The Press., 1890-09-18


 more intolerable, the curtain rose on the comedy.
 was familiar with the piece, and re- membered too well the original cast Charles Matthews and his wife, Mrs. Stirling, Frank Matthews and his wife, Montafre and Miss Wentworth. 1n- deed had been present at the rehearsal when the piece was originally produced at the St. James theatre in 1884, and knew every bit of business" by heart; so that my forebodings on the present occasion were gloomy, and they were in 8 large measure justified. The piece was for the most part indiferently played; but one assumption was, as well known dramatic critic would say, Jade quate" The part of Jerry Arnton, orig inally taken by Miss Wentworth, was brightly and intelligently rendered by 8 young and pretty girl whose name, the bill informed me, was Mary Bruce. A fair Scotch lassie she was, with 8 mass of auburn hair shot with gold; broad fair brow, giving promise of good sense; dark eyebrows and eyelashes and se- rene blue eyes through which looked forth the soul of 8 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 I lost no time, accordingly, in ask ing Edward Bold whether he would act as my sponsor.
 Delighted, my dear fellow" was his reply. Eve 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, ssher father is Campbell Bruce, the Q. G., 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 I had several opportunities of talking to Miss Bruce, and succeed ed (much to the disgust of several inef- fective young whippersnappers) in talk ing her down to supper. 1t turned out that her brother, who was in the navy, had once stopped few days with me on my station in New Zealand, for had been the victim of disastrous specula- ton in sheep in that colony and had suc- cumbed, with hundreds of other unfor- tunates, to the hard times which con- menced in 1868 and eliminated in 1870. I may remark in this connection (though I said nothing about it to Miss Bruce) that with the exception of a life interest in a sum of e5,000 had lost every far thing had in the world. Later in the evening was presented to MT. Bruce, Q massive, stern looking man of perhaps 52 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 h. verness terrace.
 'sCome some Sunday afternoon" he said. "We are always at home then, and shall be glad to have some conver- sation with the man who was hospitable to my boy Carnegie in New Zealand"
 need not say that felt sincerely grateful to Carnegie Bruce for having smoked my tobacco and drunk my whisky in the Antipodes. accepted MT. Bruce's invitation, and 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 Gas Bold had been thoughtful enough to tell me before hand) MT. 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- couragement of his amiable weakness that he took quite fancy to me, and was pleased to declare that was man of sound sense, and that it was pity had not studied for the bar. After din- ner we reorganized the navy, reconstitu- ted the ministry, settled the French ques- tion, placed the army on 8 proper foot ing and solved the Irish land problem, all in the space of fve-and forty minutes, the quickest time on record. And then I cordially acceded to MT. 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 corner to read a book, and was left to make myself acceptable to Miss Mary.
 I fatter myself that few men are greater experts than at the twin arts of being agreeable or disagreeable. soon discovered that my lovely hostess was by no means devoid of 8 certain spice of humor. In truth she was over flowing with spirits and gayety, and I left the house that night as far gone In love as 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 un- sullied page; that she was as innocent as she was pretty, and as clever as she was innocent, all of which take to be as great rarity among the girls of to- day as black pearl in 8 Whitstable native or red Indian in blue frock. Of course had determined long be- fore ever heard of Mary Bruce that under no circumstances would allow myself the luxury of falling in love. But love unfortunately is like measles; it comes and it goes and there is no help for it. Accordingly I fell madly in love with Mary Bruce. We met at parties. dined occasionally at Inverness ter race, and at last one day at water party came to grief; all my stern reso-