The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-04-20

Madge writes to Amy in Truth: L
have really bit of news for you this
week. Evelyn is engaged to be mar
ried, and the wedding is to come off
either in April or June. The happy
man is something or other; cookbook
ing and well-off / asked her TO tell
me how he proposed, for l am always
curious to know how it is done. Are
you not? L often look at man and
think, IL cannot imagine you as suit
or for woman's hand" and wonder
how in the world he ever got over the
difficulty of the necessary proposal; or,
if unmarried, how he will get over it.
Evelyn would not tell me for a long
time, but only laughed and blushed,
till at last gently insinuated that the
momentous question must have come
from her, as she was SO reticent about
it. Then, in her Indignation, she told
me. There was a certain flavor Of comedy
about it, though it was not quite so bad
as the proposal that Anthony Trollope
put into the mouth of Mary Thorne's
lover: do you? Don't you? Will you /?
Won't you?" 1t seems that Frank
Maud and have quite adopted him as a
cousin inlaw already-was one of din
ner party at Evellyn's house last Tues
day, and after dinner they were looking
over book of sketches together
Evelyn observed that Frank seemed eX-
cessively uncomfortable, and she
guessed what was coming, and she pit
led the poor fellow so much that she
tried to help him out. SO, when they
came to sketch of pretty cottage, she
said, airly, Just the realization of my
dream of true home! / should like
to live the rest of my life in cottage
like that-quite alone!" "Alone, Miss
Grey! Without even the proverbial adj
junct ?" ooh" rejoined Evelyn, you re-
fer to love in a cottage'-do you?' And
then she turned away her head little
bit, and the thing was done. Frank
was over the fence. He said, in very
low voice, Evelyn, do you think you
could-?" That was all the spoken
part though the rest, I believe, was
very interesting. Frank has since adj
mitt I'd that Evelyn's lead was of the
greatest use to him. that he had tried
to propose to her more than once be-
fore, and might still have left the great
question unasked but for the assistance
she gave him. What serious thing,
Amy! There may be dozens of amiable
men at this moment drifting into dreary
old bachelorhood for the want of little
timely help at an opportune moment.
Poor fellow Why does not some one
establish classes, both for men and
girls, to teach the former the easier
methods of approaching the important
subject, and the latter how they may
best assist them? A girl sometimes
snubs man out of pure shyness, and
as the members of the sterner sex are
great towards in this matter, they often
run away, though not with the intention
of fighting another day. Charlie says
that women frequently propose to men.
| Clergymen are more harassed than
other men by this sort of persecution.
Their lady pensioners are perpetually
finding out that they are the intellect
ual aihnities" of their unlucky pastor.
After all, we have three precedents to
justify such action, if we should ever
feel inclined to follow them. The
Queen proposed to Prince Albert (how
prettily she tells the story in the "Life') ;
Baroness Burdett Coutts took the init
ative: and so did Madame dc Lesseps,
then Mademoiselle de Praga. For a
girl of nineteen, the latter showed I'M
common courage, though the gentle
man was 60 years of age.-HOme jour