Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-04-21
MI.

As soon IS JenQy'5 DIOIneI udu lelt us
alone made kind of plunge and con-
fsssed to my companion that should like
very much 10 see a little OF New York go
eiety. but that had thus far been pre-
vented II coughed felicitOusly after using
the word prevented, and made it seem as
il the cough had caused me to forget the
explanation of why l had been prevented
from active social coneerns).
at must all be very charming, " l con-
fiuued. Il should like to see some of the
really gay life in New York. l should in
aeedl But I suppose I never shall, in
spite of my desires "
why" prattled Jenny, in her voluble
and apparently innocent way. ''if that is
the case, Mr.. Blank, you ought to get some
BODY 20 help you 90 out. Il could easily
be- done. Let me think. guess l could
get YOU a card for Mrs. Adirondack J.
Smiths ball on Tuesday. They say it's
going 10 be ever so nice, ard poor, dear
mamma and Mrs. Adirondack J. Smith
we're such intimate friends for years and
years"
The room for few seconds reeled and
swan about me- My own voice sounded
strange to me as l presently strove 10 re-
ply without actually painting it,
''Oh, could you really, Miss Bleeckei?
/ II would be so very kind Of you"
Jenny performed with what was 10
doubt perfect ease this vast favor to my
self and on the following Tuesday ap-
pesred, thrilled and Intoxicated with hap
piness, in the drawing rooms Of Mrs.
Smith.
At last the ice had been broken! Ientered
the rooms with Jenny and ner brother, and
remained at Jenny's side for certainly two
good hours. forgot to observe that a
great many people bowed to Jenny, but
/ that scarcely . soul spoke to her was
100 enchanted with my triumph at having
got there at all to concern myself IN any
thing so subtle Just then as the unpopular
ity Of my single feminine acquaintance.
1 have no doubt that looked very well.
l saw myself in one or two of the long,
handsome mirrors, and I concluded that
nv recent anxious converse with taller Of
nigh metropolitan fame had not at all re-
suited to my disadvantage. was certain
" distinguished in my appearance. 1 saw
a number of ladies lOok at me with sort
Of gentle surprise and felt sure that ques-
tions concerning me were murmured here
and there. / danced three or four times
with Jenny Blocker, and found each time
that she danced so ex5crably as almost to
veto continued locomotion. For myself,
dancing had always come natural TO me.
1 had never learned how to slip over
the floor, except during my sOjourn in the
boarding house whose shelter my dead
patron, Mr.. X, had supplied. There
we would have little evening frolics now
and then, and some one would play on the
piano Ia very cracked and wretched ODe),
while would spin about the room with
acme maiden among the fellow dodgers In
my Terpsichorean embrace. 1t had all
come to me there, and it had come in
reality, not ever having been actually
learned. Perhaps some remote antecedent
Blank had been a public saltatory person.
don't know where got my dancing any
more than know where / got my snob-
berry. All that can say of either is that
both we're somehow inherent
During the german, of course danced
with Jenny, having asked her day or two
previously if I might be allowed that
honor, and having sent her bouquet of the
costliest roses proourable. 1t was during
the german that began TO perceive how
thoroughly avoided Jenny was. My first
bewildeTment of vision had now passed,
and commenced as it were to see things
in perspective. realized the extreme
disfayor in which my intrOducer was held,
and trembled with the exquisite selfish
ness which only an infexible snob
can know lest some of this aver
sion might be reflected upon myself. Still,
if Jenny had not been more or less desert
ed and forlorn, would she have ever made
me her escort at all? That consideration
should give me at least some comfort She
was not taken out once in the german, and
l naturally met with similar fate. The
leader, as soon discovered, was none
other than Highbridge Harlemfst, one of
my own former classmates and an Alpha
M. He had become a most successful
ladies' man since his graduation, and well
he might, with a fortune reputed at six
millions if a dime. He gave me a sur
prised little bow, as did four or five other