Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1888-08-23

J decided that it was absolutely neces
sary that he should do that, and, &C
ccrdingly, within q week after thei
first meeting he paid his respects t
the college widow" in her own home
This time she was sweet aud pensiye
instead of gay and bright. and she sx
pressed no offensive opinions; she hat
rather the air of being willing Il
accept oil his opinions. Abner Syke,
found her almost bis ideal woman; a.
q product Of American civilization shs
was certainly remarkable. He thought
ne should SO to see her again. Indeed
it would be necessary, as he had no,
restored her ring to her He did not
fully explain to himself why he had not
done so, but he was vaguely conscious
that it was because the suggestions
were unpleasant to him. He disliked
to remember that Miss Bradshaw was
college widow" He wondered
what kind OF fellow that Homer
Fem was scamp at all events.
Was she heart broken? She certainly
did not seem so. The lack of bangs
and the fondness for conversation"
which Eliot Greenough had sdduced
IN evidence, might mean something
else. Abner Sykes was dimly aware
that he vastly preferred they should
mean something else.
He became spasmodically devoted
to Miss Alice Bradshaw. There were
intervals in which, in the calm light
of reason, he regarded her as 8 mon
strositv.
Their names began to be coupled
together, in the feminine diversion OF
society. Abner Sykes never heard it,
but Miss Bradshaw did. Feminine
society discovered that, in spite OF her
thoroughly sslf.possessd. society air,
she looked conscious when Mr.. Sykes
entered q room. Nor did shs ever
care to say much about him. And
feminine society, the world over,
knows how to put two and two to.
gether.
Mr.. Abnsr Sykes suddenly swoke
ss from dream to find the summer
vacation close at hand. He had
planned the year before to take a
flying trip abroad in this vacation. and
be resolved to conquer the weak-mind.
ed desire he felt to linger in the
vicinity Of the college and carry out
that plan. Perhaps he might as well
60 away without bidding good by to
Miss Bradshaw, except in a brief note.
During one of his periods of devo.
tion he had gone with her to q woman
suffrage meeting, and listened to most
monstrous sentiments, every one of
which his fair companion laughingly
declared that she fully indorsed. And
she had done it in such q charming
manner that he had discovered q Ger.
tain amount Of reason in the srgu-
ments which he would not before
have believed was therei
But that was only in moods when
he had given himself up to Miss Brad
shaw's dominion. When he had not
seen her for several days he withdrew
his neck from the yoke, and became
his old self again. And it was in one
OF the latter conditions of mind that
he suddenly awoke to full realizs-
ton of MS danger, and resolved to fly
from his enslaver without the formal.
ity of leave-taking, which would be
so very likely to degenerate into sem
timentality.
II she had been strong-mindsd only,
that might not have been unendurable,
but girl who had had several firta.
tions and then been engaged and Tilted!
Nobody could be less like the ideal
wife with whom Mr.. Abnsr Sykes had
intended, at a suitable time, to endow
himself.
he danced with her, on class-day,
she looking ssraphic in q pale Law
ender gown,-he summed himself in
her smile all the evening long at the
presidents reception, and then re-
turned to his rooms and packed his
trunk, maintaining with stern forti-
tude his resolve to take his leave of
her in . brief note. When he re.
turned, in the autumn, he might be
cured Of his folly, if he were not,
perhaps he had better not come back.
He had written the note. sitting
upon his trunk. while the carriage
waited below to convey him to the
station, when g new thought flashed
into his mind.-the ringl He had
made hundred resolves to restore
that ring, and he had never done il.
To carry it away with him would
really be larceny. and 70 send i. Ia