The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-01-23

| is very we'll; but Walt ull next WeeA'
az presume / shall, and considerably
longer" Lucy answered, saucIly:..
"NIiss Lucy Bassett, l should like TO
| know what this means? p demanded Mrs.
Anstrutber, loftily.
Nothing very serious-does 1t, re,
lix ?" laughed Lucy. W are TOO "ell
warned. aunty dear"
az don't know about that" said Mrs.
| Anstruther, sailing from the roc IN a
very evident passion, and sending for
me to her apartment half an hour after.
submitted to the curious TRADE that
followed with mingled irritation and
good humor, and offered at least SIX
times in the course of it to leave the
grove that very day. But Mrs. Anstru-
Their would not hear to such proceeding.
Lucy was waiting on the landing out
side when I left her aunt, and she stood
on tip-toe to whisper in my ear: You
don't mind, do you dear? and left the
warm print of rosy lips on my cheek. l
can assure you I did not mind so much
as I might.
When I left Mrs. A1struther l had
fully intended to quit the grove, wheth-
err or no., the following day; but that
half dozen words with Lucy left me I'M
decided again. 1 was an idiot for stay
ing. first, because / was deliberately
sacrificing a very pretty prospect in
life by not going, and second, because l
might have known beforehand what
sort of an experience the next weeks
would be likely to be. But men are
idiots when a pretty girl is concerned,
and [ was q great deal more bewildered
with Lucy than I owned to myself. l
spoiled m own mess, too, with my
conceit. am willing to own that men
are more conceited than women, but
then they have so much more to make
them so. Why, only think of one wo-
man like Lucy Bassett making "sweet
eyes at you.
I am willing to own at this day, that
I had not at that time n misgiving as
to how it was likely to turn with Lucy
and me if 1 stayed. My going or stay
ing was a mere question of s~elf-abne-
CATION. Should l try and win the girl
who loved me in the face Of Mrs. An
struther's threats of poverty and starva-
ton, or should [ generously leave her
to forget me as fast as she could, and
bestow her matchlessness upon some
prince of the crew that were coming to
the Grove that week?
L was not generous. / did not at all
relish being forgotten, and l stayed. .
Mrs. Anstruther's company came In
due time-a household of them, too
gentlemen and ladies'; some married,
some single; the young ladies pretty
creatures enough, and the gentlemen
good takers and we'll dressed.
I understood long before the passage
of the first day what Mrs. A~nstruther
meant by her talk about gentlemen.
| She meant men who owed the right to
lie ranked above the "plebs" to their
tailor. NV best coat was of the last
years cut, and a trife seedy, having
done duty alternately as every day gear
and Sunday toggery. My boots were
neither patent leather nor Morocco,
and my unmentionables, though as well
kept as could possibly be expected I'M
der the circumstances, had quite lost
that beautiful shapeliness oflimb which
characterized those of Mrs. Anstruther's
guests.
In vain I kept repeating to myself,
"a mans a man for ! that" and Dress
doesn't make the man." / was humili-
atingly sure that / wasn't half a man
because of my seedy garb.
Mrs. Anstruther watched me, and
felt reioiced at my discontinue, what
she could see of il. Out of sheer re-
yenge I devoted myself to Lucy. SEE
cure in Lucy,s fondness for me, | took
airs upon myself, and for sheer imagin-
ed flung at my clothes / managed to
make Lucy snub the sneerer.
/ don't know how it was; / think ]
had taken a little too much wine that
evening, and there was a Count Leopold
Keirst who was especially affected by
Mrs. Anstruther for Lucy, and who was
nothing 10th himself. The man was
the merest dandy, empty-headed as a
rattle box, positively nothing but
clothes and title; but because / hated
him for daring to aspire to Lucy / in
sisted upon her openly insulting him
by dancing with me when she had prom
ised him, and they had even got their
places upon the floor / suppose | was
mad with jealousy, envy and wine, and
I saw Mrs. Anstruther shaking her head
at Lucy from a corner. / insisted
that Lucy should dance with me in
stead Of the count, but she refused, O
course.
Half an hour ~afterward, carpet bag
in hand, I had left the house, and b.
morning was miles on my journey city
ward.
had recovered my sense by that time
and was sufficiently conscious what al
idiot / had made of myself,
Whatever conceit was left In m,
then was taken cut before the day wa
done.
AS I got off the cars at noon q strang,
man put his hand on my shoulder.