Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-04-30

rate. and where, as evening approached,
costermongers' barrows were won't to
congregate. 1t was region tho OPP
posite OF aristocratic, and The nightly
sounds of shouting, as the costermong-
ers retailed their herrings and cabbag-
es and cheap oil-cloth were not of the
most musical. '...
No wonder Mrs. Lanes friends did
not care for the place. They declared
that q small suburban cottage would
be better far.
Perhaps so," Mrs. Lane said quiet
ly. but the cottage would cost mo
sixty or seventy pounds a year, where
as here l save all that, and the girls
can move about so much more,
Il see that, but" and her sister
from Gypsy Hill looked up and looked
down, and then looked round the real
~ fine drawing room.
sBut, you would say, we should not
get such rooms?" Mrs Lane had
spice of quizzical humor underlying her
quietness.
"Indeed: no; I was thinking Of no
such point"
"But we really should not; and now,
after so many years OF colonial open
air life, l must have space. The cos
termongers will not trouble us in the
winter-now, the windows are all
OPEN"
| 1t was summer, and one could hear
| every sound-shouts of selling; SQUAD
| bling Of cross, tired children; the rat
thing OF the chains of barges; aye, and
! the rustling of the leaves OF the trees
in the garden, and in the lull OF other
sounds, even the soft swish of the in
coming tide against the old stone
foundations of the Shore House.
Here Maud came in with handful
OF ruddy carnations for her aunt. The
smoke of factories did not prevent
their growing half-wild in the old gar
den. Maud was going off that evening
for few days. visit to Gypsy Hill, and
she meant to show that the Shore
House garden could do as we'll as any
on the score of carnations. She was
a fair, yellow-haired girl, not by any
means vulgarized by the Shore House
locality, but as sweet and refined as
any girl could be.
! Bessie and Nan were the other two
dark girls both of them, and in that
like their father. Bessie was home on
ly that very day from q weeks stay
in London. Nan was the stay-at-
! home daughter.
The August evening drew on. Aunt
Mary had driven off in cab with
Maud, and the usual course OF things
drifted on. The river-breezes, soften
ing the blaze of daytime, came now to
| Eo &11x ~
Then Nan sat down to the piano-the
girl played unusually well-and the
two others each took book. Pre-
tence for both of them! Mrs. Lane
never even found her place, but open
ing the volume, and fixing it on her
knee, with her hand on it's open page,
she began to say: Had Bess seen
such a person? heard how such anoth-
or was getting on?
And Bessie answered-answered
quite distinctly, but nevertheless in
such a way as her mother detected to
be a new way. The girl was thinking
of something outside her words, ana
as she answered she carried her book
to the window, seemingly so interested
in it's contents as to be unable to spare
a moment for what her mother want
ed--a nice chat. She had by mistake
taken up dictionary which Maud had
chosen to consult for some bubble of
spelling.
Mrs. Lane had seen this, and smiled
to herself.
| When the cleaning had gathered a.
bit more, and Mans fingers were wan
dering amongst the dreamy, sad fam
cies OF Chopin, Mrs. Lane said.
"Come here, Bess DEAR" she was on
q sofa, and she made the girl sit at her
feet on furry rug. lit was a stupid
visit then, after alp"
"Stupid? 1t was heavenly?"
Bessie was given to impulses.
"Heavenlyl with Mrs Clay laid up,
and all the boys off for their holi-
d: Si,,s+ - n,,,m.;. a.., "a h.++e,
make clean breast of it at once
hadn't l? / went on Wednesday, and
the boys were off on Saturday-three
clear evenings, you see, for me to enjoy
the charms OF their society, and"-
she stopped for g. second, ''and the So
ciety OF their friends" Here bit OF
lace trimming on her muslin dress
gave a little scratching noise-her
fingers had torn it. "Bother!'
"My dear Bess?" her mother cried
in her calm way.
t"The bother belongs to the torn
lace, my dearest, not to-to-theo other
thing. Shall l tell your" The girl
| turned her face round to her mother. j.
| "You had better dear, l should say"
Mrs. Lane did not feel calm in her
innermost heart. Mothers get pre-
| sentiments.
.'Clint boy?"
"Well, scarcely boy, / suppose,
seeing he is OF the ripe age Of 81. He
has actually asked me to marry him!
Presumption, isn't it?'
If you think SO. I suppose you
told him so?"
''Mumsie dear, could I be so rude!"
and Bess linked her hands upon her
mothers knee. "But I mean it Sc
riously-quite true!" she nodded. ri
mean it's quite true that he wishes
wishes-what / said just now
Dear, dear, and you only nineteen!"
II feel fifty, dear, really, ever since I
came home, and have had time to think
| it over = sd Z j. S 4
We need not give any mora OF this
conversation; 8 fact, looming in the
future, grew out OF it, and became q
very present reality. Bess was en-
gagged, and would, early in the coming
year, be married to Michael Clint.
It was certainly not q brilliant out.
look. Young Clint had no prospects