New-York tribune., 1891-05-17
MAGICAL MUSIC.

"a;Look at that" she said. She had her finger
* clergyman. having a large family entirely
dependent on him. is compelled to sacrlnce
mnigue set of apostle spoons. Twelve large,
twelve small silver gilt. in handsome case; Be
ing in urgent want of money triie VIII 9eus pc ac
mona villa, Ladbroke Grove, w."
"What do you think of it ?' inquired the lady.
The Rev. Alan smOOthed the paper with his
Not much," he ventured to remark.
Put on your hat and come with me. I'm 60
ing to buy them"
MY dear aunt!' -
"They win do for wedding present for Clara
leach Other people can marry. If you can't"
The Rev Alan sighed. He had been having
bad quarter of an hour. He little. freclSled.
sandy-haired. shortsighted man one OF those
tinually setting in their place on the bridge of
the nose. Such as he was he was the only hope
of ancient race-the only male hope: that ls s..
she Macleods Of Pittenquhair predated the nIst
of the Scottish kings. Fortunately for themselves
they postdated them as well.
members of thar time1honored family had been
compelled in the Sydney7Smithlan phrase, TO cul-
tivate their greatness on little Oatmeal-for want
form of cultivation. But In these latter days
they had grown rich. owing to fortunate mStrl-
monial speculation with Chicago young Iady
whose father, had something to do with hogs.
The iady's name was Biggins-Cornella L. higgins
the p stood for Pollie, which was her mothers
name, the 'front.', name came from history h1ne Inc
particular Macleod who had married her had been
chrstened David. He devoted considerable
portion OF his wife's fortune TO buying up the an,
cient lands of the Maceods in the nelghoorhood
of PittenGuhair and thereabouts In his person
he resolved that the ancient family glories should
rcappear-and more. But in these cases it IS no
torious that man only proposes-hls wife never eve,
bore him a child. To make matters worse. be only
outlved Mrs. Macleod six months, so that he
never had decent chance to try his luck again
David had brother. Being childless man,
and desirous to restore the ancient grandeur, one
would have thought that he would have LETT his
wealth TO his brother. who wanted 1t II ever man
did yet. But, unfortunately, Alan was not only
an irredeemable scamp-which might have been
forgiven him. for David was by no means spot
less-but also the two brothers hated each otheI
with o truly enduring brotherly hatred Nor had
Alan improved matters by making public and un-
pleasant illusions to hogs and swine, not only on
casions afterward. So it came to pass that when
David was gathered TO his fathers, his 5rothers
name was not even mentioned in his will All his
wealth was left to his sister Janet.
In course Of time Alan died abroad-very much
abroad and III more senses than one. Then, Tor
the first time. Janet appeared upon the scene
only child, u boy. back with her to England. The
child's mother who was nothing and nobody, had
ded-charitabe people said, murdered by her hus-
band-s0on after her infants birth. SO his aunt
was the only relation the youngster had =
Janet was spinster;, She had ideas of her own
and plenty of them. Her dominant idea was that
in her nephew the family sun should rise again in
splendor. But alas for the perversity of fate !
The boy passed from public school TO the uni
in which be showed himself in lympathic
David's fathers pigs-intO the Church. This
snd @ the I heir to Pittenquhair and 81 900 year.
but what followed was infinitely worse. He be-
came a ritualist of the ritualists-more Roman
than the Romans-and the motto which he nailed
70 the mast was "Celibacy of the clergy!"
Her nephew's conduct almost drove Miss Janet
..rix-o bah pafohf hoNa -huf
none In season and out Of season she preached
to him the duty of marriage: but what she re-
garded as duty he rec reearded as a crime She
were of something very different indeed. To
speak of disinheritipg him was to pander to his
tastes The income from his curacy was f7o a
year-and he lived on il. The money sent him
hy his aunt he surrendered TO the Church and to
the poor. What availed it TO preach Of dsin-
heritance TO a man who behaved like that?
And yet in his own peculiar way he was o
GOOD nephew TO his aunt. He was the meekest,
ugliest, shyest, awkwaTdest of men. His curacy
was at place on the Suffolk coast called Swat
ham-on-Sea. From these wilds he was perpetually
being summoned by his aunt to attend on her in
her house in town. Although1posslbly because
anything but occasions Of pleasure, he generally
obeyed the summons. On the present occasion
hospitable roof in Cadogan Place. From the
moment of his arrival she had continually reviled
him. She had suggested as wives some two score
eligible young women, from earl's daughters to
cOnfectonefs' assistants. She had arrived at
that state of mind in which, if he would only
marry, she could have welcomed cook. In his
awkward, stammerlng way, he had vetoed them
all Then she had rated him for an hour and
three-quarters by the clock. Finally, exhausted
by her efforts, she had caught up the paper in a
rage The Rev. Alan watched her in silence as
she read it, lingering little book of prayers he
had in his waistcoat pocket. s..,.
Of the paper underneath his nose, with the ex-
clamation:
He looked at it, and had read the advertise
ment reproduced above.
Don't sit there like stuck dummy" observed
Miss Macleod. whose English, in her moments OF
excitement. was more than peculiar. Go and
get the thing that you call hat! Hat!" Miss
Macleod smiled "if you had appeared IN the
streets in my days with such thing on your head
people would have thought that Guy Fawkes's
ne Rev. Alan was still studying the paper.
But. my dear aunt, you are not seriously
thinking of paying any attention to such an ad-
vertisement as that?' =.
And why not? Isn't the man clergyman ??
u can't think that a priest"
"A priest!" cried Miss Macleod. to whom the
word was as red rag to bull who spoke
about priest ?"
The Rev. Alan went placidly on
--under any circumstances would adveruse
apostle spoons for sale"
" Who asks you what you think? Put on
your hat and come with me-"
There is another point. The advertisement
soys letters only there is evidently an OBJ
As Miss Macleod grasped her nephew by the
shoulder with sufficiently muscular grasp the
Rev. AlaRput on his hat and went with her.
H.
They walked all the way-it is some distance
from Cadogan Place 10 Ladbroke Grove. There
was not much conversation-what there was was
not of particularly cheerful kind The day was
warm. The lady was tall, tine gentleman short.
Miss Macleod was a frst-rate pedestrian; the
Rev. Alan was not good at any kind of exercise.
by the time they reached their journeys end
he wa In n DitiaDlc
dewed with perspiration, and agitated beyond
measure by the rather better than four miles an
hour pace which his aunt would persist in keep
ing up
Pomona Villa proved TO be little house which
stood back at some distance from the road. Just
as they reached il the door was opened shut
again with bang. and a gentleman name hastcp-