The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-08-04
AN UNSUCCESSFUL SUIT.

John loved Mary; but Mary was not
quite sure that she loved John. Their
parents being the nearest neighbors,
their farms joined, they had grown up
together from childhood, had made
each other penny presents, and mutually
agreed to return them if they ever got
mad for good.
Thus Mary came in possession of an
iron thimble, tin needle-box and q
brass ring for various needlework per-
formed on Johnny's sleeves or the
knees of his trousers, which saved him
many taste of the parental rod.
To the credit of their childhood it
must be said that Mary never had to
return those gifts, there being few dis
agreements between them, and these
were quickly reconciled.
In their youth they had tramped
hand-in-hand to Sunday-school, as they
now did to church. But no longer to
Marys edification; being too much an
noyed at her companions appearance
to give due attention to the sermon.
The annoyance was in John inclina-
ton to dandyism. With the first APP
pearance of down on his upper lip he
had bought himself moustache wax,
and high hat crowned his perfumed
locks long before he was twenty.
Mary, practical, energetic girl, was
rather disguised than fascinated by
superficial elegance. Her person was
always decked with that simplicity
which became her manner-quiet, direct
and decided.
To have man beside her whom
everybody regarded as her lover dressed
in the height of fashion with no income
but the product of his farm labor spoilt
Mary's Sunday temper to such an ex-
tent that she resolved to let John know
her mind before another Sunday could
be spoilt
Now John, blssfully ignorant of her
feelings, was just then stroking his
moustache andpersuading himself of the
necessity of buying another suit for the
occasion that should make Mary his
wife.
After church John told Mary that he
was going to town the next day to buy
something for her, and a new suit for
himself, in which he would appear some
evening with very important question.
He looked in vain for the rosy tint on
Mary's face. She only said, with a
faint sheer: 'Do put some sense in the
next suit you get, John"
''Then you don't think there is much
sense in the suit when I'm in it, eh?"
laughed John, with a faint suspicion
that her Indifference was owing to his
not appearing sooner in some later
style.
He resolved that the next one should
surpass anything he ever wore
Crafty a girls vanity, and she's
yours, he thought, without the slight
est suspicion that he was gratifying his
own and thereby fast losing his hold on
the handsomest and most sensible Girl
there was in the neighborhood of sixty
miles.
John, too, was considered no small
catch. Many a girls heart was set
tluttering when she heard his strong
baritone voice lowered to a confidential
whisper. For John was not only
dandy but a firt. All his heart ever
dwelt on with constancy was Mary and
fashionable suits.
Every year he went to town for new
rig, from top to toe, of the latest cut
He felt himself foot taller when the
salesman once told him that his face
and figure would do credit to the
Broadway style.
Of course John wouldn't show his
Ignorance of city life by ascertaining
the particulars of that style. He felt
satisfied that purchases made from the
same salesman every year would secure
him the much-lauded style.
The new suit bought, John was civ
ing it its first airing by visit to Mary.
He had made up his mind to propose
formally and be formally accepted.
The engagement ring was in his pocket,
and the wedding-suit should be the one
he had on. He didn't believe in long
engagements, and thought he might
allow himself to appear once in his
most impressive elegance on an oc-
'casion that was as impressive as the
wedding.
So rugged in the latest-long pointed
pumps. pantaloons tight enough to
make sitting and bending his knees a
feat dangerous to the seams, Jacket Just
long enough to cover the ends of his
suspenders, and hat as wide and big as
everything else was narrow and little
he walked through the lane that led to
her fathers house with the air of one
who knows himself in the possession of
all the charms to conquer.
When John entered the front door
Mary was leaning out of the back
window reaching for a cluster of roses,
one of which, he assured himself, was
intended to adorn his new jacket
He thOuOht the ODDOrtunitV too GOOD
to be lost0an informal kiss would ex-
press half of his formal speech, which
somehow he couldn't remember.
The kiss was fairly implanted on
Mary's lips, and so was astinging blow,
and the print of shapely fingers, on
Johns cheek