The Irish standard., 1891-01-31
CHAPTER x.
FIATTERING AND UNEXPECTED.

ment, namely. the eleventh.
CHAPTER X.
FLATTERIEG AND UNEXPECTED.
AS conscientious man, Russell could
not fully persuade himself that Browns
desire for Miss Rays intellectual adj
vancement would be adequately met by
the work of the Society for General
Culture. If the society should map out
plan for itself at any meeting he
foresaw that at the time of the next as
seu,bly there would be at least seven
different ideas of what that plan had
been, and seven opinions of any thing
that might be offered as a substitute.
The resulting debates would not be in
the line of mental progress.
But it was not because of these con-
siderations that Russell continued to
call upon Miss Ray as frequently as the
circumstances would permit. He went
because he found it moro and more
agreeable to do so. He was becoming
even deeper involved in noney-making
schemes of nature i'll calculated to
make man feel at peace with himself.
These fanciful projects appeared to
spring up without his volition and to
control him He was their creature.
They gave him living, but for all he
could see they might cut him off with a
shilling any day. He regarded himself
as an inflated fraud, and though this
was OH the whole rather pleasant at
first, he enjoyed the variety Of feeling
honest once in awhile.
tn hi 1y,
he called upon Alice Ray, and talked OF
the subjects which interested her as
frankly as she herself, and derived d
pleasure which he did not understand,
but which came to him because he really
WAS honest in regard to her, and hadn't
thought in his brain which couldn't
have been safely photographed for her
inspection or Browns. He liked her
simply as he liked sunshine and fresh
air. She was so palpably innocent Of
snail deceits and vanities.
Russell rather liked Mrs. Ray, TOO.
She was inferior to her daughter i'll
every way. Even in her youth she had
not possessed half of Alice's beauty, yet
at forty-fve she was by no means the
embodied prophecy which sometimes
frightens suitors away. Mentally she
was almost d blank, as Brown bad said,
but with good instincts and breeding
she had never felt the want. A safe
mother for girl, after all; for it is inn
possible to inherit evil tendencies from
person of no tendencies whatever.
It was easy for Russell to win her APP
probation. He made no special effort
to do so, but he was innately respectful
and of a most courteous demeanor. Gill
bert Raw had told his wife that Russell
was 'shustler who would be heard
from" and she had taken this to mean
| an active young man who might be sup
posed to prefer theaters and wine sup
pers of a riotous and forbidden char
acter, rather than peace and quietness.
She therefore felt compliments ted by
his evident delight IN the home-lil1e
evenings he spent there, with no moro
hilarious entertainment than some
what vacuous conversation and little
music. If he had been in love with
Alice that would have been another
matter, but the maternal eye detected
10 sign,
The life Of the family was simplicity
itself. They spent almost all their
evenings at home, and enjoyed each
others company in the good old fashion
Alice sang and played we'll, and both
her parents were good listeners, though
Mrs. Ray had a slight tendency to
somnolency. They stayed III the city
very late that season, to RusselIs great
| satisfaction.
He made other acquain tances through
the Society for General Culture. This
organization discovered at it's second
meeting that the approaching summer
would dry up the springs of knowledge;
and it was voted and reconsidered and
voted again and finally settled by a gen
eral misunderstanding, that the third
session should be the last till fall. The
girls all pledged themselves to read
| during the summer lot Of books (the
names of which they couldn't afterwards
remember) and thus gain store OF wis
dom to share when they reassembled.
| Russell read the minutes of the prev1-
Gus meeting which he had made out
with offensive accuracy. The girls all
protested that they never said any thing
Of the sort or voted that way at all. The
report was then amended in such thor
ough but unintelligible manner that the
Recording Angel could never have rec
ognized it as an account of any thing
which had transpired on earth during
his term Of supervision.
This second meeting was not at the
Rays" but at house near by. All the
| girls lived within stones throw OF one
another. Through this association Rus
sell received invitations to one or two
minor social gatherings in the very last
| DAYS Of town life. Near the end Of June
! the Rays went to their summer home on