Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1886-07-20
A CHARMING WIDOW.

"Ths ide. Of ,ha, little thing being a
widow 90
And widow Of four years standing!
|, fairly takes one. breath. She doesn',
look day over Is"
"Rreep, In a suons light. In
strong ligh, .be would be taken for every
day Of iweniy.one. never settle upon
q womsn's age until ! have seen her in
strong light"
Thi. rather pointed remark from the
lip. Of Nj. Pickett. a .pins,er whose
age Was frankly beyond repair. seemed
10 produce an electric effect. Every wo-
man on the piazza. a. though suddenly
reminded Of = neglected duty. began
carefully protecting her eyes from the
glare Of the sky.
I'll wonder II she will &c, the Ensli.h.
man." began the fr, speaker again.
"She !. pa,,ins in some pretty hard
work. Her .lish,es, glanee' are the in.
eGrnA,iOn Of a.iery."
"a greA, mistake. Never give man
more than he eIPee,'-yOa will only
bore him."
81 am no, so sure Of that. A man Is
q very weak thing"
"well. mark my word-he doesn't
mean anything he is only amusing him.
self"
A bo.rding-hou.e in Santa barbara.
even when nestled amid., all the luxu.
rance Of semi.tropieal California. Is
quite like other boarding. houses after all.
Ii contain. the usual abundance OF idle
women, the usual scarcity Of vigorous
men. and the usual superaui,y OF gossip.
SO i, happened ,ha, the bOarder' Of Rad
elife msn.ion-whieh by the way W.
no more OF . mansion than any respee,s.
bic two-story building. but was burdened
with tha, title In Difference to the pre-.
vailing CAlifornia tendency to make
everything greater than /, is-were oil
more or les. interested 10 Mrs. Cora Tyr
rell. Mrs. Tynell 'a, opposite me q, the
table, and used TO watch her in = sort
Of amaze thA, anyone could be so young
and fresh and fair and ye, be widowed.
Her form was Absurdly sligh, for full
grown ~oman's. while her face Was as
sweet and guileless as a ehilds.
She someway reminded me OF apansy,
particularly when she wore a slightly
aaring hat, its dusky brim setting of to
perfection the transparency OF her COM
plexion, the .oi, blby.like rings OF her
hair, the large. tender pathetic eyes.
Beauty Of this sort wins women n well
As men. Even Miss Pickett, noted for
the severity Of her mental atmosphere.
wa. subjugated. No, woman grudged
Mrs. Tyuell her beauty. but several
drew the line ., the Englishman. Fem.
mine generosity has i,s limits. You zee
Percy Elliot, was the only eligible man
AZ Radcliffe mAnsion-eligible in the
worlds accep,a,ion Of the term, which
has a well-defned reference TO. an ire
proachable bank sceount-and II was
hard TO watch him slowly disappear
down the widows little throat. He was
. tall, nonehalant young fellow. quite
convinced Of his own importance. after
the fashion Of bis country. A certain
narrowne. Of chest told Why he VA
win,ering in this far Western land
and frequent horseback rides with Mn-
Tyuell told that he believed in minslins
business with pleasure. She wasa won
derful horsewomsn. riding as easily with
ou, q saddle as with II, and jumping any
fence without . tremor. These eques'
,rian duets stimulated the boardes te
the livelies, speculation Cora certainly
was no, over-burdensd with money,
though her taste In dress skillfully con-
cealed the deficiency. Jewelry OF every
description shs utterly eschs~ed; but
the gloom Of her Grape was e1qai'itly re-
leaved by flowers. She was never with
out flowers upon her breast; at frs. mod
est. demurs violsts, suggestive OF widow
hocd; then, ~ the days wore on, roses
white for long time and finally pink.
Icams to measure the progress Of bel
affair with Mr.. Elliott BY these roses