Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-07-08
MISS PATIENCE'S DISCOV-
cry.


Engaged is shePn said Miss Patience
Snedccor, with vicious toss of her Ro-
man nose, Grace Tyler engaged?
Well, don't know what this world
comm to. when men prefer little doll.
faced chit. with hair jest for all the
world like n tangle o tow, and silly
blue eyes, to II mature female that
knows somelhin' outside the nursery
walls. Why. she amt day more'n
seventeen, and don't think she knows
any more about house-keepin' than
yonder white kitten. only hope Walt
er Dayton won't get tired of his bargain,
that's all!''
And Miss Patience thought, with a
forlorn sinking ut her maiden heart,
how vain had been all her smiles and
mods, and little impromptu tea-parties, to
win the young lawyers affections the
affections which pretty Grace Tyler had
already taken, as it We're, by storm.
Miss Patience was thirty-nine years
old, and the crows feet were gathering
round her eyes, and the gray hairs be-
ginning TO CLEAN suspiciously here and
there through her auburn-red tresses.
She felt that she had not much time to
lose. and Grace Tyler was perpetual
thorn in her side
Walter Dayton would have been the
very husband imaged forth in her
brightest and most sanguine dreams
tall. nobly-formcd man, scarcely
| twenty-five, with mischievous hazel.
brown eyes, curly masses of bright hair,
and such muslachc as the Apollo Bel.
videre might have worn, if it had been
fashionable in his day and generation.
.'Tll be revengcd on him see if
don'tr' muttercd Miss Patience Snede-
cor to herself. What for, she did not
particularize probably for the signal
crime and sin of not asking her to be-
come Mrs. Dayton. Hes male Co
| quette Didn't he give me his arm
home from church one rainy night, be-
sides asking me If danced the polka al
Squire Martindale's party? | only hope
he'll play the snub-nosed little Grace
Tyler false yet =
Grace Tyler, sitting in the self-same
twilight, with her lover by her side, was
anything in the world but conscious oi
the unamiablc feelings with which she
was regarded by her elderly rival.
She was mavcllously pretty little
| Grace, with eyes soft and blue as the
velvety petals OF Il Fear dc-liS, gold
cleaning curis. and Il dimpled red dot
of mouth that seemed made expressly
to smile To be sure her nose was a
tritie retrouSse, but then it gave an arch
ness TO her face that made it more be-
witching than ever. and her forehead
was perhaps quarter Of an inch lower
| than the Acknowledged models.
Nevertheless Waiter Dayton would
not have had her one shade different
from what nature had made her, 10,
not for all the w allh Of the indies
"Are YOU sure YOU love me, Gracicp"
demanded Mr. Dayton. STOPPING until
! his check almost touched her shining
curls-oh. The sweet silly formula OF
love- ever new. and yet, TO outsiders,
older than the Hebraic gcnealogies.
And Oracle laughed at him with a
happy thrill and tremble in her laugh,
ter, and called him "a silly goose. :
He, Walter Dayton, Esquire, Attorney
and Counsellor at-lawr' Miss Patience
Snedecor's hair would in good truth
have stood on end. could she have
listened to this shocking familiarity or
the part of scventeen-year-old lassie.
The spinster's cold eyes CLEANED
balefully in upon them, through the
overhanging draperies of vine-leayes
rs she passed by in the early evening
en- route to take tea with Mrs. Priscilla
| Bookstaver, a parsonage after her own
stamp whom nature had intended foI
an old maid, but whom fate had con,
stituted a widow.
Anything but n pair of loversr
thought Patience with scornful sniff
land besides, | don't half believe it:
proper for her to be sitting with hel
hand in his before they are married.
mean to see what Priscilla Bookstaver
says about it,
And the shortcomings of poor little
Oracle Tyler furnished fertile theme
for the two ascetic females to shake
their heads over all the evening long.
Things amt us they was when
kept company with Mr.. Bookstaver, y
croaked the widow
"It's regular Sodom and Gomorrah
world!' sighed the old maid; land
don't see what we're all a-comin' tot
The old kitchen clock had struck nine
before Miss Patience rolled up her orna,
mental knitting and announced, "that
it was high time lone female like heI
was gcttin' home.
! Perhaps she was right, for it was
growing quite dark when she crossed
the tree-shadcd lane, and struck into
the meadows. And as she entered the
| fragrant shadows, she gave little hys
| terical start. for a man was standing al
the stile.
She shrank back into the darkness
like gliding snake. for in one SECOND
| she had recognized a familiar voice
that of Walter Dayton-talking in low
accents to woman wrapped in a DARK
mantle, so that her face, and even hel
| figure. were quite invisible.
at is all nonsenser' he said little
impetuously, II have been only amusing
myself with her vanity; you ought tc
know that it is you, and you alone, thai
| 1 love"
And they passed on, and disappeared
from Miss Snedecor's eager gaze, leav.
ing her bewildered, yet elated.
"Well, 7" she calculated, under hel
breath, 81 always did say he was de
ceiver, and I'm morally sartain of it now
Poor, deluded Grace Tyler! But it IS my
duty to let her know right off what sori
of man it is she's engaged to marry
| Oh, the sinful duplicity of this wicked
world of ours And he a church mem.
Der, too! What will Elder Simmons
say? | wonder who that other cir
could have been? wish I'd had The
| presence of mind TO follow them along
by the old fence. | could just as wei
rs not. if I'd only had my wits about
me. Poor Grace. Well, I'm glad now
| didn't encourage his attentions
Lawyers always were dcceitful race
and | warned Grace Tyler that he was
only making fun of her
Miss Patience stood moment. hesita
ting whether she should 90 that night
to break the awful tidings to Mr. Day
tons wronged fanccc, or wait until tho
morrow. On sober second thoughts
however, she concluded to postpone the
delicious morscl Of retaliation
There's time enough, thought Miss
Snedecor, "and I'll just step round BY
| Sabina Aliens and old Mrs. Poole S
and see what Elder Simmons thinks Of
| it."
And so. before ten o'clock that night
the ball of gossip was pretty we'll roll
ing round the neighborhood, and hal
| Sparkletown was aware that Walter
Dayton was carrying on double flirta.
ton, and that pretty Grace Tyler wa;
but the toy OF his careless moments.
Il really think you ought TO enquire
into this business. Clarence" said Harry
BROKER 10 Grace's slaiwart brother the
1 payt n,orufnr