
bear TO have her want for any thing. Don't
blame him, dear. 1 am as sorry as can be
for Annie, but it Is best to keep her out of
Franks way il you can. Poor fellow, Iwish
he were rich!
Good-by, dear. CARRY GRANT.
A cooler reader might have smiled over
this letter, which was what distin-
guished man has called ga mush of con-
cession;" but it only worried and agi-
tated Mrs. Lyle more. She was thrown
into one of her dreadful nervous head
aches, lay awake all night planning how
to manage this business with proper tact
and prudence, and when in the MORN
ing she wandered out among her budding
roses on the tiny lawn. tired and unre-
freshed by the night, during which Pep
per had added to her exasperated nerves
the one straw too much by spasm of
furious barking, the first thing she saw
was a shiny hat mounting the hill below,
and its rapid ascent soon revealed the
alarm agent, as cool and fresh in his
drab summer suit as the morning itself.
She was too tired and unready to make
her escape; her head rung with the echo
of last nights pain, her nerves were all
unstrung, she wass perplexed, weak,
tired, and worried. The cool and reso-
lutte agent had an easy victory, for in
despair she retreated from the battle she
felt was already lost. Some women
would have sat down on the step and
said I" No. over and over, for an hour,
rather than give in, but such women are
rare-as the multitude of travelling
agents shows-and she was not
one of them. She consented to put in a
burglar-alarm merely to get rid of this
man who had so tormented her, and the
moment he left, with her order recorded
in his black book, she repented of her
weakness, and bemoaned her folly, and
wished the man at the bottom of the sea,
and Annie's lover along with him. For
to-day was the day of the painting les
son, and in spite of her headache she
felt it her duty to go into hartford with
her niece, to play duenna; and though
Anne demonstrated affectionately and
fretfully both, this pale, tired little wom-
an hung on to her duty with all her
strength, as some women will, and with
heavy eyes and weary feet saw her pref
ty charge safely to the great city, estab-
lished her in the studio, and guarded her
home in the train entirely to her own
satisfaction, if not to Annie's. Deluded
soul! her honest eyes never wandered
enough to see the dark flashes that went
straight to Annie's fluttering heart from
another pair of eyes in the crowd at the
railway; nor did she once perceive that
Annie's little gloved hand hung listless-
" out of the car window before the train
started, till it clasped small note
reached up from the side of the track by
a handsome young fellow who had his
heart in his face.
Love laughs at duennas as well as
locksmiths. Mrs. Lyle went home in a
frame of mind best described by Cap
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