McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-10-11

so broke headlong into my COMES
sion.
At first, of course, the old man was
furious. 81 always had been a fool,
and now l was going to commit the
greatest folly of all, and tie myself up
to some woman old enough to be my
mother, of whom nobody knew any
thing, and who, for all we could guess,
might not even be respectable, and so
forth, in the usual manner of irate
fathers, when they have got the whip
hand of their erring sons.
I bore it all meekly enough, and at
last Gained the explosion by throwing
myself upon his mercy and asking him
to help me out of the fix. The ruse
was successful.
"We must see my elderly charmer
together; we had better call tomorrow.
No? Well, then, the next day, and he
would see what there was to be done"
And so ended the interview between
governor and myself. l felt relieved,
but could not feel at rest until this
this dreaded call was over.
The governor was very good all that
day. He generally did turn up trumps
at a real crisis.
The next day after lunch he proposed
a stroll in the Row, as he said, to dis
tract my attention from the painful and
absorbing topic that engrossed it.
We had been walking up and down,
stopping now and again to greet some
passing friend, when I suddenly saw
my Vision before me. 1t could be no
LOT III
the beauties present that could have
compared with, or be mistaken for,
hers. She was sitting under the shade
of one of the great elms, daintily
dressed in some diaphanous, creamy
white material, and looking more be-
witching than ever. And that lady sit
ting beside her-why, that, of course.
was she to whom 1 believed myself
engaged, my elderly charmer.
In my self-accusing hour of remorse
[ had done her an injustice. There was
no "make-up'' there. She was dressed
in good taste, and as became her age;
any disinterested person would have
pronounced her decidedly elegant
woman, well preserved for 40, if indeed
she were SC much, and with no small
pretensions to good looks.
l started involuntarily, and the gov
ernor observed it. -
"Well, Charlie, what's amiss now?''
"Why," answered, growing sud-
denly scarlet all. over, "there she isl
"Where?'' II, [.sl.s .gE
cover there, sitting under that tree
and talking to that lovely girl IN white"
'sNow for it, my boy; introduce, me-"
l walked forward and raised my hat.
ssMiss Damian-'' -
"Ah, so we have met sooner than we
expected, Mr.. Carew acceptany apollo
gies for having cold yesterday when
you called, yet l can hardly blame the
cold, for it was caught at the picnic and
is now gone land had it not been for the
picnic we should not have met, and you
would not have called at all. 1 dare
say my niece did the honors for. me
better than I should have done them
myself, #E
All the answer that I could make to
this was to look rapturously at Ethel
and humble inarticulately to Miss
Damian..
There was certainly a touch of
twas the permissible coquetry of lady
who knew her position and could main
tain it.
[ introduced the governor by way of
hiding my idiotic confusion, and the
conversation became general, Or rather
broke up into twos, for [ seized the
vacant chair next to Ethel, and left the
governor to Miss Damian altogether.
You may not believe me, but it is per-
fectly true that forgot all about my
dilemma from the moment l plunged |
into that heavenly tete-a-tete with Ethel,
and was oblivious of all surroundings. |
At last my trance was broken. Miss |
Damian leaned forward and pointedly
addressed me.
81 am telling your father, Mr.. Carew,
that he must change places with you
and give me chance of renewing our
pleasant acquaintance of the day before
yesterday"
The governor did not seem to have
cxerted himself much in my cause; he
was beaming all over with an express
sion of gratifed vanity, evidently not
the result of battle fought in nv
favor.
l tore myself away from Ethel's side
and changed seats.
''Do you think that 1 am going TO
let my preux chevalier of the picnic
imagine he is going to shelve me in
hat easy fashion to-day? Had you a
very bad headache yesterday morning,
Mr.. Carew? know you attacked that
a GREAT deal too sayara1v
nasty as it was, but no matter, compli-
nents aside, confess that you were in
'rdinately bored at the feast, and that