Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-12-17
A HAPPY OCCASION.
From the London World.

From the London World. ~; IA
"Do not come too late" That WAS
the wording OF the telegram wich Cap.
tain Richard Irton held in his hand as
he sat, in q temperature of LOO degrees
in the shade, ON the veranda OF his
Indian bungalow. .s ..s.. h
DO not come too later" he mutter.
ed to himself. BY Jove, as if it were
probable that he would dawdle now!
1t was just like Mrs. Lennox to send
such chatting wire as this. He might
have been a long time making up his
mind, but it was made up now, and
he meant to go home and marry her.
1t was her last letter that had settled
the matter--the letter in which she
limited that Lord Shorthorn was aw.
fully "mashed." No, he wasn't going
to stand by and see Dorothy Lennox
married to cad like Shorthorn He
had been the whole year, he reminded
himself, in this Internal station, with
it's furnace heat, its inane gossip, and
its eternal tennis and polo. How he
loathed the very sight; OF his Major
WIFE, with her white eyelashes, her
malicious gigge, and her fitting man
ners!
And then he though of Mrs. Lennox.
He remembered the first night he had
met her-]n the ballroom of u great
house in l4ondon-and how he had
seen her surrounded by dozen other
fellows, ard how he had "made the
running" and had cut out all those
outsiders. And he recolIected the call
he had paid next day at her tiny
house in Park street, when she had
been SO sweet and graceful, and had
talked to him as no woman had ever
talked before. He didn't 60 in for
brains or any OF that rot, but, by
Jove! Dorothy 11ennox made him
feel another fellow. lie thought of
the cool, amber.tlnted room where
she always sat, with its dropping
palms, its masses OF azaleas, it's Rajon
etchings, and it's blue-and- white Nan
kin. 1t was always cool and cosey
in Mrs. Lennox's house, and she had
a way OF taking O. fellows hand and
looking him seriously in the eyes which
was quite Irresistible. He rememb er-
ed how it had become almost a habit
to drop in of an afternoon, to lounge
on her soft divan, and listen to her
half chatting talk and her low delicious
laugh. And when d woman is deuced
good-looking as we'll as clever, why,
what is afellow to do? Perhapsit was
&, wrong to make love in quite such a Sc
rious way as he did, but, hang it! she
wasn't a kitten, and she might have
known he wasn't the marrying sort.
All that was q year ago, but he
hadn'tforgotten her bit--worse luck.
And her letters--how awfully nice they
were! how like herself Not spoouy,
like those he wrote to her, but frank,
humorous and thoroughly bon CANA
ade. Hang it all! it was much easier
to keep heartwholein London than in
this sultry and monotonous hole. He
had managed to evade compromising
himself definitely even when he had
gone to bid Mrs. Lennox goodbye,
although he had been perilously near
proposing to her that last evening;
. but he had got away. and nothing had
been said which would have tied him
down to an engagement. t .
Dick, in his rowing life, had commit.
ed every folly except that which he
considered the hugest folly of all-the
folly OF tying yourself to one woman
all. your life. He remembered how he
had congratulated himself on all this
when he went on board the Jumna.
Was he the best-looking fellow and the
keenest sportsman in the One Hun.
d-ed and Fifthieth Huzzars, to knock
under like any spoony young sub, the
moment he met g pretty womans But
now things were changed. He had
. never bargained, somehow, for he1
marrying again; he had got to look
upon her more or less as his own
When she had written that letter with
all the illusions to Shorthorn in it, his
blood had fairly boiled. He tlidn't
regret bit the letter he had
written in reply, telling her he was
leaving India the very day he. could
get leave, and asking her'Sto be his
wife! After all,why shouldn't he mar
Iy2 He was over 80, and he had
as he remembered with smile, his
4 fling" The other fellows in his regi
. ment used to chaff him and cali him
Casual" and said that he never did
to-day what he could put of till to
morrow. Bnt that Was all nonsense
Z He could make up his mind like Other
4 men, even to matrimony. And here
was her answer to his letter: Dt
not come to late" Well, he had GOT
i his leave, and would be with her il
n three weeks. sSs. 5 A. III N u
s8s Mrs. Lennox was the sort Of WOmar
4 about whom peoples tongues arc 81
ways wagging. Hardly was her lat
& husband borne beneath nod dins
\ plumes to Kensal Green than she was
married, IN perspective to 81 least z
dozen admirers She MAS q great stlc
8 cess IN society, M beside being Z
charming woman she was HON
able poetess, writing words for Tosti's