Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-02-22

SoAtO CAon tAIt UCStOWC>N upOn AoI
guests in general. She was charming,
and it would bs pleasure to see her
sitting opposite at dinner. or enter
tanning ones friends. Yes. the widow
was certainly beautiful WON an; per-
haps little too much of the world,
worldly; but one can not have every
thing.
1passed on, and dropped into
chair beside = bright, clever young
girl; she looked pleased as took the
vacant seat and opened a lively CON-
versation; but tonight l noticed more
than ever tendency to defer to me,
rs 1t one must not assert ones self too
strongly in the face of age. 1t irri-
tated me; surely I was not so old as
all that! Presently younger man
came up and took seat on the other
side of her-a stupid young ass, I
thought him-and it struck me that
l would be doing her kindness to re-
main and deliver her from boredom.
IL was very annoying that whenever
she turned her head to speak to him,
her voice dropped so that could not
hear what was being said. Soon I
found myself left wholly to my own
entertainment. so took the hint and
walked away; but not before had
heard the youth ask, in q stage
whisper: "Who is the old party?''
So it had come to that! I strolled
into the conservatory to console N.Y.
self with a cigarette after the chill that
sentence gave me, and while wander
! ing up and down there I heard the
voice of an old college chum whom I
had not seen for months. What he
was saying could not hear, and with
out stopping to think, hastily sought
the dim end of the conservatory, from
which his voice came.
well, old man. am glad to find
you once MORE" I cried, pushing aside
the branches of some plants which hid
him from view.
Oh, my unlucky star! I had put my
foot into it again. Instead of the
warm reception l had counted upon.
there came an awkward pause, in
which it seemed to me that my friend
was doing his best to get as far from a
pretty young lady as the small bench
upon which they were seated would
allow, while she diligently studied the
! painting on her fan.
boIted. "De trop. de trop." l said
to myself. There seemed no place for
me in this gay assemblage. left the
conservatory and made my way back
to my hostess. There was oil Jim
Randolph, a widower and a man of
fifty or more, talking to her as if his
life depended upon it, and I flattercd
myself that here ut least I would be
welcome; but it gave me the uncom-
Portable feeling of having intruded
when I heard him say in an undertone,
as he rose: May I come tomorrow
ard see you alone?''
Never had found the widow so hard
to talk to as now; she was preoccupie6:
and absent.
odd Jim Randolph wears pretty
well, I said. after having started half
a d. zen general topics, only to have
them dropped in a most summary
| ma ,ner.
almost as we'll as you do" she
replicd; and rising from her seat, she
added: Come, / will present you to
his daughter; she has just returned
from travelling abroad, and has been
out very little, SO you must try to be
nice to her.
| And hof,,rso I h0G 41 ~: .l
had marched me off and presented
! me.
IAN old friend of your fathers,
Alice" she added, after the formal in
PRODUCTION had been gone through.
Now that was really spiteful, and l
was so occupied in trying to discover
how l had deserved such treatment at
her hands that / stood there like a
dummy until / heard voice saying:
Were you really friend of papa S
at collegeP"
''No, my dear young lady, I was
not" I answered. with much irrita-
ton. "Your father graduated years
! before I was old enough to enter a
college; but it p@eases our friend Mrs.
A. to make me out regular old
fossil Tonight
But papa is not so very DID,"
said my companion, in surprise. And
| now for the first time noticed how
very lovely she was, and wished my
self in Guinea for having given such
an answer She would be sure to put
me down as a crusty old bachelor
| after that, and it was all the widows
fault. I would get even with her
for it.
Never before did Iremem Der to have
met so interesting girl, and yet one
who seemed SO totally unconscious of
her charms. went to work in good
earnest to try and obliterate the I'M
pleasant impression my first speech
must have made. Finding she bore
me no ill-will for it, we were soon
deeply engaged in comparing notes
on our travels, and for the first time
that evening l felt that l was appre-
ciated.