The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-05-03

u lopIOdCu III uST JeeIn. DOJS Will De boys
and girls, | suppose, will be girls, though
they may live to see the error of their
ways, and be none the worse for their
follies. One thing is certain, and that is
that at the present time, and for at least
tive-and-twenty years past, Miss Martha
Marrable has ceased to dream of the tender
passion. She still occasionally talks
vaguely of going up the Nile, or of visiting
the Yellowstone Region ere she dies; but
she never contemplates the possibility of
getting married; and | believe that she
would as soon think of allowing a man to
believe that she regarded him with any
thing but polite aversion, as she would
think of going into business as a steeple-
jack, and learning to stand on one leg on
the top of the cross at the summit of st.
Paul's Cathedral.
And yet Miss Martha Marrable was last
year the heroine of a terrible scandal
and many of her msanthropic female
friends have never since been able
to completely believe her professions of
hatred of man. The affair gave rise to many
whispers, and was even, | understand,
guardedly alluded to, with just and virtu.
ons depreciation, in the columns of the
WOn1dn'S Suffrage journal, as terrible
but happily rare instance of womanly
weakness and frivolity; and since the true
story has never been told | feel that it is
only fair to tell it, and by telling it, to
charges that have been made against her
established reputation for good sense and
unt1iEching contempt of the rougher sex.
Towards the end of August Miss Maria
| bic and her two nieces left London for
North Wales, and, after a long and tire
some journey, reached Abermaw, in Mer-
ionethshire, and took rooms at the Cors-y-
Gedol Hotel. They were accompanied, as
usual, by the two maids and the green par
rot; but the courier and the maI-servant
being males and their services not being
imperatively required, they were left be.
hind in London. Lucy had just celebrated
her twenty-thrd birthday, and Amy was
just about to celebrate her twenty-first; and
although am sorry to have to record it
| ami by no means astonished that they were
both in love. Lucy, during the whole of
the previous season, had been determinedly
flirting with a designing young artist
named Robert Rhodes; and Amy, younger
and less experienced than her cousin, had
been carrying on, even more sentimentally
with Mr.. Vivian JellicOe, who, being heir to
barOnetcy, found that position Sc arduous
and fatiguing that he was quite untitled
for any active occupation of a labori-
GUS character. Of course Miss Mar.
rable knew nothing of these affairs.
Had she suspected them she would per-
hapS have Rottaken her nieces with her to
Abermaw; for it happened that at that very
his son Vivian were staying when the
three ladies, the two maids and the green
parrot arrived. But no foresight on Miss
Marrable's part could have prevented Mr..
Robert Rhodes from following Lucy to
North Wales. That adventurous artist had
made up his mind to spend the autumn in
Miss Larkspur's neighborhood; and even
if Miss Marrable had carried off her elder
niece to Timbuctoo or the Society Islands,
Mr.. Rhodes would have gone after the pair
by the next train, steamboat, diligence or
caravan available.
Upon the morning, therefore, after Miss
Marrable's arrival at Abermaw, she and
her nieces were comfortably installed at
the Cors-y- Gedol Hotel; while at the Red
Goat, close by, Sir Thomas Jellicoe and
Vivian occupied rooms on the first floor,
and Mr.. Rhodes had bedroom on the
third.
In the course of that afternoon Miss
Martha Marrable, accompanied by her
nieces, and followed at arespectful distance
by the two maids, walked in the sunshine
upon the hard sands that stretch, for l do
not know how many hundred yards at low
water, between the rocky hills behind the
little town and the margin of Cardigan
Bay. The weather was hot and Sultry,
and the unrippled sea looked like molten
lead in the glare. Much exercise was
therefore out of the question; and ere long
the three ladies sat down on the seward
side of a rush-grown sandhill to read,
leaving the two maids to stroll farther if
they chose to do so, and to explore at their
leisure the unaccustomed wonders of the
seashore.
Miss Martha having arranged her sun
shade to her satisfaction, opened little
volume on 1.-THE Rights of the Slaves of
England" while Lucy devoted herself to
one of Ouida's novels, and Amy plunged
deep into Keats. In five minutes "The
Rights of the Slaves of England" fell
heavily to the sand; and in three minutes
more Miss Marrable was emitting sounds
which, but that | know her to be woman
who has no weakness, should call snores.
From that moment Lucy and Amy, as if
by common consent, read no more.
Lucy" said Amy, mysteriously, to her
cousin, 81 have seen him."
$50 have l." said Lucy.
"What curious coincdencew
"Not at all. He told me that he intended
to follow u.s."
"WhaL! Vivian told you?"
so, no! Bother Vivian! You are always
thinking of Vivian. mean Robert"
"He here, toow exclaimed Amy. 81
meant Vivian. l saw him half an hour ago,
with his father"
Martha know too much," said Lucy. "If
she suspects anything she will take us back
to London this afternoon"
Miss Marrable murmured uneasily in her
sleep. A fly had settled on her chin.
"Hush!" exclaimed the girls in unison,
and then they were silent.
Not long afterwards they caught sight Of
two young men who were walking arm in
arm along the sand, couple of hundred
yards away.
"Look There they are" whispered
Lucy. Aunt must not see them. We
must go and warn them" And, stealthily
accompanied by her cousin, she crept away
from Miss Marrable, and ran towards the
approaching figures.
need not describe the greetings that en-
sued. Such things are the commonplace
of seaside encounters between young men
and young women who have likings for
each other, and they have been described
q thousand times. Suffice it to say that,
few minutes later Lucy and Robert were
sitting together under the shadow of a
bathing-machine, while Amy and Vivian
we're confidentially talking nonsense a
dozen yards off. More than half Nh hour
elapsed ere the girls returned to MISS Mar.
rable; but fortunately the excellent
spinster was still murmuring sleepily at
the fly on her chin; and when she awoke
she had no suspicion that she had been de-
serted by her charges. As she walked
back with them TO the hotel, nevertheless,
as il with a strange intuitive comprehen
sion OF danger in the air, she held forth to
them upon her favorite topic-the unfath.
enable baseness of man; and gravely
warned them against ever allowing them
selves even for single moment TO enter
tain any feeling, save one of polite aver
sion to the hated sex.
Thus matters went on for a week or