Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-12-25

| Gaze her hand first to Mrs. CGdICdlGGeT.
could not help it. His laugh was a low,
contagious chuckle, and seemed to sug-
gest an unexpected charm and drollery
in life. There was a manly masculine
look and quality about his plain face
and ordinary figure, and in the tone and
utterance of his voice. You felt that
there was substance in him when re-
quired-that he was by no means a
phantom of conventions and escapes
that, when everything else had been
eliminated from him, gentleman would
remain.
He was great favorite with women
and with children, and his relations with
the former were just as cordial and sim
pie as with the latter. If you dropped
in to see him during morning you
were sure to find a number Of men whom
it was particularly worth while to meet,
sitting about in the easy chairs and
smoking Wallie's famous cigars and
cigarettes. He had fine old fashioned
house down in West sTwenty-third
street and plenty of money, which he
knew how to spend; that is, he was both
generous and economical.
But the most remarkable thing about
WalI1e Dlnsmore was that, instead or
being in fact the bachelor uncle of So
ciety that he was in spirit, he was actu-
ally and conspicuously married. Mrs.
Cadwalader Dinsmore (they never called
her Mrs. Wallie) was few years older
than her husband and weighed about
fifty pounds more tLan he: She was
mighty and imposing, convincing and
memorable. Upon her massive counte-
nance, which had the texture and hue of
the finest pink-and-white enamel, was
fixed immutably gracious smile, which
served to cOndense, as it were, into man.
ageable dimensions the else too ponder
Gus acreage of her cheeks and to refine
the contour of her scarlet lips Her
hair, of dense yellow hue, without a
thread of gray, was arranged in an in
scrutable manner, upon what might be
termed the cylindrical principle; it re-
sembled carving in vanished maple;
it looked brittle.
AS for her figure, Mrs. Cadwalader
might have stood for the capstan Of
three decker, round which the jovial
seamen trip as they heave the mighty
anchor. Hervoice, meanwhile, was small,
soft and caressing, and she regarded
her interlocutOT with glance of indul-
gent coquetry, as if to mitigate the ter
ror of her proportions, though it really
rendered them only more alarming. Nor
was her usual talk, as might have been
expected, about devouring quarter
beeves, or causing earthquakes, or oblit-
Grating populations, but about embroid-
cred handkerchiefs, and summer zeph-
yrs blowing on wild roses and the holi-
ness of infants slumber. Was she, then,
a sardonic humorist, or a fool buried
alive in flesh? No; she was hard
hearted, practical, shrewd woman, with
sharp eyes, polite disposition and un-
relenting determination.
The fact that she was not of aristo-
cratic or indeed discoverable lineage
may have sharpened her claws, SO to
speak, and steeled her heart; she had
had to fight her own way, and was lit
tie too much alive to the value of the
worldly objects she had striven for. The
most telling success she had ever scored
was, Of course, her marriage with Wal
lie Dinsmore. How she contrived it is
not known; but it must have been, in
every sense, easier to embrace her fifteen
years ago than now. Wallie was the
most humane of mankind, generously |
of everything except his |
own value. At any rate the thing took |
place, and Mrs. Cadwalader proved to be |
an admirable and substantial wife.
ITO BE CONTINUED.