Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-03-13


 her. I really must be going Flossie will be thinking have tainted by the wayside," and the young man hurried away, eager to escape the spinster from Chicago, who was mot at all good looking and rather passe."
 Imagine his chagrin then, when, as he turned to fasten the garden-gate, he saw Mrs. Besant, who had followed him out on the veranda, standing with her. arm embracing the waist of the pret- tiest girl Mark Henderson had ever seen in his life-such a vision of youthful loveliness that he stood for the moment transfixed-and to think that, if he had only known, he might have escorted these two pretty women to his sisters house. We'll, he'd pay Flossie out for the joke she had played him, anyhow, and make up for lost time in the even- ing.
 On his return to his sisters, he found that the parsonage people had already arrived and that Dr. Burrows had brought an addition to the party in the shape of young Methodist minister, n recent arrival in the place.
 ''I wanted to be civil to the fellow" |" Harry whispered in Marks ear, 'but I'm afraid you'll find him an awful bore"
 Rev. Lubin Ferry came up at that moment for an introduction to the hero of the evening. He was a gentle, over grown young man, who wore glasses and dropped perpetually sanctimonious | phrases from his lips; little scraps of devotional expressions that were never intended to pass as colloquial currency in common conversation-as different Q man from the big-hearted, broad-prin- | cipled, scholarly Josiah Brentwood as l 1t was possible to conceive. Moreover, he was the only son of a widow, who had tied him to her apron-string from the time he was little lad, following him to college, and never letting him out of her sight for more than a few hours in his whole life, and the young man had become so imbued with this maternal solicitude that he dragged his mothers sentiments into every thought he uttered, to Mark Henderson's in- tense disgust, especially when he learned afterwards that the mamma was a selfish, vulgar old body, who took every cent of her sons earnings and made him wait on her hand and foot.
 "I'm so glad to meet you, Captain | Henderson" the young minister gushed, taking Marks brawny hand in both his chubby white ones and nursing it af- fectlonately. "The repose of this quiet spot must be very soothing after the turmoil of battle-wounded, too, they tell me you've been. We'll, as ma says, we've much to be thankful for in this vale of tears"
 "Yet don't feel particularly grate- full for bullet in my blade, '
 Mark said, abruptly, disengaging his hand from the minister's grasp.
 "Ah, no. Bless me, no. didn't
 mean that at all; but do let me intro
 duce you to my sweet young friend
 Grace Brentwood" and with an air o1
 proprietorship he took the soldier across
 the room and made him known to Miss
 Brentwood, with as much sangfroid as
 though he had been familiar with that
 young person from girlhood. A few
 hours later Mark heard him talking Ot
 Mrs. Besant's niece as "my dear young
 friend Kate Lester," and wondered
 what there was in the clerical profes sion that permitted such breaches O. social etiquette, or, as he called it, an sorry to say, unlimited gall" Grace and the Captain became fas friends, and when he told her delicious little anecdotes of Franks bravery anC ! general heroism, you may be sure h'