The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-09-28
LIEUTENANT LOUISA.
How Young Man Found a Family for His
Father-in-IaW and a Wife for Himself.
BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE.
6Coptrlohf 1900

Cnarles Natthews ana ms wlre, MRS
Stirling, Frank Matthews and his wife,
Montafre and Miss Wentworth. In
deed had been present at the rehearsal
when the piece was originally produced
at the st. JaTnes' theatre IN 1854, and /
knew every bit Of ''business" by heart;
SO that my forebodings on the present
occasion were gloomy, and they were in
q large measure justified. The piece was
for the most part indiferently played;
but one assumption was, as q well
known dramatic critic would say, ''ade-
quate." The part Of Jerry Arnton, orig
inally taken by Miss Wentworth, was
brightly and intelligently rendered by q
young and pretty girl whose name, the
bill informed me, was Mary Bruce: A
fair Scotch Iassie she was, with mass
of auburn hair shot with gold; broad
fair brow, giving promise of good sense;
dark eyebrows and eyelashes and Sc
rene blue eyes through which looked
forth the soul of q frank and fear
less maiden. The nose was small
and straight, the upper lip short
and sensitive; the complexion bright,
and the whole woman wholesome,
lightsome and delightful. She seem
ed TO me, in fact, the perfection of
all that is feminine; and made up my
mind that when the performance was
over / would get an introduction to her,
and lost no time, accordingly, in ask
ing Edward Bold whether he would act
as my sponsor.
Delighted, my dear fellow, was his
reply. I've known her ever since she
was so high. and she's as good as the
gold in her hair. And, by the by" he
added as he took my arm to lead me to
her, her father is Campbell Bruce, the
@. G., a widower with two children; his
chambers, you know. are on our stair
case, first floor.
The necessary formalities were then
gone through with, and in the course of
the evening had several opportunities
of talking to Miss Bruce, and / succeed
ed much to the disgust of several inef-
fective young whippersnappers) in TAX
ing her down to supper. It turned out
that her brother. who was in the navy,
had once stopped a few days with me on
my station IN New Zealand, for I had
been the victim of a disastrous specula-
ton in sheep in that colony and had sue
cunbed, with hundreds of other unfor.
tunates, to the hard times which com
menced IN 1858 and eliminated in 1870.
may remarkin this connection Though
said nothing about it to Miss Bruce
that with the exception of life interest
in a sum OF g., 900 had lost every far
thing | had in the world Later in the
evening was presented toEGr. Bruce, a
massive, stern looking man of perhaps
81. He had judicial air with him,
which gave one the impression that his
life had been passed in weighing evil
dence and finding it wanting. But when
he found that Bold and I were old
friends, and that his son had been my
guest at Ruataniuha, he was good
enough to ask me to call on him in IN
verness terrace.
"Come some Sunday afternoon" he
said. s'We are always at home then,
and shall be glad to have some CONVEX
sation with the man who was hospitable
to my boy Carnegie in New Zealand"
need not say that I felt sincerely
grateful to Carnegie Bruce for having
smoked my tobacco and drunk my
whisky in the Antipodes accepted Mr..
Bruce's invitation, and a few Sundays
afterward went to Inverness terrace.
The afternoon passed away rapidly and
/ was requested to stay to dinner. You
will not be surprised to hear that / did
So The fact is that las Bold had been
thoughtful enough to tell me before
hand) Mr.. Bruce had foible. He had
for years been endeavoring to establish
his claim to the dormant peerage of
Dunedin; and once he was mounted
upon that hobby it galloped away with
him. | was so successful in my en-
enlargement Of his amiable weakness
that he took quite a fancy to me, and
was pleased to declare that l was man
Of sound sense, and that it was pity I
had not studied for the bar. After dim
ner we reorganized the navy, reconstitu-
ted the ministry, settled the French ques-
ton, placed the army on proper foot
ing and solved the Irish land problem,
all in the space Of five-and-forty minutes,
the quickest time on record. And then
/ cordially acceded to Mr.. Bruce's sug-
gestion that we should join Miss Bruce
in the drawing room. The worthy gen.
tleman retired with all reasonable ex-
petition into a corner to read book,
and was left to make myself acceptable
to Miss Mary.
l fatter myself that few men are
greater experts than at the twin arts
of being agreeable or disagreeable. l
soon discovered that my lovely hostess
was by no means devoid of certain
spice of humor. In truth she was over
flowing with spirits and gayety, and |
left the house that night as far gone in
love as a man may be. On my walk to
chambers made up my mind that Miss
Bruce was girl who, under any cir
cumstances, could be depended upon to
run straight that her past was an I'M
sullied page; that she was as innocent
as she was pretty, and as clever as she
was innocent, all Of which take to be
0AgsgHsa