Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-08-16


but one assumption was, as a well
known dramatic critic would say, ''ade-
quate." The part of Jerry Arnton, orig
inally taken by Miss Wentworth. was
brightly ana intelligantly rendered by
young and pretty girl whose name, the
bill informed me, was Mary Bruce. A
fair Scotch lassie she was, with mass
of auburn E5ir shot with gold; broad
fair brow, giving promise Of good sense;
dark eyebrows a1d 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, th7 upper lip short
( and sensitive; the complexion bright,
and the whole woman wholesome,
( hghtsome 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 l lost no time, accordingly, in ask
ing Edward Bold whether he would act
as my sponsor.
Delighted, my dear fellow" was his
! reply. "Pve 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. c., 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
4ioa l. -
of talking TO Miss Bruce, and succeed
ed (nluch 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 l had
been the victim of a disastrous specula-
ton in sheep in that colony and had sue
cumbed, with hundreds of other unfor-
tunates, to the hard times which com
menced in 1858 and eliminated in 1870
l may renarkin this connection Though
| said nothing about it to Miss Bruce
that with the exception of life interest
in sum of 5000 l had lost every far
thing / had in the world. Later in the
evening l was presented to Mr.. Bruce, a
massive, stern looking man of perhaps
90. 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 l were old
friends, and that his son had been my
! guest at Buataniuha, he was good
enough to ask NE to call on him in In
verness terrace.
Come some Sunday afternoon" he
said. "We are always at home then,
and shall be glad to have some CONVEX
sation with the man who was hospitable
to ny Doy 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 Mr..
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 l did
so. The fact is that (as Bold had been
thoughtful enough to tell me before
hand) Mr.. Bruce had foible. He had
for ye2s boa endeayoring to establish
his Claim % the dormant peeraga of
Dunedin; and once he was mounted
upon that hobby it galloped away with
him. | was so successful in my en-
couragement of his amiabIe weakness
that he took quite Il fancy to me, and
was pleased to declare that was d man
Of sound sense, and that it was PITY l
h nd ~ CT, id -, A
e., ner we recognized the navy, reconstitu-
ted the ministry, settled the French cues
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
l cordially acceded to Mr.. Bruce's sug-
gestion that we should join Miss Bruce
i'll the drawing room. The worthy gen
tlenan retired with all reasonable ex-
petition into a corner to read a book,
and was left to make myself acceptable
to Miss Mary.
fatter myself that few men are
greater experts than I at the twin arts
of being agreeable or disagreeable. 1
soon discovered that my lovely hostess
was by no means devoid of a certain
spice of hunor. In truth she was over
flowing with spirits and gayety, and
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 a girl who, under any cir
cu1nstances, 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 l take to be
as great rarity among the girls of to-
day as black pearl in a Whitstable
native or red Indian IN q blue frock.
Of course [ had determined long be-
fore l ever heard Of Mary Bruce that
under no circumstances would | allow
nuyself the luxury of falling in love. But
1--we unfortunately is like measles; it
comes and it goes and there is no help
for it. Accordingly fell madly in love
with Mary Bruce. We met at parties.
l dined occasionally at Inverness ter
race, and at last one day at water
party came to grief; all my stern reso-
lntions vanished and proposed.
We had gone by the z. W. L. to Hen
ley, a party of eight There were Miss
Bruce and her aunt-a married sister of
Mr. Bruce-two daughters, the two
Bolds and myself. We had arranged to
lunch at the Red Lion, Henley, thence
TO row leisurely to MARROW, dine at the
Complete Angler and go home BY the
last train. It was a baking July day,
tropically hot but bright and glorious,