The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1882-03-23

o truth about her so that L might hay
o the chauce of pulling myself up b
;. fore it was too late"
3 | began to wish with all my heal
0 that Red-head had kept his conf
v dences to himself. The plain, unva
| nished truth was that Florry VIZ
j. about the most irreclaimabe firt {
' my acquaintance; but seemed pit
] to say this, for she was not we'll of
and | had found out that Percival We
l a man of considerable property.
t On the other hand, if I allowed hir
) to infer that she was all his fancy ha
) painted her, he would probably er
| long have an unpleasant shock; i
which case the chances were that h
. would murder us both. | therefor
| took UP high tone. | said that i
matters Of this kind man must us
his own powers of observation an
choose for himself; I really could no
accept the responsibility which b
sought to impose upon me. Further
more, [ didn't think it was quite tn
thing to give private information
about lady's disposition, as though
she were hunter put mp for sale.
He made me rather ashamed of my
self by grasping my hand warmly ant
saying that | was good fellow. Die
7 think, now. that Mrs. and Mis-
Neville could he persuaded to pay
him visit at this place in November
And would | come too? Without
vanity. he might say that he conlG
promise me as good pheasant-shootine
as there was to be had in the county
I said yes to that without mnch hesi-
tation: for I reflected that. if Florrv
accepted him, there would probably
be no fare-up until after the mar
riagn. and that if she didn't, be
conldn't blame me. And so we walk
ed back to the house npon the best of
terms with one another.
| suppose Percival had no great DIFF
ficnlty in making his peace with
Florrry. Her second string was still
out shooting. and to quarrel with the
only available man at hand would
have seemed to her wanton waste of
opportunity. She allowed him to
monopolize her for the rest Of the
afternoon and evening. and he was
proportionatelv cheerful and gracious
to those about him. But on the fol-
lowing day she thought, no doubt.
that it would be only fair to give the
other man turn. At all events she
went ont riding with the other man;
and nothing more than that was re-
quired to convert Percival once more
into the semblauce of a wild beast.
All day long he did his best to pick a
quarrel with one of us. but was baf-
fled by our obstinate politeness; and I
dare say we should have managed to
get to bed without row if poor old
Toogood had not made most unlucky
slip Of the tongue after dinner.
Il can't see anything to admire in
her." said he, referring to lady
whose claims to beauty happend to be
under discussion. II never could ad-
mire woman with r.
He came to dead stop, and turned
a great deal redder than the locks
which he couldn't admire. It is true
that he recovered himself rather
cleverly by saying round shoulders
in loud voice; but this emendation
came great deal too late to be of any
use to him. Already the children had
exploded, one after the other, and
were rolling about on their respective
chairs in agonies of merriment; the
rest were preternaturally unconscious:
Mrs. Toogood was tanning herself
nervously; and Percival, with white
face and blazing eyes, was crushing
biscuits to powder between his fingers.
The awkward moment passed, how
ever, as all moments, awkward and
otherwise, do. and there was no reason
why it should have been ever alluded
to again. But poor, dear Toogood is
one of those infatuated people who
never make false step without sub
sequent uncalled-for founderings. No
sooner had the ladies left the room
than he actually began to apologize
for his stupidity. My dear fellow,
I'm sure | beg your pardon most sim
cerely. Can't think how | can have
hpen such an ass as to let it slip out
The fact is, that at the moment. had
quite forgotten that you were here. :"
| dom suppose that our amiable
host was ever before in such immi-
nent danger of having one Of his own
decanters hurled at his head. Percival
was literally quivering from head to
foot with passion, and it was evident
that he went through hard struggle
before he would trust himself to an
swer. When he did speak, it was to
say in low voice. IF you think you
are going to get rise out of me, Mr..
Toogood, you'll be disappointed. But
don't see that I'm bound to put up
with insults Of that sort in any man's S
house, and l shall leave yours to-mor-
row morning"
Toogood Is the most patient of men
but his patience was probably ex-
hausted by this time. He didn't say,
You may go the devil" as | really
think | should have done in his place;
but he made no more apologies, nor
did he beg his guest to remain on.
He sat silent and rubbed his head.
Later in the evening Percival came
into the smoking-room and offered Il
sort of apology; upon which, as d
matter of course, he was urged to re-
consider his decision about going
away. But this he declined to do
alleging that he had other reasons fol
wishing to leave without loss of time
and, to tell the truth, he was not very
much pressed to stay.
TO BE CONTINUED