The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-09-27
MRS. oRMIzoN's PARTY.
The Slight Embarrassment
Caused of Mistaking a
Date.
BY SIDNEY LUsKA.


yours from the bottom of MY heart. Mar
rage, they say truly, is lottery; but he has
drawn a prize of the first order He has OBJ
tanned a wife at once young, witty and beau
tiful; and / can promise him, moreover, that
he will find you docile and obedient-virtues
of the greatest rarity in young women nova
days. But alb, my Denise, / who know you
from your cradle, ] must warn you that you
are not in the least practical. A sympathetic
friend, companion amiable and gentle, a
spouse to do him honor in the world-all
this he will possess in you. But good
manager, skilful housekeeper-alas no.
You are too poetical, too romantic, too much
of dreamer. The material details of life
are entirely lacking in interest for you"
The portly, purple-faced old gentleman
smiled provokingly as he delivered this bit
of persiflage, which was also his valedictory.
for we took ship for America three days
later. The reproach sank deep in Dense's
soul. and ranked there. No sooner were we
little toss, "Ah," she cried, 81 should like to
show him Ii only he would some time come
to New Y9rk. would show him whether
whether l am practical, indeedp'
But he never will, you know" said /.
Your countrymen never travel"
proved to be but sorry prophet. Two
years and a few months had elapsed when
Denise received a letter from this unprece-
dented frenchmen, announcing that he. with
his wife and daughter, had set forth upon
Journey round the world! I'VE shall reach
New York toward the middle of January, to
stop there Tor a week or so before proceeding
to cross the continent. We sail from Havre
aboard the steamship La Touraine.''
Ia Iouraine was spoken off Sandy Hook
on wednesday evening, January the 18th. [
learned from, 4ha x.sx.~.y
paper Thursday afternoon Denise and /
paid our respects to the travellers at their
hotel, the. doctor having named the one at
which he intended to put up.
En- Dlen, mon Cher" he asked of me after
ne had expatiated at sufficient length upon
the horrors OF the sea voyage. 'and the little
girl, how does she make out? She is always
beautiful, always full Of spirit. and younger
4 ayow than ever. But. '-oscilating his
hands upon his wrists, lifting his shoulders
TILL they engulfed his neck, aud eleyating one
eyebrow while be depressed the other-"but
the menage? The domestic economy? The
comprehend perfectly your lot. That
good Denise was never practical. She could
of life."
ndah FASTENED Gs n to assure him that stood in
none could be happier The menage in gen.
eral runs as smoothly, as regularly, as il i'm
PEELED by clockwork. The domestic econ
omy-my word of honor. Monsieur lie Doc
teur, Denise has the genius of financier.v
lie shook his head incredulously. He
eyed me with perplexed and wondering
gaze. as who should say. "Mais. comment
done? What kind of man is this ?" He NUT
tered, with an intonation that signifed. ats
quite impossible; but pollteness requires
that l should pretend to believe you. o-he
muttered. ITEMS Vraiment? Ca M
etonne."
For the remainder of our visit, with pursed
knitted hn can cd al M. -
volylng the anomaly In his mind Just be-
fore we left his face lightened.- He had evil
IDENTIFY found solution. Putting his arm
through mine, and leading me a little to enc
slde, AMI It's because you're still madly in
loye-c'est. que vous etes toujours follement
amoureux," he remarked.
When we got home Denise sat down at her
writing-desk, and for quite an hour was busy
with pen and paper, mixing her fingers, d.
sheveling her hair, and manifesting all the
other systems OF feminine soul in the fine
frenzy OF literary composition. In the end,
she said: There! l have written letter to
DIR. Marsac, asking him and Madame and
Marie TO come and dine with us ON Monday
evening. have written him the very incest
letter possibly could and now | will get
him up such dinner! Now. he shall see
whether | am practical or not"
Let me read it," said l.
"Oh, have sealed it," she said. "And
now you must run out and post it."
