Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1891-07-02

To say it would be highly embarrassing
for him to be discovered alone with her
under such conditions would only be to
put 1t feebly. For though there was
nothing absolutely improper In the
except conventionally, still, in these mat
tiers, the conventional standard was every
thing.
Five minutes passed, and the young
lady slumbered peacefully on; while Mr..
McParson felt with sinking heart, that
he was being hurried helplessly forward
to his doom.
"Good heavens" he groaned, miser-
ably. 81 wish that she would take 1t In
to her head to dream that she was get
| ting up, and would put her clothes on
again. What would not give at this
minute to have the controlling of her
fancies. J"
He consulted his watch again. Mat
tiers were getting more and more desper-
ate. In less thanlquarter of an hour they
would be at Grantham. Then, all Of a
sudden, an idea flashed across his mind,
which made him bring his hand sharply
down upon his knee and exclaim deter
minedly:
"'Pon my word, I'll try it. It's des-
perately unlikely to succeed. But do
believe its the only chance. And at any
rate, it can do no harm"
| After minute or so of close reflect
ion, during which he bit his nails in a
most excited and agitated manner, Mr..
McParson prepared to put his idea into
effect. He had heard that the sleeping
fancies of people in the young lady,s
state might sometimes be shaped or mod
flied by external circumstances. And he
now intended to make desperate effort
to influence his slumbering companion
through these means.
! His first experiment was to rap sharp
ly with his knuckles on the door of the
compartment, anXiously watching the
sleeper's face as he did so. With a thrill
of excitement, almost of triumph, he saw
her lips move and heard her drowsily
murmur, "Come in"
This preliminary success stimulated
him to persevere with his intention. And
with look of grave and breathless anx-
iety, which showed that he was quite
unconscious of the irresistibly comic part
he was enacting, he raised his deep voice
to piping falsetto, and said with as
good an imitation of chambermaid as
he could manage:
Time to get up, ma'am. Here's your
hot water, ma'am!''
His desperate and unlikely design sue
ceeded beyond his widest hopes. The
slumberer threw off her rug, rose, and
stretched herself; then after going
through certain inexplicable movements,
which Mr.. McParson guessed to be imag-
mary additions, she proceeded carefully
and deliberately to do her hair up. This
step completed, she donned her dress
bodice, then her travelling jacket, and,
finally, her bonnet; the old gentleman
watching her, as she went through these
several grades of her toilet, with an ever
increasing sense of relief, triumph, and
self congratulaton. And certainly there
is no denying that he owed his escape
from a most embarrassing situation en-
tirely to his own ingenuity.
The jerking caused by the application
of the brake to stop the train as it ran
into Grantham at last really woke the
young lady. She sat up, rubbed her
eyes, and stared about her in dazed sort
of manner, appearing rather startled to
find another passenger in the compart-
ment. But she soon regained her COM
posture, and regarded Mr.. McParson with
perfectly unembarrassed gaze-a thing
which she would have found it rather
difficult to do had she been ever SO dimly
conscious of the figure she had presented
to him quarter of an hour before.
| AS for the worthy Scot, he was much
too thankful for his escape to run the
most remote possibility Of further risk
so he left the carriage at Grantham and
continued his journey northward in an
other compartment, hugging himself not
a little on the ready wit which had won
him salvation from an apparently newt
able fiasco.