The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-04-12

If you'll prophesy vile weather for the balance
Chicago Tribune.
AN AFFAIR IN A COLLEGE TOWN.
Nice looking girl; not exactly hand
some, but graceful and looks thorough
bred"
Mr.. Abner Sykes, a big Westerner,
with gaunt features and lank limbs,
made this remark, as he came out of the
college campus, adjusting his glasses
meanwhile for a more critical survey of
the young lady in question.
His friend, Eliot Greenough, cast a
careless glance in the direction of the
..nice-looking girl"
college widow; used to be very good
style before she was heart-brokeD. Has
cut off her bangs and goes t converse
tions and the Radical Club now"
college widow! what an expression
that is! not so inappropriate, either.
What a figure girls do make of them
selves in the American civilization, be-
ing made love to by half ID dozen men,
at the least, and engaged to one or two
besides the n they marry! If there are
any girls whom men of any self-respect
would think of marrying, they are those
who have been providentially kept out
of society"
30, come, now, Sykes, you're too
hard upon them, altogether! You don't
understand them any more than those
people across the water do. / don't
know whether you got your notions out
on the Texan ranches or among those
demure German madchens, but they are
very mistaken ones, and you'll find it
out before long. Expect to see you
spoony on the greatest firt in town be-
fore the end of three months, and en-
gagged to a college widow before you are
a fully fiedged lawyer"
Heaven forbidr' calculated Abner
Sykes, f%ervently.
Now, that's a nice girl, if she is q
a college widow" pursued Eliot Green
ough, Indicating by nod the young lady
of whom he had before spoken, who,
with a companion, was walking along
the sidewalk in front of them. s'She
had had several little firtations, but
nothing to speak of when she met Homer
Fem. He was a New Yorker, a society
fellow, with plenty of the airs and graces
that take with the girls. He had precious
little money and a precious lot of old
family, and it is pretty much the same
way with her. If he had been endowed
by Providence in just the contrary way,
lots of tin and little family, like yourself
for instance, things might have been all
right"
Abner Sykes WINGED perceptibly. He
had moods in which he expressed great
scorn for pride of birth among Ameri
cans, and announced the fact that his
father began life as a drover, with quite
unnecessary freedom, but, strange to say,
he had other moods in which it evidently
Jared upon him to have his humble orr
gin alluded to.
He had been brought up on a western
farm, and graduated from a western
college, and afterward spent severa
years in travelling abroad, and had now
settled down to the study of law at i,
New England university. His ~acquaint
ances in the law-school found him, a
Eliot Greenough expressed it, 'a quee!
mixture of western rawness and old
world civilization" They wondered
what sort of a compound the addition O
a little New England culture would
make. But Abner Sykes despised New
England culture, and didn't mean t.
absorb any.
Lliot Greenough went on talking, with
out the least suspicion that his companion
had been annoyed by the personal allu
sion he had made.
They became engaged in Fenn'
junior year, and the engagement lastet
until after he graduated. / don't thinl
she had more than one or two letter
from him after he went home. The D
F. that he belonged to married him Of
to a rich California girl, an heiress from
Poverty Flat within six months. An,
she, as l was telling you, took to goo,
works and self-improvement. l rattle
thought she would take to the aesthetic
when that came in fashion, but I thin
she has just a little too much sense. Sh
hasn't forsaken society altogether, bu
you meet her at five-o'clock teas an,
such mild festivities, oftener than any
where else"
"a French girl would 90 into a con
vent; it would be infinitely better" re
marked Abner Sykes.
why, man alive, she'll marry vel
and marry well, too. It's a pity if
girl can't have another chance, becaus
agood-for-nothing fellow iilts her!'
pheasant for the future husband,
said Abner Sykes.
30, 1 say, old fellow, you ought t
have been a Turk. You never ought t
marry a woman who has been see
with her face unveiled"
81 am not sure that the Turkish styl
isn't an improvement upon the Amer
can, so far a that goes" said Abne
Sykes.
Then the friends parted; Sykes cours
taking him in the same direction in whic
the college widow and her companio
were walking.
He observed her narrowly; he admire
her quiet costume; there was nothing i
it of the obtrusive challenge to the after
ton of the passer-by which continual
Jared upon him in the attire of most
the young ladies whom he met. He wa
reminded of Victor Cherbuliez's defin
ton of style as ''that well-ordered beaut
which does not know that it is bein
looked at" In that sense this youn
lady was stylish.
As he continued to look at her, thu
serm college widow seemed to hil
more vulgar and offensive than when b
tt G,,,t boo,.d -. SIC o.oroor,.to,ae