The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1890-05-15

what shall l do?' and then she cast
| about in her mind and went over all the
likely young men that the town contain
ed.
| They were not many, for, somehow, in
| those sleepy old cathedral towns the
young men seemed to drift away into the
outer world and very few stay behind to
carry on the traditions of their forefath-
ers, generally those who do stay are the
steady-going unambitiOus ones of the
flock to which they belong, who stay in
the sphere in which they are born because
| it is easier to do so than to make an effort
and break the bonds of tradition by which
they are bound.
To go into detail, there was first of all
the Adonis of the town, one Gerard De
Lisle-would he do? Mrs Trafford looked
doubtful but finally decided that he would
do on a pinch. A couple of years before
I am bound to admit, Mrs. Trafford
would, vulgarly speaking, have jumped
at Mr.. Gerard De Lisle as husband for
any of her young ladies, and / am quite
sure that either Julia or Laura would
with equal alacrity have jumped at him
also But during two years a great many
changes may come to pass, and in Mrs.
beautiful niece Madge and her pretty
daughter Laura had married as, in Mrs
Trafford's widest and most ambitious
dreams, she had never dared to imagine
probable or even pc ssible.
So with regard to Mr. Gerard De Lisle.
Mrs. Trafford had come to consider him
from different standpoint, even remem-
Numbering that he was the Adonis OF
Blankhampton, that his family were one
and all persons of the most absolutely I'm.
blemished character. that his father Was
tower of strength among the unco'
guild, Of the kind who invariably make a
special point of calling themselves good
church-people," of whom there was
large faction in Blankhampton. that his
mother was woman Of good family
mean of very superior birth to the original
De Lisles who could only boast Of two
generations remove from the trading
class-that his sisters were judicious
combination of unco' guidism and tenn
pered worldliness and contrived to have
an uncommonly good time between their
adherence to both parties, that he had one
or two brothers each remarkable in some
special line, one for cricket, one for mu-
sic, one for following his religion with the
help of the highest and most complicated
form of Ritualism. Added to all this,
Gerard De Lisle was undeniably the hand
soonest man in Blankhampton.
do not think, seeing him in London,
in the Park or a theatre, that you would
have picked him out as being man
out of the common looks. He was tall,
he was fairly broad, but like his father he
had certain air Of carrying very sho 1T
rubbish kind of body on particularly long
and loose ointed spindle-like legs, which
somehow always made me wonder that
the pretty Blankhampton girls were so
utterly "gone" upon him. as they one and
all undoubtedly were. For the rest he
was rather light in coloring without be-
ing what you would describe as fair
man, had straight nose, pair of blueish
bad-tempered eyes and tightly COM
pressed mouth which precluded the idea
of his disposition being genial one.
Add to all this an extra-superfine man
ner. manner which took the middle OF
the pavement and paused for an instant
at the street corners while the quick hard
eyes glanced around as if to see what new
worlds there were for Adonis to conquer,
manner which was always squaring its
shoulders and flourishing its walking
stick and made little more display of it's
very white and shining linen than was
exactly pretty, and there you have Mr..
Gerard De Lisle, whom everybody in
Blankhampton called "Adonis," except
the pretty girls, who had such variety
of gushing names for him that | will
spare their feelings by not repeating
them.
am afraid that this description gives
you but poor idea of my "Adon1s."
Well, l will be little more explicit. 1t
is true that he was handsome and as vain
as peacock, yes, admit it; but he was
not bad sort of fellow by any means.
On the contrary, he was scrupulously
honorable and know that he could be
kind-and if have seen him pay up his
shilling for rattle he did not wish to go
in for, and say with an air of unutterable
surprise when his tormentor asked for his
name, ''Mr De Lisle," in an accent which
conveyed clearly that she must either be
knave or fool, have also seen him
speak very kindly and without any 'man-
ner'' at all to little woman whom knew
to be in dire trouble, have seen him take
hold of her arm for moment in mans
protecting way, and then pat her shoulder
with kindly, There, there-yes, I'M
derstand, I'll let you know directly find
out about it." Oh yes, with all his little
vanities Adonis was good fellow down
at the bottom, and in spite of their sancti-
moniousness, most people in Blankhamp-
ton would take the word of De LiSle
sooner than of most of the townsfolk.
Besides Adonis there was-well, really,
it was wonderful how very few young
men there werel There was the Reverend
Evelyn Gabrielli, the youngest of the
minor-canons at the Parish. He was
rich Tor at least certainly well Off, he was
young, he was a good size and fairly good
looking, and for little vanities Adonis
was not in it with him. He had three
valuable rings for every finger and thumb
of his two hands, and with regard to his
rings he did not hide his light under q
buShel.
But Evelyn Gabrielli was, as Mrs. Traf-
ford knew from past experience. no good
in matrimonial sense. Indeed he entire
" believed in the celibacy of the clergy
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