Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-10-13

dure! He said so, and nothing made him more angry than for some rudely unsympathetic person to express a doubt concerning his wretched condi- ton. His troubles were not of physic- al nature; he could have endured any thing of that sort and always worn a smiling face. He said his misery was of mental character; still it made him excited to tell him it was all in his mind.
 Had you met Beckenham Wythe on the street, you would have seen at glance that he was miserable man. He did not wear crape, but he did wear the most dejectcd countenance ever seen on human being. The pensive look in his eyes denoted sorrow, the dropping corners of his mouth denoted melancholy, the downward twist of his short, red mustache denoted woe, the | sharp point of his chin denoted pierc- ing grief, the staggering cast of his thin nose denoted shattered hopes, and the wild disorder of his long hair gave him an aspect of utter despair. Even about his clothes there was an air of misery; and still he was tailor! He was all ways followed by most wretched- looking dog, that sneaked along with its head down and it's tail between it's legs, and seemed to be continually re- gretful it was alive.
 People carefully turned out for MT. Wythe upon the street and shivered as he passed, or looked after him with sad sympathy. People who were laughing stopped with remarkable suddennGGs when their eyes fell upon him; children avoided him, and-excepting his own wretched cur-even the dogs shied away from him and growled. Whenever he entered a pleasant room, he brought a cloud with him that shut out the sum- shine, and it was little short of torture to listen to the melancholy droning of his voice. It was torture if one was forced to endure it a great while.
 MT. Wythe was summed in the house where he boarded, and Mrs. Spriggs, the landlady, said she would not keep him if he were not such remarkably good pay, and did not stay in his room so much when he was at the house. He seldom spoke of any thing but his owr misery, and the most trivial things
 added to the mountain of woe beneath , which he was buried.
 Now, Beckenham Wythe was a mar who had soured on women as on every thing else. It was little wonder, fol women are not usually attracted to such woebegone beings as MT. Wythe and they were not apt to return smiling glances for his sour ones. The womer and girls who worked for him in hil little shop usually had as little to say tc
 him as possible, and he repaid them bJ only speaking to them in an unusually
 unpleasant manner-as if his customary
 manner were not bad enough!
 Next to MT. Wythe's boarding-hous'
 stood little white cottage which haC
 been purchased by a widow. I'm ? widow seemed to be an exception t. : the usual run of women, for she sat a ! the window and smiled at Beckenham 8 f he passed with his dog skulking along a at his heels. At first he paid no atten
 tion to it, but the widow persisted, an @ he was obliged to notice her after :. time. But he thought she was maidn t sport of him, and he returned ne + smiles with his most sour glances Still the widow was not daunted, fo y she retained her position at the windoy o and continued to smile upon him. ;. ''Homely old thing" exclaimed MI 8 Wythe to himself Skinny neck an