Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-06-01
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CHOOSING A PARTNER.

There were two things patent con-
corning Miss Mary Dunlap-one that
she was an exceedingly pretty girl; the
other, that she was as arrant a coquette
as ever bewitched man. She had
hair whose loose locks gilded white
forehead, but whose heavy masses
glistened like fawn-tinted satin; she
had great black lashei blue eyes with
an enchanting way of glancing under
their housekeeping fringes; her teeth
were rs even as the kernels of milk
corn, her features fine rs if chiseled in
ivory; her dimples, her smile, the rose
and white of her skin, were lovely and
innocent as by any baby's; and the
depth other guile there was no fathom-
ing. Not that it was very guilty guile;
it was but trivial sort after all. 1t
consisted only in making herself
charming, and there were even those
who said she couldn't help it if she
would. Shefelt an interest in everybody;
feeling it, she showed it; and if people
chose to think 1T meant more than it
did that was their fault ana not hers.
And there was no earthly reason, they
said, why Mr.. oopison should suppose,
when half the lovely women of an
older generation had refused his hand,
that this spoiled darling meant any
thing but COMMUNICATION by her tender
looks of sympathy as he told his griefs,
afte- bringing her great punches of
re' oses at thirty cents apiece.
1ne fact was it pleased her that Mr..
Popison, who had once admired her
tyrannical younger aunts, should now
admire her. Then it did no harm to
have James Macarthur see that she
could step into pair of sumptuous
shoes, and cross the threshold of the
splendid old Popison mansion over the
river; and time flew but slowly, and
the affair amused her; and it wouldn't
hurt poor Mr.. Popison, who was used
to that sort of thing.
1t was gay house, the Dunlap. All
the family elem ents combined there.
There were two grandmothers. q
mother and father, aunts on both sides,
two or three cousins, and Mary Dunlap
and her sisters, and friends and lovers
going and coming; and the time was
heavy to no one but Mary, and might
not have been to her had James Nc
Arthur had the wit to see what some
Others thought they saw.
But James Macarthur, handsome,
housekeeping fellow, with good bust
ness and some ambition, had his eyes
sufficiently wide open. Mary Dunlap
had touched his heart as deeply rs he
dared to let her, for he hesitated about
marrying for love when he might mar
~ for love and money too, and Mary
would have little money; and he hest
tated, too, about marrying girl with
whom every body else was in love. ga
coouette," said the wise young Near
thur, ''gives her husband little peace"
and he had different visions. Never
theless the girl could not brush him
with her garment without sending
thrills through him, and he had only
to look that way in church and see the
rosy edge of her velvet cheek beyond
the pillar to feel the color surge all
over his own face, and the sudden
sound of her voice would at any time
make his heart cease beating for the
fraction of second. Still he hest
tated.
Not so Mr.. Popison. He knew what
ne wanted, and he meant to have it. 1t
is true that he had thought so in more
than one instance before, but that, he
said. was in his green and callow days;
and if his hand had been refused, he
was glad of it, as that left it free to Of
fer Mary Dunlap. He had known
Mary Dunlap since she was a baby
had gwen her her first gibralters, and
her last butter scotches she had spent
his pennies and sat on his knee, had
combed his hair with her tiny fingers,
and kissed his mouth with her sweet
innocent lips; he had been her conf
dant, and had known every thought OF
her pure heart; and then she had gone
away to school, had spent a winter in
New York society, and had come back
so Cav and brilliant heart-breaker
that he found himself the victim of a
passion of which all his other flames
had been mockeries.
He. past forty.fve, to hope for the
love of a girl of twenty Yet, hopeless
or not. he lowered round her like q
moth, and found James Macarthur just
enough in his way to hinder urging his
point. Or was il Mary Dunlap herself
who hindered it-Mary Dunlap, unable