Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-12-25
CHAPTER III.

AN ARGUMENT AND AN ARRIVAL.
On the night when the down train carried
the goldcn-hcadcd child to Blacktown the
TalbcrtS hal dincd at home. without com
pany. The two men We're still at the table,
slipping their claret and smoking cigarettes.
They were neither great drinking men nor
great smoking men. If such habit, are sins,
the Talberts might have gone ON rs thsy were
going for many years and then made atone
mcnt very easily 1t is needless to state that
the two brothers were faultcsSly dressed IL
the evening garb of the nineteenth century.
1t will also be guessed that the dinner table
was most taStcfully laid out. In spite of the
season being midwintoa, it was gay with
flowers. Quaint antique silver spoons and
forks did the duty which is exacted from the
torid kings pattern and the ugly fiddle pat
tern denominations of our day The napery
vas of the whiteSt and finest description
the polish on the glass sich to make the
most careful housewife or conscientious SER
want wonder and envy. There is Il tale CON
nectcd with the glass.
Once upon II time lady who was dining at
Lakewood House asked her hosts, with par
donable curiosity, how they We're able to i'll
duce their servants to send the decantcrS and
wine glasses to the table in such glorious
state of refulgcncy Horace Talbert smiled,
and answered with exquisite simplicity:
I'VE should never think of trusting our
glass to the hands of servants. My brother
and | see to il ourselves
Thereupon the lady, who had manageable
sisters, and was no doubt kcenly alive to the
fact that her hosts were eligible bachelors
said 1T was very sweet of them to take SO
much trouble but her husband, who heard
the question and the answer, burst into a fit
of uncomfortable laughter. His was low,
coarse, commonplace mind utterly unable TO
diveSt the ideal from the material. To such
n gToyeling nature the picture of these two
siX-fcct, brawny men washing and rubbing
their rare and costly glass seemed intensely
comiCal
The Talberts showed no signs of annoy
aucc; they even smiled gravely in response to
his vulgar mirth. but Lakewood House knew
that person no more.
But the wretch took his revenge after the
manner of hi, kind. Unluckily, in SPITE of
lis faults his position in the county was not
To be- dcspisyd, and more unluckily he pos
scsScd IA certain amount of humor of the low
class. lie was brutal enough to nickname
our friends the "TabbicS,' and, appropriate
or not, the name chung to them, and will
cling for ever and ever. This is but another
proof of how careful a man should be in the
selection of his friends
Although tonight the glass was rs radiant
ms ever, there was mt present no one to admire
it save its owners and caretakerS. BY virtue
of his year of seniority, Horace Talbert sat
at the head of the table. Herbert was at his
right hand. The two brothers We're strangely
alike both in figure and face. They were
brown-haired men, with long, straight noses,
calm, serious eyes, rather arched eyebrows,
and average foreheads, Each wore a we'll
kept beard and mustache the beard clipped
close, and terminating in point at the chin
"a fashion which suited their long, oval faces
remarkably well, and, perhaps, added a kind
of old-world courtliness to their general ap-
pearance Their looks may be summed up
by saying that the Talbcrts were men who
one felt ought to possess a picture gallery of
distinguished ancestors. The absence of such
n desirable possession seemed a heartless
freak of nature.
The room in which the brothers were sitting
was furnished with bold mixture of modern
and antique. Where comfort and utility were
tho first consideration the modern prevailed
where ornament or decoration had to be sup
piled, the antique, often the grotesuue ANTIQUE
was called INTO requlsluon. Tn the nigh,
carved mantelIiece stood Oriental bronzo