The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-30
A FLAT PROCEEDING.
Story Of a Play and How 1t Was
Constructed.

Constructed.
He had taken a fiat and was going to
marry Margery. So he vowed most
solemnly, while he planned aesthetic
novelties with all the courage of a
hopeful swain. Painters and decora-
tors were in despair over the original
ity and vigor of his whims, while up
holsterers ran frantically east and west
in the vain endeavOr to match antique
brOcades or to harmonic extraordi-
nary rugs and curtains. No market
could furnish colors rare enough to
satisfy Mr. Dawes fastidious taste.
He was compelled, in spite of his play
full fancy and love Of eccentric combi-
nations, to put up with things almost
ordinary and incomplete. Mr.. Russell
Dave wrote s-unsuccessfully of
course. The lady with the trumpet
had not yet blown a blast over his
head. He had, however, great hopes
and vast confidence in his own powers.
These are not unusual manifestations
in this department of letters. Hitherto
his most arduous efforts had received
not the smallest reward, and his golden
argosies of wit and pathos had either
been sucked into the cruel whirlpool of
a managers wastepaper basket, or had
been stranded at the point of departure
by postman.
Mr.. Dave had, however, cOntrived
70 subsist-I dare not say live, for he
had wide notions of living-on his pri-
waite income, fixed though small, and
the principal thereof beyond his power
of grasp. Now, however, on the
strength of his love and the impetus it
had given to his muse, he was about to
embark on the perilous deeps of matri-
mony Having i'm hand rather more
than enough money to pay a quarter
rent of his residential fiat, he started off
gayly at a canter. One purchase
quickly led to another, and the useful
10 the extravagant and ornamental,
till finally he had fittings replete and
beautiful throughout his abode. Never
theless he cavilled with lordly air at
various triHes, complaining of imper-
feet work and inaccurate details. For
the time being he gave no thought
to the cost of his orders, and it was
meet that his Margery's shrine should
be perfect and lovely. He had no
doubt he would be half way
up the ladder of fame bv the time bills
were presented. He only needed the
spur of duty, and cOmplacently at
tributed his many failures to his too
easy line of life. At the present time
elaborate plots. ingenious situations
aud brilliant dialogues simmered In his
brain. Such materials would not take
long to shape into elegant drawing
room plays and spirited comedies.
Given the peace of domesticity and the
blessing of Margery's daily smiles, and
dramas would take active forms and
distinguish him highly with managers
orders and patronage. During his
courtship this imaginative gentleman
never ceased to blow the roseate bub-
bles of hope.
The mansions on which Mr.. Russell
Dawes choice had fallen were situated
in the vicinity of Earl's Court. This
remote region was fixed upon for a va
rietv of reasons. In the first place,
noise was utterly unsuited to his occu-
patton and sensitive organization. An
abundance of fresh air was also q
necessity TO one of his craft. There
fore he and his Margery must live on
the top story. There were well on TO
a hundred steps, and no elevator, but
light of adrawback In fact this young
man stoutly maintained that these were
a great gain for a man addicted to sed-
entary pursuits, and compelled in this
way to take necessary exercise. As
for Margery, if she came home tired,
he would carry her up. In the enthu-
siasm of love Mr.. Dave overlooked the
fact that his lady-lOve weighed over
ten stones and stood five feet seven
inches in her stockings.
Miss Margery McKilliCiu was a
young lady of no mean ability and
great determination even before she
accomplished her resolve to marry the
poorest of her many lovers. She was
sweet and twenty at this time. and the
heiress to fifty pounds a year at her
next birthday. This modest fortune,
the legacy of an aunt, was all her own,
and on the strength of it she was going
TO carry on housekeeping. Having
lived the most of her life in fields of
clover-Otherwise indisputablc luxury
Miss Margery contemplated a picnic
existence high up aloft and free from
parental restrictions as little short of
Elysium. It must be admitted, as a
take-ofi to clover fields, that papa Nc
Killigin was fiery old gentle
man, addicted to domineering.
The young lady's marriage would
lift her into a sphere of independ-
ence and informality which appeared
20 her most delightful. Miss Margery
was thoroughly imbued with high art
crazes and loathed the solid mahogany,
crimson damask, and undeniable re-
spectability of her Lancaster Gate sur
roundings. She yearned to dip herself
into Bohemian dyes, and to ride pillion
on the meanest Pegasus. All her adj
mirers had hitherto been rising young
city men, with no souls for furniture,
eyes blind to harmonics of color and
ears deaf to repartee. Her kirtles,
Olive-green gowns and slashed sleeves,
her epigrams and sarcasm, had met
with no praise or appreciation from
young Philistines, who worshiped
neither nature, art nor literature. But
Russell came, Russell saw and was
conquered. Margery's heart acknowl-
edged him forthwith as its lord.
The reason of this hero's love for
Miss Mckilligin was not far to seek.
In the first place she was a very attrac-
tive girl, with a lively temper of her
own. Her medieval costume and
smart sayings, an unusual antithesis to
SD aud clinging raiment, drew bis at