The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-04-05
HOW HE GOT OUTOF IT.


why, old manp Going to be mar
ried, eh-is hep"
"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
perfect ease and grace of movement
which marks the highest London fash
ion and gives it the stamp peculiarly
its own.
So they met night after night, dane
ing yalse after valse together. They
sat in fowery alcoves and on twilit
staircases, and talked in manner be-
fitting the occasion; soft murmurs, half
sentences, whispers very close to the
shell-like ear. All this was no doubt
very pleasant. So the season went on
and this reprehensible young man had
got no further-nay, was beginning to
ask himself: had she a heart to be
stirred at all? Had he himself, and if
so, why did her charming company
never cause it one single extra pulsa-
ton? Yet he found undoubted pleas
ure in her society. The dances she
gave him made the whole evening to
him.
He was never weary of contemplate
ing the sway of her graceful figure,
the poise of her pretty head, with its
clustering curls SO artistically y arranged; !;
and her voice was so sweet, though it
was true that her conversation never
wandered from the veriest common
places of society talk. Yet she dis
coursed on these in manner which
was seduction itself. Beyond taking
her at the end of dances to her mother
he had made no particular acquaint-
with the Lady vi Gas her friends called
her-a mode which we will also adopt
But one evening she said: ''Will you
take my mother down to supper to-
night? Her usual cavalier has DESERT
ed early and gone home"
OF course he offered his arm directly
with the utmost courtesy, though it
must be said his mind rather misgaye
him, and, indeed, the end of half an
hours study of this lady's fascination
left him a much wiser if rather a sad
der man.
But we must introduce her ladyship
with due honors, as she deserves. Lady
vi was in the order of events some
what older than her daughter. But if
this was inevitably so, as we fear it
was, she was not the one to admit SO
damaging confession. The one In
variable compliment she expected was:
'"Two sisters surely! Impossible! This
young lady your daughter? l must be
allowed to contradict you"
In truth she was surprisingly young
looking for a 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 skillful use of them all. Her
manner was even softer than her
daughters; her voice had penetra-
ton which impressed the coldest lis
tener Beneath that delightful and
artistic exterior keen and subtle in
tellect was constantly at work. Nor
was she wont to waste its refinement
on trashy books or the like. Her
studies were the world in which she
lived. The men, the women who in
habit our sphere supplied her with
those objects of scientific investigation
and interest which other people are
said to find in the follies OF the micro
scope and other toys.
It is also well known that, whatever,
subject keen intellect chooses for its
special study, the greatest proficiency
may be looked for in even 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, inn
paled beneath a lens of searching and
pitiless strength. His writhing and
contortions aud awkward attempts at
extrication only amused his professor
and served no purpose whatever. To
turn him inside out was his tornentor's
evident intention. and the victim driven
to extremity, was forced to summon
all his resources in self-defense and this
is what he did.
He piled her on that evening with
everv attention he could devise. After
supper was over he never left her side
or danced again. He attended her to
her carriage, shawled her with the ut
most solicitude, paid no heed to Ma
bells reproachful looks, nor found q
word for her. In short, he transferred
himself bodily to Lady vi, and became
from that evening her devoted and abb
ject slave, -
At Nottingham, at Sandown. at Hem
lev, at balls, fetes, regattas, and gar
den parties he was her constant attend
ant. insomuch that people began first