The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-04-07
BUDELL'S PROPOSAL.


This time two years ago our Square |
Club was flourishing; now l am sole |
member. Budell, Marby, Smithers and
myself had formed ourselves into pri- |
vate bachelors club for the purposes of
whist and other intellectual occupa-
tons, and very good time we con-
trived to have together. We hadn't
many rules and bylaws for our club.
We were sworn bachelors, and each of
us had to allege reason why he did
not intend to wed; but we had so far
recognized the possibility of a change
in our sentiments as to solemnly bind
ourselves to inform the club at once If
we should ever mediate "halving our
pleasures and doubling our expenses"
Smithers said he hadn't time to marry;
] was too poor; and Marby, who was
regarded as our romantic member, gave
us indefinitely to understand that
delighted affections" stood between
him and the hymeneal altar. Budell
at first laughed at the idea of assigning
a reason; and he wished to allege as his
that he hadn't met Mrs. Budell yet.
That was unanimously rejected by the
rest of the club; whereupon he insisted
upon our accepting as an alternative
that he was afraid of ladies. We were
willing to stretch a point in favor of
Budell, who was one of the jolliest pos
sible fellows at a bachelor supper, and
so we received this second reason. For
p the rest we nobly resolved not to fly,
but to withstand temptation; our max
i'm was that every lady is charming so
long as one is not married to her; and
we were all ready to go into society,
and even sustain the reputation of be-
ing dancing men" We use to relate
to each other over our celibate pipes
wonderful stories of narrow escapes
from guileful women every season; but
ii these were all as dependent upon the
narrators fancy for their important de-
tails as my contributions to the, CONVEX
sation, the escapes were somewhat more
than hair s-breadth. Budell was es-
pecially favorite in society; he
was one of those rare phenomena,
young barristers with some practice,
and he had besides o very comfortable
allowance from his father. Like the
rest of the club, had at first taken as
a joke his assertion that he was afraid
of ladies; but l gradually came to see
that there was some truth in il. So
long as Budell was in large company
in ballroom or any place like that
he was quite at his ease, and as bold
as lion; but if by any chance he hap
pened to fall temporary captive to a
solitary damsel's bow and spear, he was
almost overwhelmed with nervousness,
and his usual powers of conversation
completely deserted him. l once met
him at the Royal Academy, escorting q
very pretty young lady, and looking as
uneasy as If he had had worse con.
science than King Herod; and | have
seen him tremble at a mere passing
mention of the conservatory by his part
ner at a dance. However, in the Square
Club he was our most enthusiastic mem
Der; and horror and indignation filled
our souls when we realized the direfu
fact that Budell was in love, and doing
his best to be married.
Had we been women we might prob
ably have seen the symptoms of the adj
vancing malady; but we were only OBJ
fuse and short-sighted men. Now as
look back over these months / recall in
cidents that might have been warnings
The gradual decrease of Budell's hilar
ity at the club, and the gradual increas
of his excursions into society, coul,
hardly, indeed, have been portents, TO
Budell always did 60 more into societ,
than the rest of us. The first allusioi
that he made to me about the lady VIII,
was afterwards to play Beatrice to hi
Benedick was at concert-or rather il
the cloak-room, after concert. THAT
what l call pretty girl, +" hewhispere,
TO me; there, that dark-eyed girl owe
there in the warm, fieecy, brown shaw
none of your flimsy white opera
cloaks." The girl was pretty, in
fresh and piquant sort of way; and evel
sworn bachelor might have beel
excused for being pleased at re
ceiving such a frank smile as sh
greeted Budell with. Again, not man
days after, he remarked to me, a propo
,deS bottles" Met rather an interesting