The herald., 1894-04-22
FREDlS. AUNT.

Frederick Flushington belonged to a
small college, and in doing so conferred
upon it one Of the few distinctions it
could boast-pameIy, that of possessing
the very bashfulest man in the whole
university. But his college did not treat
him with any excess of adulation on
that account, probably from prudent
fear Of rubbing, the bloom off his mod
esty. They allowed him to blush un-
seen, which was the condition in which
he preferred to blush.
He felt himself oppressed by pau
city of ideas and adifficulty in knowing
which way to look in the presence of
his fellow men, which made him never
SO happy as when he had fastened his
outer door and secured himself from all
possibility of intrusion, though it was
almost an unnecessary precaution, for
nobody ever thought Of coming to see
Flushington.
In appearance he was a man of mid
die height, with long scraggy neck
and large head which gave him the
air of being much shorter than he really
was He had little weak eyes, nose
and mouth of no particular shape and
very smooth hair of no definite color
He had timid, deprecating air, which
seemed due to the consciousness that he
was an uninteresting anomaly, and he
certainly was as impervious to the ordi-
nary influence Of his surroundings as
any undergraduate well could be. He
lived a colorless, aimless life in his lit
tie rooms under the roof, reading every
morning from till 2 with supersti-
tiously mechanical regularity, though
very often his books completely failed to
convey any ideas whatever to his brain,
which was not a particularly powerful
organ.
If the afternoon was fine, he generally
sought out his one friend, who was
few degrees less shy than himself. and
they took monosyllabic walk together,
or if it was wet he read the papers at
the Union, and in the evenings after
hall he studied general hterature'-a
graceful term for novels--or laboriously
habit which did not increase his popu-
larity.
Fortunately for Flushington, he had
no gyp, or his life might have been made
a positive burden TO him, and with his
bedmaker he was rather favorite as
"a gentleman what gave no trouble, "
meaning that when he observed his
sherry unaocountably sinking, like the
water in lock when the sluices are up,
Flushington was too delicate to refer to
the phenomenon.
He was sitting one afternoon over his
modest lunch Of bread and butter, pot
ted meat and lemonade, when all at
once he heard a sound of unusual voices
and strange fiutter of dresses coming
up the winding stone staircase outside
and was instantly seized with cold
dread. t.s
There was no particular reason for
being alarmed, although there were GER
tainly ladies mounting the steps-prob-
ably they were friends of the man oppo-
site, who was always having his people
up. But still Flushington had that odd
presentiment which nervous people have
sometimes that something unpleasant is
on its way to then and he half rose
from his chair to shut his outer oak
eling now in his very passage, there was
pause, a few faint srnothered laughs
and little feminine coughs, then two
raps at the door
Come in, :" cried Flushington faint
ly. He wished he had been reading any
thing but the work by NJ Zola, which
was propped up in front of him. 1t is
your mild man who frequently has a
taste for seeing the less reputable side
Of life in this secondhand way, and
Flushington would toll manfully
through the voluminous pages, hunting
up every third word in the dictionary,
with sense of injury when, as was Of
ten the case, it was not to be found. Still
there was n sort of intellectual orgie
about it which had strong fascinations
for him, while he knew enough of the
language to be aware when the incidents
approached the improper, though he
was not always able to see quite clearly
In what this impropriety consisted.
The door opened, and his heart seemed
to stop, and all the blood rushed vio-
lently to his head as large lady came
sweeping in, her face ripping with a
broad smile Of affection
She Mortified Flushington, who knew
nobody with the least claim to smile at
him so expansively as that. He drank
lemonade to conceal his confusion.
You don t know me, my dear Fred?''
The said easily. "Of course not--how
should you? I'm-for goodness sake, my
Gear boy, don't look so terribly fright
saedl I'm your aunt--your Aunt Anne
liza, come. over from Australia
The shock was severe one to Flush
tngton, who HID not even known nc pos
sessed suoh "a rolstive. He could onls
Iay ''Oh, which he felt even then was
scarcely warm greeting TO give an
Iunt fronsthe cntipodes.
"oh, but" she. added cheerily,
that's not all I've another surprise.
Tor you The dear girls would insist on
coming up toe, ssto Sse their grand coll
lege cousin Why're just outside IN
call them In; ;ssh9lasI2'
In another sSscond Flushington's
BRau room was OvGsxnn by Q hards q