Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-10-31
10 Y HE GOT OUT OF IT.

s'By Jove, Stairs lucky chap."
''Why, old mani Going to be married, eh
is heg'
"No-by all that's lucky-he has got out
of it."
Such was the prologue This was the
piece.
He had drifted into it, She was very
pretty, and undeniably well dressed, danced
to perfection, and possessed that perfect ease
and grace Of movement which marks the
highest London fashion and gives it the stamp
peculiarly its own.
So they met, night after night, dancing
valss after valse together. They sat in fow-
cry alcoves and on twilit staircases, and
talked in manner BETTING the occasion;
soft murmurs, half sentences, whispers very
close to the shell ike ear All this was no
doubt very pleasant. So the season went on,
and this reprehensibIe young man had got no
further; nay, was beginning to ask himself,
had she heart to be stirred at alll Had be
himself, and If so, why did her charming
company never cause 1t one single extra pull
sat;on9 Yet he found undonbted pleasure in
her society; the dances she gave him made
the whole evening to him.
He was never weary of contemplating the
sway Of her graceful figure the poise Of her
pretty head, with its clustering curis SO ar
tistically arranged; and her voice was 30
sweet, though ii was true that her converse
ton never wandered from the veriest COM
monplaces Of society talk. Yet she dis
coursed on these in a manner which was Sc
duction itself. Beyond taking her at the end
of dances to her mother, he had made no par
ticuIar acquaintance with Lady vi las her
friends called her-a mode which we will also
adopt. But one evening she said, will you
take my mother down TO supper tonight
Her usual cavalier has deserted early and
gone home"
OF course he offered his arm directly with
the utmost courtesy. though it must be said
his mind rather misgave him, and, indeed,
the end of half On hours study of this lady's
destinations left him a much wiser if rather
a Sadder man.
But we must introduce her ladyship with
due honors, as, indeed, she deserves. Lady
Vi was, In the order of events, somewhat
older than her daughter. But if this was in
evitably SO. as we fear it was, she was not
the one to admit 50 damaging confession.
The one tvariable compliment she expected
was: Two sisters surely! Impossiblel This
young lady your daughters l must be al
lowed to contradict you"
In truth she was surprisingly young look
ing for lady certainly twenty years older
AT little distance you might conceivably
mistake one for the other, especially against
the light. The art of dress was employed
with that perfection which conceals itself
Lady vi was no doubt fully aware of all the
resources OF modern civilization, and she
made szillfUl Use of them all Her manner
was even softer than her daughters: her
voice had a penetration which impressed the
coolest listener. Beneath that delightful and
artistic exterior keen and subtle intellect
was constantly at work Nor was she won't
to waste its refinement on trashy books or
the like Her studies were the world in
which she lived The men, the women, who
inhabit our sphere supplied her with those
objects OF scientific investigation and interest
which other people are said to find in the
follies of the microscope and other toys.
1t is also well known that, whatever sub
ject keen intellect chooses for its special
study, the greatest proficiency may be looked
for in even a short time, and this lady had
not studied for nothing; she ought indeed to
have graduated in honors
So he found himself, as it were, impaled
beneath a lens of searching and pitiless
strength His writings and contort1ons
and awkward attempts at extrication only
amused his professor and served no purpose
whatever To turn him inside out was his
tormentor's evident intention; and the vic
tim, driven to extremity, was forced 70 sum
mon all bis resources in self defense, and this
is what be did
He piled her on that evening with every at
tention he could devise. After supper was
over he never left her side or danced again
He attended her 10 her carriage, shawled her
with the utmost solicitude, paid no heed to
Mabel's reproachful looks nor found a word
to say to her. In short, he transferred him
self bodily to Lady vi, and became from that
evening her devoted and abject slave
At Nottingham, at Sandown, at Henley,
at balls, fetes, regattss and garden parties,
he was her constant attendant, insomuch that
people began first TO litter and then to whis-
per. And those agreeable and good natured
remarks were freely exchanged which such
little games of skill are apt TO provoke. Lady
vi accepted his and indeed any mans atten-
ton, as matter of right and of course. She
accepted, we may say without specially en-
couraging them, asserting that it was all on
Mabel's behalf that men, and young men,
ran after her SO. Mabel had SO many ador-
ers, and they all paid attention to mamma
as a simple matter of duty. This sounded
very well, and was said very often, and was
not believed by anybody.
Now Lady Vi had a husbandl
A husband is a fact which cannot be wholly
ignored or entirely left out of the calculation
by the female portion Of mankind And facts
are stubborn things, and Sir Hercules was
more than commonly stubborn thing. Our
hero had always behaved as if he were en-
tireiy unaware of this particular fact. Ii is
true he had never seen Sir Hercules in out