Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-05-06
p,lly's Sister-in-Law.

SsAAy sAssSA A. ~S"
A HARML Ess LOVE STORY, BY FEMALl
Dolly PoinIexter was IN a rage. She
had only one brother-this great splendid
fellow sitting bolt upright in a loungine
chair, and she wanted him to marry tht
right sort OF girl.
1t was very easy to persuade Larry thai
he ought to get himself wife but, like
many another man, he found SO great di.
,ersity in woman, and each new diversity
SO much more charming than the last,
that poor Dolly passed from one stage OF
distraction to another with the regularity
of a changing moon in system of rota.
TIN G sisters-in-l law.
Dolly YVES a New York girl, and had
lived her life on the avenue, consequently
she had faith in New York girls who live
their lives on the avenue and now Larry
had been to Boston, and came home with
his head full of ''Blue Teas" and intel
lectual young women, and Dolly felt unto
small and ugly bear, as she swung back
and forth in her rocker, industriOusly
gnawing her white little paws.
Larry knew she was in high dudgeon /;
but he was all man, from the soles of
his fashionable boots to the last curl in
the blonde beard, and lie kept on -
Il tell You, Sis, a man who has lived
~ years in New York looks elsewhere
when he wants wife to live with. do
not mind saving that a fellow may travel
the world over and not find better dressed
nor finer looking girls than can be seen
on Broadway but when you talk of true
loveliness-of culture-of intellectual
strength, why, Sis, they lose place alto
gether and become mere dolls fashion,
able plates creatures of smiles and in
antics.
Dolly boiled over with wrath. She
wanted to say something, but there was
nothing sufficiently dreadful at her COM
mand She would that she were a cat,
that she might scratch Larry right in his
impudent face but she was not feline.
The situation was overwhelming, and
Dolly did what all women do when they
can do nothing else-she cried.
Larry was not at all surprised. He had
aggravated his sister up to this dissolving
point more than once before and without
repenting, so now he laughed and gather
ed himself up to depart, saying, as he
did so, III utter disregard for any sensi-
tiveness there might be in the matter
Don't be goose, Dolly, and make
Your nose all redr But Dolly was
goose, and her nose a very small cOnsid-
Grafton indeed, in comparison with the
possible sister in-law, specialized and
learned, that her fancy painted, and had
her cry ont. then bathed her eyes, smud-
ged her face with pearl powder, and plot
ted
Dolly had friend who had lived 20
wears in bright pleasant way, and i'll
whom no one had ever discovered any
more than ordinary Her name was Lor-
raine Lowell, but her familiar spirits
called her "Jinky," and she tirted and
waltzed and wore the regulation full
dress Perhaps it would be safe to say
that Jinky had been tritie more wild
than most girls in her set, because in the
first place she had the capacity, and in
the second place Mamma Lowell had Just
brought her home from u two years dis
cipline in Europe. Still Jinky was Lor-
raine only when she was called to the
stool of repentance, and to her Dolly went
and poured into her sympathIzing ears
the story of her brothers cruelty and the
spectre sister-in-law.
Dolly, l would not stand it y said
Jinky, casting her left eye up at the
smoking lock of skewered hair she was
pinching with red hot iron.
What shall I do?" sobbed Dolly
sit down? q
We'll. now, Dolly, excuse the quota
ton, but you are goose; cure the young
man, my fainting Niobe-cure him !"
And Jmky waved the cnmping iron and
grew theatrical. Then the two plotted ;
and as all women are born conspirators
and are happy in their sphere, Dolly dried
her ewes, shook out her ruffies, and was |
comforted.
This was in the early summer, and
when Larry met his sister at dinner that
evening, she told him that Jinky Lowell |
would spend some weeks with them in |
the country. Larry snuffed the air, and |
finally said, i'll his most disagreeable man
ner:
'Jinky' Lowell What name for
Young lady, and how true to our New
York manners / must say, Dolly, that
l wish you had invited some one shade
less rapid and vapid to he your compan-
ion"
And Dolly was wonderfully quiet for
such an explosive little body during the
entire meal
The Poindexters-and there were only
these two and maiden aunt-had a pref
ty box of place up III Connecticut, and
they liked to get settled for the summer
in season for the rose harvest. This year,
with the perversity of all elderly women
Just at moving time, Aunt Poindexter
contracted rheumatism, and the affairs
of household economy fell upon gr Gaming
Larry
Ii took him a week to buy COW, and
another to engage the services of per
son to take Charge Of the lacteal depart
ment ; and So he saw very little of Dolly
and her friend until their third week out
of town.
Indeed he rather avoided the young
woman with the Objectionable sobriquet ;
but one day it rained, and Larry lounged
into the library after breakfast Jinky
was there, and there was only one door to
the room, which he had unfortunately
Just entered Moreover, Larry was curl
Gus to know what possible thing of inter
est a girl who wore "banged" hair and had
her dresses fitted by the imam milliner,"
had found to make n microscopic study
He approached the table, and i WELL
there was great, fat, creeping horror of
a cockroach on the slide under the lens
81 did not know that you were a scien-
tist, Miss Lowell, spoke the young man,
IN his utter astoIishment
No? Natural science is quite pas
sion with me- | have faith in science,
Mr.. Poindexter, as an exponent Of the
Divine cause" answered Jinky, with an
eye still fixed on the glass.
Larry's mouth shaped to whistle, bu
he bethought himself
Then you do not concur ia the opin-
ION that science develops a cold casulstry
that tends to undermine religion ?"
Indeed, no. The more one studies
organic life about them the more thor
nughly che must understand the extent
and power Of their own being. All ma
ture has IFS voices of worship, and moth
ing repays the Creator with doubts an to
the prupriety and purpose of His creation
save that creature Of transcendent mind
man.
L.i.y walked to the window and raised
1t blt +; but the rain beat III and his
breath came natural again, and the roach
was still under the glass.
''ls that specimen of our common
household pest, Miss Lowell? ?" he ven
tured to ask, after waiting little, i'll the
hope that she would herself explain, and
if the truth be known, in some slight
doubt that she could
"No. This is the Btdtta Americana
Though why blatta, is a mystery to me,
1t certainly bears no resemblance to the
sultan Of the barnyard. 1t belongs to
the first family Of the division orthoptera
the blatta Of Linnmus- il found no
further north than Maryland and no fur
ther south than Brazil"
''Is is not Of extraordinary size, this
specimen
''Not for the species. 1t is very large
indeed, second only to cOatTere called
by the creoles and French of the south
ern states the Mortissa, but it bears no
resemblance to the foreign church yard
beetle-btaps morf,ssaga."
Miss Lowell removed the slide under