Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1889-03-29


TONERS one day, with his landlady, that
funny little FrencEwoman with the
corkscrew curIs and the very much up
tilted nose. and / told her" Lillian
made gesture of Impotence. "Well.
I'll skip that and come to what she told
me. Now, what should you guess his
name was! His first name, of course,
for it couldn't be expected that you
could guess his last"
"Walter, Hubert, Reginald, Roderick,
Sebastian"
"Wrong, every one. It's Robert
not bad name as names go, that is II
they don't shorten it to Bob--and it
harmonizes very we'll with his last name,
which is Lear. And he's poor, as | said
before, so poor that he and the ira
ditional church mouse might shake
hands and call each other brother If
the mouse happened to be that kind OF
a mouse-is part French part German;
goes nowhere but where duty calls;
sings in the solitude of his own shabby
room Achl wars't du nur mein eigen'
and songs of that ilk, as you have heard,
and is fast falling head over heels in
love with my gentle cousin Lilian-an
EXCEPTIONALLY pretty girl, who really
about him, being at the core of her
heart devoted to the purple and fine
linen of life, and only unmarried as yet,
because, as she herself has contided to
me, none of her admirers could offer
million"
"Stuff and nonsense" says tie "gen-
tle'' cousin in no gentle voice, as she
rises from her lowly position, and lean
ing her elbow upon the mantle and
her head upon her hand, looks down
where she has cen looking up. "You
know nothing about it, Kate. l never,
never, never was so attracted toward
any one as [ am toward Robert why
couldn't it have been Rudolph or
Reginald-so much more poetical, you
know-toward Robert Lear, He's just
like some one out of a poem-Sir Lance
lot, for instance-so handsome, so
melancholy, 50 graceful"
Gillian, what would your father and
mother and sisters and brothers say if
they heard you? They'd shut you up in
your room and give you nothing but
beefsteak and fried potatoes for month.
Think of that? What a dreadful pun
ishment for one who is as fond of broiled
birds, roast turkey and cocoanut tarts
as you are"
''You may laugh as much as you
please Kate" says Lillian with frown.
"YoU always were a matter of-fact
creature, with not a bit of sentiment
about you. You cannot understand the
feeling that sprang up in my heart the
first moment that behold him. Had [
your fortune"
''It's only few thousand, my DEAR"
interrupted Kate, land you know your
own is million. But, to be serious, if
you had it you'd be looking for two
million instead of one. There, there,
don't burst into tears. I will, [ vow |
will be serious this time. And I ask
you, granting that you are willing to
admit him into the favored circle that
pays you homage, how is that admit
lance to be managed without your over
stepping the bounds of maideuly pro-
priety? To be frank with you, he be-
lieves as | know-you needn't shrug
your shoulders-as I know, l say, that
your interest in him is only a girlish
fancy, and the little Fren hwoman tells
me, she is in his confidence. being an
old friend-that IL a month or so, to
break the letters your witchery has
thrown around him. he returns to his
own country"
''Kate, have you no feeling? Do you
want to break my heart? Yes, break my
heart You need not look at me in that
iucredulous way. When you speak of
his going away forever feel as though
all the light and beauty were faded out
of my life. And if at this moment he
and a millionaire stood"
'No rash vows, Lilian," interrupted
Kate
81 must and will bid him hope. I
must and will, say. Kate, how shall
do it?'
"Faith, don't know" says her cousin,
with a delicious mimicry of the brogue
and an air of meek resignation, "unless,
me dear, you send him a valentine.
There was large and tashi enable
party at the LuttrePs. And queen rose
Lillian Creighton.
those words, for he read no verses with
the exception of comic ones: Allen
Ingram, owner of the yacht Farewell, the
rivaled in magnihcence-a country house
uQ0QudlOO III plcuClOI duO dI
his bankers and elsewhere.
With world of admiration in his very
light blue eyes, he followed the "queen
rose" about, happy to play, for the time
being, the part Of her slave.
Mr.. Ingram vas small and ignoble in
person but his fortune was grand. His
eyes were faded, but the diamonds that
awaited his bride were bright. His
brain and voice were weak but his