The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-01-17

rl0uS scene.
"For any sake, don't let us stay here, :"
she would remark to her brother. ''There's
typhus in the air upon this spot, if typhus
exists anywhere
Imagine, then, this poor ladys disquiet-
ude when one morning her brother an
nounced to her, with sufficient timidity and
humility, indeed, that he was enamored
aireSh-this time of a woman resident in
the city, which appalled, her so much from
a social aspect.
The declaration was made while they
We're at breakfast in the Hotel Vesuye. 1t
did not come out point blank. James had
trified with his egg in 4 nervous manner,
and his sister had asked him what allied
him. She was so positive that the drains
of the hotel were out of order, and that her
brothers trouble was due to blood-poison-
ing or fever in its embryonic stage, that he
allayed her suspicious by telling her what
he would much Lave preferred to keep to
himself She laughed at first, in a stiff
way; but subsequently, when she perceived
that the affair had gone.too deep to be re-
moved by the first charge of ridicule, she
tried satire and informal abuse And she
was not little astonished when she found
that for once her brother was able to stand
against all her weapons and all her cajole-
ries. There was that in the eyes of James
Pink which made her darts glance from
him and leave him untouched.
II tell you what, James; I think we had
better go to Capri at once. | find Naples
quite oppressively hot. We will take the
boat tomorrow morning" She said this
as though her suggestion were decision
which could not be contested
Her brother, however, was equal to the
situation at would be inconvenient for
me, dear Maria, just at present. Next
week would be much better. Then should
be able to place myself entirelya at your dis
posal."
For reply, Miss Pink rose from the table
and walked out of the breakfast room. This
sounds very trivial. But you should have
seen the look which she cast upon her
brother ere she left him, and you should
have seer the lady's demeanor as she turned
to 90. There was something terribly impe-
rious about one and the other alike. And
the other people in the hotel, who were
witnesses of the departure, at once assumed
that James and his sister We're an ill-mated
man and wife, and that james deserved
the utmost compassion that man or woman
may tender to man.
Left alone, however, James Pink showed
none of the depression of the man who is
in chains to his wife, and who has just had
a new bond of pain set upon him. He
watched his sister depart as if she was
somebody else's sister, and not his Maria.
Then. with the same look of elation which
had perplexed and disturbed Miss Pink,
he challenged the room to convict him of
aught akin to misery. Moreover, he called
for the waiter, and gave certain orders
about the evenings dinner in tone of
resolution that raised him tenfold in the
walters estimation, and altered the opinion
which the other guests in the hotel had
casually formed about him.
Nor was this the limit of his metamorpho-
sis. He asked for cigarettes-a pernicious
invention, which, hitherto, he had been
content to execrate-and, having allowed
the waiter to light one for him while he
held it in his mouth, he left the room with
of course, speaking in metaphor ban
pers flying.
Miss Pink was stupefed to see her
brother pass into the hall of the hotel
smoking a cigarette. She had left the
door of the ladies' room open ON purpose
that she might estimate exactly the acute
ness of the suffering she had caused James
by the manifestation of her displeasure;
that she might see him in his dependency
as soon as possible, and, perhaps, there
and then make proposals for reconciliation.
And this was what met her eyes. But,
ere she could recover her equanimity, her
brother had disappeared. A Whit of
smoke was all that remained of him. 1t
was very delicate, aromatic smoke; but,
did that make the sin any the less fragrant
In the meantime, James Pink was walk
ing towards the city. He was hailed by
countless carmen, who cracked their whips
at him and cried "Dim | say y in the
cool way that is characteristic of the Nea-
politan jarvey. There was no doubling his
nationality. His gait proclaimed it, no
less than his broad red innocent face, and
his white hat above. And who but an
Englishman of James Pink's type, or a
German of the burgher class, would have
gone about the fashionable part of Naples
with large umbrella of green silk with a
white lining? But of this and the kindred
distractions of the streets our friend took
no heed. He walked with an air of alb
sorption, looking straight before him, and
holding his head rather high. Nor was it
possible to misconstrue the light in his
eyes. He was the personifcation of a
contented man, going whittier he felt
assurance of raising his contentment to
ecstasy.
1t was marvellous to see with what skill
this man, ordinarily the perfection of clum-
siness, found a safe path between the noses
of the horses of the different cars which,