The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-08-01

not Dot that, at the end of the season,
 should be able to retire quietly without
 having compromised either Mrs. Wilkin
 son or myself.
 So l set to work to delude this poor confding little woman, who only wishet
 to secure protector in world wher,
 women are sadly in need of protection
 and who was evidently far from imagin
 ing that middle-aged gentlemen wer,
 capable of practicing those arts of which
 her sex is apt to claim a monopoly. |
 really was too bad of me. quite fel
 that at the time, and took myself to tasl
 rather severely about it. But in arguing
 the case out with my conscience, put i
 in this way. My first duty was to m,
 friend. Very well was there any othel
 method of saving him2 could see none
 For his sake, then, l must inflict a sligh,
 disappointment upon a lady whom il
 grie.e me to disappoint, but to whom
 nevertheless, l was bound by no special
 tie. Observe, the disappointment would
 be slight one. did not for one mo. ment suppose that Mrs. Wilkinson would fall in love with me, nor was it any part of my design to ensnare her affections Nol l can lay my hand upon my waist. Coat and say that no feminine heart has ever been broken by me. What pro- posed to do was to rescue Pole by means of little harmless stratagem-nothlne more than that and must say that my
 lrst efforts were crowned with a success which had hardly anticipated.
 l won't assert that Mrs. Wilkinson ex. actly led me on, but she certainly seemed to be very much pleased with the various signs of friendship which thought ht to display toward her, and responded to them almost eagerly. It was not all pre- tence on my part l really liked her, and enjoyed listening to her artless prattle. l dare Say she hum plugged me little, but think have already mentioned that l don't mind being humbugged by pretty people.
 "Colonel Walmisley," she said to me one day, Twill you do me great kind ness2 Will you get me place in the ladies gallery of the house of commons for the day alter to-monow"
 " With the greatest pleasure" l re- piled, "only am afraid you will not be amused. There will be nothing worth listening to the day after tomorrow.
 Oh Y she said, but thought saw that you had given notice of question for that day"
 explained that questions and debates were two different things. l was not going to make speech; and if were
 "lf you were," she interrupted, "I should certainly manage to be present, by hook or by crook. Why do you speak so very, very seldom! But 1 think, if you don't mind, should like to be in the house the day after to-morroS, all the same" And as she said this she glanced up at me with a sort of timid look in her blue eyes. which dare say should have found perllous if had been a younger man.
 Since she made point of it did as was requested, and in due time she had the satisfaction of hearing me ask the secretary of state for war whether it was the case that the I24th, I6o.h, and I76.h regiments had only been raised to the strength for proceeding on foreign service by means of reducing their respective linked batallions to a condition of practical non-exstence, aud, if so, what measures, to put an end to a state of things calculated to convey a false impression of the numerical eff ciency of the standing army. The right honorable gentleman, who, I think, is needlessly curt in his replies, got up, grunted out, "No, sir" and sat down again. On being further pressed, he said that his answer referred to the first part of the question put by the hon. orable member for Weehampton; the re- mainder, being grounded upon mis- taken assumption, did not, he conceived, call for any remarks from him. There. upon his colleagues cheered- though really don't see what there was to cheer about-and the incident ended.
 An ordinary, commonplace person might have been disposed to think that had been rather snubbed than otherwise, and might have refrained from compli- me upon the lucidity with which had expressed myself; but not SO Mrs. whose torget-me-no blue eyes saw many things that were hidden from duller mortals. She had seen, for at least, she afterward as- sured me-that the war minister had idgeted about uneasjly sn the treasury bench while l was speaking, and she was that had made him very un comfortable and angry. "Why," she asked, did you not go on at him until he told the truth? feel certain that he was not telling the truth, and think you let him of far too easily. If had been in your place, l should have insisted upon his giving me some proof that those regiments had not really been robbed of all their men,"
 pointed out to her that such a course would not have been in accordance with usage; but she rejoined that that only showed tha, parliamentary usage was one of the things which cried aloud for reform. How can you be a conservative" she exclaimed, "when there is so much that requires to be inn proved or done away with? A conserva- tive, l suppose, does not wish to see any, thing that IS esta ablished altered, whether it is bed or good"
 Possibly she made this preposterous as- sertion only in order to give me an op- portuni,y of expsunding the true mean