The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-12-12
A VERY OLD FRIEND.

| had Just come out Of the postofhce,
when | caught sight Of a face that seemed
familiar to me. 1t was that of a man of
about my own age. with bronzed feat
ures and a somewhat attenuated figure.
AS | was trying to recall when and where
1 had seen him before, our eyes met, and
/ Immediately perceived that our recog-
milton had been mutual; for he came to-
ward me with a frank expression Of
pleasure and held out his hand, saying,
Hello, old fellow, who'd have thought
Of seeing you here::" don't know why
he said this. and Of course | don't at
tempt to defend it, but it is u style of
address affected by some men who are
as profoundly astonished if they meet
you in a restaurant as if they had u
across you in the mines of Siberia. l
felt a little bit annoyed at his want of
originality; however L smiled pleasant
~ and said as l shook hands, well, il
you come to that, who'd have thought
of seeing you here?"
We stood opposite each other for a few
seconds; | simpering somewhat emptily
at the nature of our greeting and strug-
Cling to recall his name; and he with his
head slightly on one side and an ex-
preston of courteously suppressed amuse-
ment on his face, as if my presence on
the steps of the postoffice was one of
those inexplicable freaks of chance for
which it is hopeless to seek to assign any
reasonable law. l gave him a few
seconds to digest his establishment, and
then, feeling that the silence was be-
0-,.,, - Js++I1 o1,ha-r0ceipr cold IN
consequently, well, what have you
been doing all this time" "Well," he
replied, I've been in Australia, you
know "Oh, all" l calculated, as if it
had for a moment slipped my memory;
"why, you went there"- and | hest
tated, as though calculating the exact
day of his departure. Three years
ago" he put in shortly, land quite long
enough, too"
ran over in my mind my acquaintance
of three years ago, but could recall no
trace of a recollection of my new COM
panion; SO, to gain time and to gather
fresh information, l asked, ''And what
sort Of atilne havcyou had?" ooh, much
about the same as before" he answered.
with a slightly puzzled air.
| candidly admit that the sensible
thing for me to have done would have
been to own up and admit that ] had
forgotten my friends personality. I'm
fortunately. | am one of those painfully
constituted people who shrink with nerv-
Gus horror from anything in the nature
Of an explanation, and, in addition, Ifelt
that | had gone too far to cry off with
out some appearance of sincerity, Be-
sides, he seemed to congratulate himself
SO warmly upon what he insisted upon
looking on as our proyidential meeting
that my lips were sealed and | felt con-
firmed in the idea that if l let things
slide a little longer his name would re-
cur to my mind.
He had slipped his arm through mine
as we walked up town, with an easy
sense of good fellowship, and said: "Of
course you'll dine with me this evening.
Now, don't You say You are engaged" The
added, rs | hesitated for an instant be-
tween my desire to have more of my
companion and my Discrimination to dine
under false pretences; you know they'll
be awfully disappointed if they hear l
nave met you and let you off without a
long talk and L join them tomorrow"
| felt constrained to consent against
my better judgment and added, in a
playfully solicitous manner, "And how
are they allfH
"Oh, they are all %tiptop-all except the
colonel, after a pause and with slightly
subdued air; II don't think he has ever
quite got over that affair"
"Ah," | rejoined, shaking my head
sympathetically, lone doesn't get over
that sort of thing in a day; but the
others
What others9' he said bluntly.
| hesitated, and rejoined vaguely:
Were there not some others?"
He pondered heavily for u few sec
onds before replying. Eyes, | believe
there were some others, but they made
no difference"
| was just murmuring, Very likely
not when he turned to me abruptly
and said, Il hope you don't think he
came badly out of that business:"
His hand seemed to relax its pressure
on my arm, as if he was preparing him
self for some censure or GOODNESS on my
part.
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