The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-04-10
FRED'S AUNT.

upon it one of the few distinctions it
could boast-nancly, that of possessing
the very bashfulcst man in the whole
university. But his college did not treat
him with any excess of adulation Oh
that account, probably from prudent
fear of rubbing the bloom off his mod
esty. They allowed him to blush I'M
seen, which was the condition in which
he preferred to blush
He felt himself oppressed by Il pau
city of ideas and adifliculty 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 /, man of mid
die height, with Il long scraggy neck
and Il large head, which gave him the
air OF being much shorter than he really
was. lie had little weak eyes, Il nose
ana month of no particular shape and
very smooth hair of no definite color.
lie had timld, dcprccating air. which
seemed due to the consciousness that he
was an unintcrcsing anomaly, and he
certainly was rs imp2rviouS TO the ordi-
nary Influence Of Lis surroundings as
any undergraduate well could be- He
lived Il colorlcss amlcss life in his lit
tie rooms under the roof, reading every
morning from till with Il supcrsti-
tiousy mechanical regularity, though
off L., L.
convey any ideas whatever To his brain,
which was not Il particularly powerful
organ.
III the afternoon was fine, he generally
sought out his one friend, who was Il
few degrees less shy than himself, and
they took Il nlonosyllabic walk together,
or II 1t was wet he read the papers at
the Union, and in the evenings after
hall he studied general litcraturo''-a
graceful term for noVelS-or laboriOuslv
spelled out Il sonata upon his piano
habit which did not increase his popu-
larity.
Fortunately for Flushington, he had
no gyp, or his Tonight have been made
n positive burden to him, and with his
bcdmakcr he was rather IL favoritc as
"a gentleman what gave no trouble, y
meaning that when he observed his
Sherry unaccountably sinking, like the
water III IL lock when the SluiccS arc M,
FluShingtOn was too delicate to refer to
the phenomenon.
lie WAS sitting One afternoon over his
modest lunch Of bread and butter, pot
ted meat and lemonade, when all ut
once he heard Il sound of unusual voices
and II strange fiuttcr of dresses coming
up the winding stone staircase outside
and was instantly seized with a cold
dread.
There was no particular reason for
being alarmed, although there were Ger
tainly ladies mounting the stcps-prob-
ably they were friends of the man oppo-
site, who was always having his people
up. But still Flushington had that odd
prcscntimcnt which nervous people have
sometimes that something unpleasant is
on its way TO them, and he half rose
from his chair to shut his outer oak.
1t was too late; the dresses were rus
Ting now i'll his very passage, there was
pause, Il few faint smothcrcd laughs
and little feminine coughs, then two
raps ut the door
Come III, )" cried Flushington faint
~. He wished he had been reading any
thing but the work by NJ. Zola, which
was dropped up i'll front of him. 1t is
Your mid man who frequently has Il
TASTE for seeing the less reputable side
OF life i'll this secondhand way, and
FlusEinston would toll manfully
through the voluminous pages, hunting
up every third word in the dictionary,
q of fn5,
ten the case, it was not to be found. Still
there was a sort of intellectual orgic
about 1t which had strong destinations
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
III what this improperly consisted
The door opened, and his heart seemed
to stop, and all the blood rushed VIC
lently to his head as large lady came
sweeping III, her face ripping with a
broad smile of affection
She Mortified Washington, who knew
nobody with the least claim to smile at
him so cXpansivcly as that. He drank
lemonade to conceal his confusion.
You don know me, my dear Frcd?"
she said easily. "Of course not-how
should you? Im-for goodness sake my
dear boy, don't look so terribly fright
cncd! I'm your aunt-your Aunt Anne.
liza, come over from Australia"
The shock was severe one to Flush
ington, who had not even known he pos
scsscd such a relative. He could only
say, "Oh, which lie felt even then was