The Portland daily press., 1881-08-01
TEIEl PRESS.
lAli tbs Year Roundl
Violet Woods Husband.


friends. Not that they were men cast in the
same lines, but circumstances-tha huge
factor in human aetious-had induced them
TO be very frequently together. They had
been chums, in a way, as far back as their
undergraduate days at Cambridge, VIII lie
Andrew Gretton had first got into the Wy
OF pouring olc his fine tenor voice TO an au-
dience Of Elliott Bee-lys recumbent figure
aud meerschaum pipe.
Later on, as Beesly came up to town to
his dinners, the TWO friends took suite of
rooms together in Cray's Inn; chambers,
Gretton remarked, which would permit
them comfortably and with becoming pa
Ucnce TO await the hour when fame and eli
EMS should present themselves.
It was perhaps some two or three years
after the establishment in Gray,s Inn had
been shut up that the latter came home one
night from musical drum in an unusual
state of citation.
''Shut up your law-books, have done with
prose-" cried Gret.on, flinging down his
hat. ''Elliott, my boy, I've seen my fateW
whats that?' laconically asked Beesly
without looking up from his armchair.
My fate! Get out, you fusty lawyer; an
angelic being in swansdown, and-heaven
knows what, with eyes that bowl you over.
None Of your mincing misses, tottering and
dropping their eyes-nothing of that sort
SUYCiD AuSS, my uoai wy, anu euSu 4"
smile"
Admired your singing, eh?" inquired
Mr.. Beesly slowly, as he pulled out rings of
pale blue smoke, and watched them rise and
vanish Into air.
''Well, L fatter myself that 'Once Again
really went off tonight. / never felt in bet
ter voice in my life, and Miss Wood is quite
a connoisseur-knows what's good, l can
tell you. l saw myself how she appreciated
the crescendo PASSAGE" cried Mr.. Gretton
ia elated tones.
''Quite affinities, ehv' continued Beesly.
''Quick work! But these things are instan-
taneous-like photographs of dogs and ba-
bies-I suppose"
what laconlc beggar you are! l should
enjoy seeing you in love with Miss Wood,
head over heels, do you hear?' cried Gret-
ton, helping himself to a brandy and Soda
"You wouldn't have chance; she's sur
rounded with men, and l can tell you it
would do you a lot of good. am to lunch
with the Woods on Friday. I'll take you
to call ON Sunday-no refusal; look upon the
thing as fixed"
Mrs. Wood lived 10 roomy house in one
OF the squares lying between Bayswater and
Kensington Gardens. She had been a
handsome, snowy girl in her youth, but all
traces of beauty had been washed out by the
process of time. She had become hopeless
ly fat. She was not indeed more silly now
than when she first gave her hand and fine
figure into Mr.. Tobias Woods keeping: but
the triviality that is admissible at TO- with
fine shoulders and the right turn of throat
is not to be tolerated in the same person
grown hopelessly out of all proportions
Hers was not of the progressive order OF
mind; she literally stagnated, and submitted
herself passively, with plump, folded hands,
to whatever fale had in store for her. The
somewhat early death of her husband she
accepted with Christian resignation. finding
even in her deep Grape loopholes of comfort
in the fact that the late stockbroker was bur-
led in the most expensive manner, and that
mourning really did become darling Violet
wonderfully.
Mrs. Woods love for her only daughter
was at once her greatest weakness and her
redeelning point. She idolized this girl,
who was refined and more delicate version
of herself in past days, and entered into her
amusements and successes as if they had
been her own. The stock brokers' widow
was genial lady, who liked at all times, as
she expressed it. "to see young folks about
She kept open house and gave nosmall num-
Der Of dinners and dances, so that Miss Vio-
let's admirers foufftt her by no means an in
accessible goddess. Accessible she was at
most times, approachable at few, for Miss
Wood was not entirely as other young ladies
capricloUs and fantastic she was at mo-
ments, melancholy and responding at 9th
ers, but at no time to be subdued BY ordina-
~ means.
Gretton and Beesly were well received
from the first in that hospitabe house, so
that the tenor's ard0r increased rather than
diminished, and the two men get into the
habit of being there frequently.
Mr.. Andrew Gretton was man on whom
fortune had been pleased to bestow a hand
some person, tenor voice, and sufficient
means. But society, like the wicked fairy
in the tale, had added another gift that we'll
nigh nullified the other attractions; she had
given Mr. Gretton, namely, an exaggerated
perception of his own superiority to the
world at large. Society had patted him on
the back, he had been likened unto Mario,
he had been gushed over by maiden ladies,
and had been taken into mammals back
drswing-room and confidence. In short,
Mr. Andrew Gretton had become trife
spoiled.
How could nice girl-a girl like Miss
Nood-come to have such mother?' said
Gretton one night, as he and Beesly left the
house in Bayswater, and lighted their cigars
preparatory TO mailing a hanson.
81 should rather put it that it was exceed
ingly clever on Mrs. Woods part to have
produced a daughter like Miss Violet" an
swered Beesly. ''There is something spec-
ial about that girl; there's a fine cut, a nice
ty about hcf, She wasn't ready-made, nor. I
take it, turned out of mold.''
Eyes, yes, of course; the girl is everything
she should be, but, my dear boy, the moth
err; what nother-in-lawl Ye heavens! no,
by Jove, l should have forgotten myself long
ago, and gone in for the girl, but for the
MOTHER" exclaimed Andrew 'sBy the bye,
old man, you heard what they were saying
tonight. They want us to come over to
Paris for Christmas. It's like my luck to
have booked myself for almost every week in
January, and to be obliged to go and eat my
plum-pudding in Yorkshire. | wish you
would run over and look after the Woods
they will want somebody to see them about,
and take them to the theatres, and YOU can
trot Violet round, and see those little French
fellows don't get at herr
"We're not sure we want the bone our
selves, but We object to anybody else having
it, eli? Never mind, my boy; I'll go over
and carry Miss Woods parcels. Am I to
make meteorological reports? Weather fair,
daughter calm, mamma moderate, and that
sort of thing?''
"0f course, you must let me know what
is going on, and perhaps shall be able to
run over" replied Gretton, who always had
hundred plans. ''Did you hear that old fell
low Cadbury tonight saying he would go?''
'What, the silent old boy with the whis-
kers?" asked Beesly. 81 never know what
he does at the Woods; he never speaks, but
he is always there. One gets to look upon
him as part of the furniture.'
Hes got a lot of money!" returned An
drew, "and has proposed no end of times to
Violet, Mrs. Wood tells me. The old idiot
hangs around, casting les yeur doun at Miss
Wood. Isn't it a capital joke? Hal hap
CHAPTER II.
Toward the middle of December the
Woods found themselves comfortably en-
scorced in Paris in one of the many hotels
that look on to the Tuileries Gardens. Mr..
Cadbury had been unable to leave town, SO
Elliott Beesly had escorted the mother and
daughter over the Channel, and had already
written TO his friend Andrew, telling him
bow things were going Oh.
Il did not occur to Beesly that any diff
Guilty cOuid possibly arise out of the situa-
ton. lie had in his nature tinge of old
fashioned chiyalry, which he often enough
COY cred and hid away with brusque speeches,
but he was ct the same time the least sus-
ceptible % beings to that emotional side Of
lIan that is engendered By the proximity of
pretty women. He had absolutely nothing
of the firt about him. Without shade OF
cyi icisIn, he often enough confessed he had
never, with the most fascinating maiden,
got beyond the desire of seeing her happily