The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1881-05-31
INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.
A Nice Little Plot.

THE Major on sunsnlny day IN the
main street of Ballykillrowdy was
pleasant to behold. He was not strictly
handsome man perhaps, but he had
the air of being handsome man-an air
of so much nonchalance and good
humored triumph that 1t imposed upon
most people and sent them away with
the notion that the Major was an Adonis.
He had one of the grandest figures 1
remember to have seen. Strength sat
by his side with grace on his broad
shoulders, and the carriage of his head
was in itself sort of wonder of high
temper and vivacity.
Ballykillrowdy was mainly owned by
Miss Vivian Blake, a young lady of
charming exterior, who rode to hounds
under the escort of an ugly male second
cousin, whom the Major loathed. But
such part of Ballykillrowdy as was not
owned by the beautiful Miss Blake was
owned by her ugly male second cousin,
and the popular impression was that
Miss Blake and the cousin would make
a match of it. Against this popular
belief the Major chafed, as Socrates
might have riled up against decrepit
syllogism. 1t may be said of the Major
that he had an air of prosperity, which
was greatly more deceptive than his air
of physical beauty. Had his creditors
met in conclave, they might possibly
have decided amongst them a problem
Of ;,,t
live? He owned neither lands nor mes
suages. Like his look of beauty and his
air of prosperity, his very title was mis-
leading to the stranger. He had never
held commission anywhere, in any
thing; but man with such figure
ought to have been Major--if the rank
had been created especially that he
might ornament it, the thing had SEEM
ed most fitting and admirable, and, in
short, the title was popular tribute,
unsought by him, conferred upon him
by nature, so it seemed, and adopted
without one dissenting voice by the
public of Ballykillrowdy, and indorsed
by the members of the Ulster in lordly
Belfast.
Novelists and other social moralists
have often been cynical, at small cost,
with respect to the affection entertained
by an un-acred gentleman for a we'll
acred lady. But, as Boccaccio and
Mr.. Tennyson will tell you, real
attachment is not altogether impossible
under such conditions. The Major was
madly in love-not with Miss Blake's
landed possessions, but with Miss Blake.
Time had made his first inroads on the
poor gentleman's close-clustering hair.
He was but two and thirty; but some
men age early, and have never heard
that a partial or even a complete bald
ness gives safety against the assaults of
the grand passion. The ugly second
cousin, his own poverty, the rapidly
increasing width of his central parting,
and Vivian's bounty and Vivian's kind
ness, combined together to fret the
Majors heart. Yet the Irish elasticity
of his temperament constantly pulled
him out of the depths of his desponden-
cy, though it as constantly suffered him
him to fall again.
1t was an honest passion. The poor
fellow was fairly hacked. All manner
ofambitions began to bestir themselves;
for there was more in him, or at least he
thought SO, than the. helpless power to
dream of good luck over bottle of the
club Pomnard or glass Of hot Irish, as
the state of the funds might order. Per
haps the title conferred on him was not
without its influence upon his dreams.
"I'd hang me harp on willow tree,