The Portland daily press., 1883-08-11

temptuous at our untimely arrival. OF
course we had the pleasure of spending
solitary hour, in the ladies' and Charley in
the gentlemen's dressing-room, before we
dared descend. Even then we were among
the earliest guests.
81 begin to feel the reward of virtue al
ready" sighed Charley, as we descended the
| stairs How nice it is TO be early! The
carriage is ordered for one, and I'll be sure
TO be ready"
He was-and / was not. | had met an old
friend, and we were in the middle of a most
interesting conversation. She was only in
! New York en- pdsSdnt, and should not see
her again 1t was very provoking to be
| obliged to break off in the middle of onr talk
but how could tell Charley that was not
ready, when he stood waiting with an air of
conscious virtue? 1t was beyond my power
and, absurd as it was, | had to say good by to
! Annie and go.
had not supposed at first that Charley's
| reformation was permanent, but as the days
went on, was forced TO confess that il
looked very much like as if it were. Prompt-
ly as the clock struck six in the evening, he
| entered the house; promptly as it struck
| nine in the morning he left it. No entreat-
les could detain him an instant beyond his
| time.
'sNo, Leila, my DEAR was his invariable
reply, 81 have already wasted too much of
life by unpunctuality. You have convicted
| me of my error. Why strive now to undo
the good which you have done?"
OF course such sentiments ought to have
delighted my heart and they did, in meas
ure. Only in measure, however, / must
confess, for ! began to think that we should
be known everywhere as "the early birds.'
1t was never necessary to urge Charley to
get ready for anything. We were always the
ilrst In church; we were waiting at the
doors OF operas and theatres long before
they were open; at parties or receptions it
was our invariable custom to spend from
half an hour to an hour in the dressing-room
| In order to descend with the earliest guests.
And Charley was continually expatiating on
| the sweet reward of virtue, and thanking me
| for teaching him the beauty of punctuality.
spent myself in vain wonderings as to how
long this state of things was to last; but of
course it came to a climax finally.
My oldest and most intimate friend, Tina
Verringer, was to be married, and Charley
and had vowed in the most solemn manner
to attend the wedding. Tina lived at Mont
clair, and 1t was there, of course, thai the
ceremony was to take place.
do you think that nine O'clock win be
time enough to leave he.e?n asked Charley
meekly.
"Nine o'clock My dear Charley, she is
not TO be married until one, and Montclair
is only an hour away
Il know said Charley. ''but was anx-
ious to be in time. think that we had bet
ter start at nine to make sure"
swallowed my establishment as | best
could, and submitted It was not pleas
ant day. Ii | were not afraid of exaggerat-
ing, should say that il was decidedly I'M
pleasant one, being cold and gray, damp and
chilly, with that chillness which goes
through to your bones. Already few stray
snow flakes we're hutterng down, giving
promise of storm later in the day.
The depot at Hoboken is not a specially
exhilarating place to wait in; but Charley
settled himself comfortably with his paper
upon one of Of the straight up-and-down set
tees, saving, 1--WE need not take too early
train, but it is well to be on hand; even if
we do reach Montclair to soon, we can walk
about and see the place, you know
Walk about and see the place on such a
day said nothing, but inwardly decided
that we could not take too early train At
least we were warm and sheltered where
we were, and who knew what we might find
at the other end? While | was settling this
point in my own mind, the door at the end
OF the room was flung open and Charley
sprang to his feet
"Come,o he said; 1--WE might as well
make sure of this train, after all; and be-
fore could find words in which to couch
my objections without giving the lie to all
the fixed principles OF my life, we were in
the cars.
Charley was buried in his newspaper, and
| was gazing from the window upon the fast
whitening meadows, when the conductor
paused before us with demand fol sTick-
cts" They were ready to hand, but the
conductor gazed upon them blankly.
Where to?'' he asked, briefly.
"Montclair,' replied Charley, with equal
brevity.
Wrong train. Yours left ten minutes
later from the door. You'd better get out
at Newark. and take it there. If you miss
1t, there'll be another along in forty min
utes.''
sit is fortunate that we have plenty of
time, said Charley to me, as the conductor
left us. aren't you glad that have re-
formed in regard to pnnctuality?"
"Ob, very gladF' said with slight tinge
OF irony, and adding, inwardly, especially
if it leads you to take the wrong train rather
than wait for the right one.''
We got out at Newark and took the next
tram that came along Being the next, we
made sure that it must be the right one, but
it wasn't. That train landed us at Orange,
where we spent quiet hour before another
Newark bound train picked us up.
''You see, DEAR" said Charley, 81 go upon
your principle of always being in time. If
we keep on taking the first tram that comes
time-if not in time for the wedding, then,
perhaps, in time for the funeral of all the
family
1--WE shall not certainly be in time for the
wedding at this rate" | said, half laughing
and half crying. Suppose by way of varie-
ty, we try the effect of taking the last
tramp
''What! and abandon principle? Neverp'
cried Charley. However, think we will
inquire before we try again.
We did inquire, but with the result of find
ing that the next train which it would he
possible for us to take would not reach
Montclair until half an hour after the time
set for the wedding.
''Shall we try it?' asked Charley cheer
fully. 'The wedding may be delayed, you
know. The groom may be unpunctual or
something
fairly broke down at that.
mo, we will not,'' 1 said. 81 don't want
to go dragging in just at the tail end of the
ceremony. Pm cold and tired and wretch
ed and want to go home"
| was cold and tired and wretched, but |
was more than that. was thoroughly in
dignant, for was sure that Charley had
done it on purpose. Though had hid
den consciousness that deserved lesson of
some kind | thought thai he had punished
me too severely, so | had little to say TO him
either then or when we were sitting together
in the evening. Charley was too busy with
paper aud pencil to take any notice though.
Leila" he said suddenly
''What is it?" / answered, rather sulkily.
II am thoroughly convinced now," said
Charley, "that punctuality is the king of all
virtues, the browning merit OF humanity;
but doesn't it strike you as rather an expen-
sive one?''
Glow sop asked, melting little, but
not much.
swell, won't speak of to-day, for that
was not fair test. know you think that |
made all these blunders on purpose, but /
didn't l suppose the intoxication of such
unusual virtue few to my head and muddled
| my wits, for | certainly made uncommon
hash Of the affair. have been punctual &C.
cording to your ideas, for month now, and
have just been making little computation
of the result. began TO practice the virtue
on the night of Mrs. Lees reception, be-
lieye? Very we'll We each spent solitary
hour in the dressing-room which, suppose,
may fairly be considered wasted. Two
hours, / begin with. We went to the opera
an hour too early Though our seats were
engaged on two occasions-six hours.
Theatre, ditto, twice-four hours. Six and