Herein, tell her, lay the cause Of all her
full of her obligations as a married woman,
and shown her epistle to me, her husband
for inspection and approval before sealing it,
the Illuminating catastrophe which am go
ing TO describe would never have come to
pass. But she pursued her own undutiful
course, and retribution very properly over
took her. The spirit of poetic justice has
not finally departed from this world, after
ALL
Well, in due course OF the mails a letter of
acceptance reached us from the Marsacs;
and then, bright and early Monday morning,
Mrs. Ormizon opened the campaign prelimi-
nary to the engagement of the evening. She
hired charwoman to come and assist our
maid-of-all-work in the task of putting our
fiat in spick and span condition. OF course,
they began by turning 1t tOpsy-turvy, and
rendering it as uninhabtable as an ice-box,
with cold draughts chasing each other from
window to window, and dust fairly saturat-
ing the air; She pressed poor DR.. Chuck
Isabel b. Gluck, M. d., our boarder--into
the service, and kept her busy cleaning and
arranging bric-a-brac all the forenoon. She
routed me out OF my study, and had that
apartment swept. Then she marched me
back into it, with directions to clear up the
litter on my writing-table-an Herculean
labor, for there lay the pell-mell accumula-
tions of know not how many months 1t
was in vain that rebelled, protested, en-
treated; in vain that had recourse to her
native tongue, reminding her that
"Sourentun beau desordre estu etet de
Fart"
in vain that appealed against being con-
strained to lose an entire days work-which
meant the addition of precise fraction of
my income to the expense entailed by the
dinner itself. She was relentless. CLEAR
up your table, sir. | cannot allow people to
imagine that chaos like that is tolerated
within my jurisdiction" She forced us to
eat our luncheon an hour earlier than usual,
when we had no appetite; and hasty,
scrappy luncheon it was at that. Then, as
the dinner was to be served an hour later
than usual-namely at instead of GIVE
passed-at least passed-a long, miserable,
hungry afternoon. At about 20'clock Dem
ise marshaled her corps of assistants: DR..
Gluck, the charw0man, the salaried domes-
tic, and withdrew into the kitchen. There
they remained in secret session until after
dark; and thence from time to time escaped
suggestive whiffs of cookery, tantalizing
enough to a famished man.
All this while, be it remembered, l was en-
gagged over my writing-table, working hard
to rae the paper mountain range that it sup
ported: range of every composite forma-
ton loose pages of manuscript, sheets of
proof, scraps OF memoranda, letters an
swered and unanswered, bills ditto-in a
word. all sorts and conditions of paper, not
excepting cigarette paper. tumultuousy
heaped together, which had to be examined,
sorted, preserved and destroyed. | had at
last finished the business, and was solacing
Use appeared suddenly in the doorway, and,
reckoning with her finger, pronounced
single word: Come" She led me to the
threshold of the dning-room, and pointing
TO the table, pronounced another: Look"
Her voice thrilled with pride, and well it
might; for-what with its snowy linen, its
sparkling glass and silver, its centrepiece
piled high with fruit, its vases full
of roses. all glowing in the soft light of seven
candles, fixed in an old fashioned Candida
Drum that my wife had inherited from her
French grandfather-the table was indeed
lovely sight. After had looked my fill, and
expressed my admiration by word and deed,
she, still blushing from the operation. said
snow go dress"
AT five minutes before we assembled in
the parlor, DIR. Gluck, Denise and l. The
guests might arrive at any instant now We
had on cur best clothes, of course, and we
sat around in an uneasy, solemn, expectant
silence. 1t was the lull between the storms
After the fatigues of the day, and prior to
the fatigues of the evening, in these few
quiet moments we would rest, we would re-
cuperate, we would store up strength
for the fray. But, as l say, we were
preternaturally solemn. and not per-
fectly at ease. hate my dress-suit, and am
never happy in it, / had to keep wriggling
nv neck, to relieve the discomfort occa-
stoned to it by my Understanding collar.
Miss Gluck procured book from the table,
and made believe she was reading in it. /
could see that she was only waiting. Denise
got up and moved about the room, giving a
Ahnr m 6rQnQriQG II