The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-04-28
Select Sturg.
AN OUTING In WALES.
From London Black and White.

Mark Darlington was in distress. That
was one reason why he took hanson
straight for the doctors to Ralph Gray s
rooms in the Albany. He knew, or might
have known, that it was Just the time
when Ralph was most busy-the prime of
the morning, when the writer's ideas are
most original. But Mark was not altruist
enough to care two pins whether he dis
turbed his friend in the middle of a notion
or a fried sole. And yet he, too, was a
writer.
He bounced into Ralph's rooms like a
tip-cat.
''Im under sentence, my dear fellow, y
he cried, needless of the composed look
of reproach that was levied at him, "and
7 thought you'd like to know"
"That's tiresome," exclaimed Ralph, me-
thodically closing his fountain pen.
"Now, what | want to know is, pro-
ceeded Mark Darlington, 'where am l TO
go? Egad, if only could meet with a
girl like the future Mrs. Gray-at least, if
all you say of her is to be believed.
GA most wise reservation, that y said
Ralph. "But there, now, why not get off
to Wales and try your own luck? People
don't value Wales as they ought. 1t is a
lovely country, and you will find the people
in the out-of-the-way parts extraordinarily
simple and unspoiled."
aAll right. Give me her address, or at
least tell me her name, and if she comes
up to your own portrait of her, by .Jove,
Ralph, I'll take the leap too, and settle
down.
''I'll not give you her address, my dear
fellow, nor tell you her name. But I'll tell
you where met her, and | think you II
have no difficulty in finding others some
thing like her. You can take train to
Pwllheli and then make your way to Aber-
enllyu anyhow you please
Darlington pickedup hisstick. ''Thauks,
my dear fellow. Oh by the way, just
write it down, will you? Aber--some-
thing or other is vague. I hope the grub
will be endurable2"
'Yes, it will be endurable, said Ralph,
as he wrote the name on slip of paper
''There you are, and good time to you" !"
CHAPTER IL.
Mark Parlington was much more inlpul-
sive than he looked. He was Al, stout,
rather more red of face than he liked to
be, and with ears that stuck out from his
head as if they were the split halves of a
hoop with the rounded parts set to his
skull.
The day after his interview with Ralph
Gray he took train for Wales. 1t was
close upon 1 O'Clock when he reached
Aberenllyn. An air of sacred calm was
over the village. The very pigs of the
place were penned Words cannot say
more to prove the profundity of Aber-
enlly's Sunday torpor.
At this stage in his adventures Mark
heard steps behind him, and the door of
cottage opened He turned to look into
pair of sunny gray eyes. They belonged
to young woman, whose pretty figure
was well declared by her tight-fitting black
dress. There was either the beginning or
the end of smile on her lips. The lips
were small and shapely, and so were the
teeth they half hid. Mark did not take in
all at once the fact that this girl was beau
tiful, but he felt instinctively that she had
a humane heart under her bodice. In
reply, therefore, to her charmingly lisped
Scan we offer you shelter, sir?'' he poured
out his plant. There was an elderly,
dark-eyed and hard faced woman in the
gloom of passage behind, and the night
cap on her head at once made Mark regard
her as an enemy. But as he sat on a chair
in the little room numbered with millinery,
into which he had been invited, and watch
ed the play of the girls face, Mark knew
that he had gained an ally
He sat in patience while the girl opened
aud carried on lengthy conversation with
the nightcapped lady.
My aunt says, sir, observed the girl
at length. ''thatif you will excuse the con-
fusion, she shall give you room.
Another look into the gray eyes and all
Marks scrunles 1ed.