The Penn's Grove record., 1884-11-08

tOH-Spluner MI. MdlJldnu Setlleu 10
have a very fair idea of what was a
good carriage, and had displayed great
taste in the selection of it. But then
he remembered that very probably it
had been chosen for him.
Mr.. Maitland was not at home, the
butler who opened the door at the Mid
lands Informed him, not having yet re-
turned from business, but Miss Matt
land was in the drawing-roOm, If he
would be pleased to walk that way aud
thither accordingly he directed his
steps. AS he entered, a tall fair girl OF
about twenty-five rose from her seat at
the far end of the room, where she had
been reading, and advanced to meet
him.
She was very different from his III
ticipatIons. he thought, as he shook
hands with her. This was certainly not
the common Observation-Disclosures girl
he had prepared himself to see. On the
contrary, she was infinitely more lady
like, both in her appearance and a
neT, than many of the ~aristOcratlc
friends lie had left in London and she
had one of the sweetest faces he thought
he had ever seen. With easy grace she
babe him welcome to the house, excus-
ing her fathers absence as a matter of
necessity /; and then she resumed her
seat, and they entered into conversa-
ton. ~Instinctively, during it all, Hen
mixer felt that her clear brown eyes
were scrutinizing him closely, that she
was, as it were, summing him up, and
making a mental estimate of his value.
No hara, ~ tglo on intor1at IN Tho nlTi
and the more so because he felt that he
had previously done her an injustice.
The butler came In presently to show
HennIker to his room, and, when the
young man went back, he found Miss
Maitland with her hat and Jacket on.
Il thought you would perhaps like to
look round the grounds, if you are not
too tired with your journey" she said.
He answered that he should be only
too pleased /; and they at once sailed
out together.
Going along she gave him little de-
scriptions of the neighborhood, showed
him her canine pets, the horses, ct. coeterd,
and did her best to entertain him. Hen
mixer found himself listening in a way
that he could hardly have believed pos
slble. This girl had a wonderfully at
tractiye manner. She was so easy and
unaffected, so thoroughly unconscious
that she was beautiful and stylish, Sc
different from the parrot-girls of society
whom he had previously met, and yet
50 completely their equal i'll the finer
attributes of good society, in grace and
refinement, with tenfold more depth of
character and cultivation, that Henni-
ker enjoyed his walk as he had never
enjoyed any walk before. He almost
forgot that his companion IA only an
uncultivated cotton-spinner's daughter,
1t was about five O'Clock when they
had finished their rounds, and tea was
served in the drawing room. Henniker
was surprised. 1t seemed that these
Manchester people lived like other folk,
and were as well-bred in their habits as
the friends he had left in London. at
dinner, too, there was none of that gor-
geouS display of plate that he had been
led to expect. Everything was con-
Quoted quietly and unostentatiously.
Mr.. Maitland perhaps, to those who did
not know him, vas the blot upon the
scene. He certainly was a trifle vulgar.
But his friends lost sight of this in their
warm appreciation of his sterling good
nature. No better-hearted, more gen.
erous-minded man than Walter Matt
land ever lived. Originally the sales
man in a small warehouse in Spring
Gardens, he had, by dlnt of steady in
dustry and unwearying perseverance,
raised himself to his present position
among the most hOnOTed of Manchester
merchants. but; unlike the majority of
men who have risen solely through their
own exertiOns, his success had not made
him arrogant and self-assertIve-nor
was he in the habit of boasting of his
achievement. He knew that, compar-
atively speaking, an ignorant man, and
he was not ashamed to own 1t 4; but he
never did so obtrusively. Kind to Il
fault, always willing to assist any one
in distress, innocent as a child in many
of the worlds ways, wearing his heart
upon bis sleeve, and as unaffected as
the day on which he was born, Walter
Maitland, to those who knew him, was
a man to respect, to honor, and to love.
Unfortunately Frank Henniker did
not know him, and he was obliged to
judge him by outward appearance. He
felt strongly that this old gentleman
who sat at the head of the table, who
Laughed so loudly and so heartily at his
own Jokes, who often dropped his 'h'sn
and mispronounced his words, was a
very vulgar being. Henniker had been
brought up in an exclusive set, with
whom faults Of breeding were iniqui-
ties that could never be atoned for, even
by the best qualities of disposition. At
dinner, unconsciously to himself, he
could not help showing the direction in
which his thoughts lay. However, it
passed off very well, and Mr.. Maitland
did not perceive that his guest was a
tribe offended, not to say disguised with
his ways. But once or twice Henniker
caught the daughter looking at him with
an expression on her face which he
could not understand. 1t puzzled HIM.
After dlnner, IN the drawing. room,
she sang some songs for him /; and again
Henniker wa thrown into a state of
wonderment. Such a thrilling voice,
so touching in its tender pathos, he had
never heard. 1t entranced him, and he
remained fascinated by the plano all the
time that she was singing. But. when
he showed symptoms of the great de-
light that he feiC, Miss Maitland at once
rose from her seat, and rather coldly re-
fused to sing any more.
Henniker's thoughts, as he sat In his
bed room that night, were anything but
pleasant. Above everything he felt
thoroughly angry and dissatisfied with
himself. He had acted, it seemed to
him, very like a fool. He had come
from London full of self-conceit, COM
p~lacently satisfied that the people he
was going to see were an inferior order
of creation to himself, quite an inferior
race of beings, living in a common I'M
der-bred way that to a man of Guilt
waited tastes would be most obiectlona-
BILE and here he found them every bit
as refined in their habits as himself, and
with none of that ostentatious display
which he had 81 confidently expected.
1t was really most Notifying.
Then there was the daughter. He