Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-04-11
FRED'S AUNT.

Frederick Flushington belonged to a
small college, and in doing so conferred
upon 1t one of the few distinctions il
could boast-namely, 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 difficulty 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 colorless aimless life in his lit
tie rooms under the roof, reading every
morning from 9 till with supersti-
tiously mechanical regularity, though
very often his books completely failed to
convey any ideas whatever to his brain,
which was not particularly powerful
organ.
If the afternoon was fine, he generally
sought out his one friend, who was a
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 literature pa
graceful term for novels-or laboriously
spelled out sonata upon his piano, a
habit which did not increase his popu-
larity
Fortunately for Flushington, he had
no gyp, Or his life might have been made
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 unaccountably 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 sound of unusual voices
and strange flutter 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 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 them, and he half rose
from his chair to shut his outer oak.
1t was too late; the dresses were rus
tling now in his very passage, there was
pause, few faint smothered 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 M. Zola, which
was propped up in front of him. It 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 i'll the dictionary,
with sense of injury when, as was Of
| ten the case, it was not to be found. Still
there was a 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 VIC
lently to his head as a large lady came
sweeping in, her face ripping with a
broad smile of affection
She Mortified Washington, 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?'
she said easily. ''Of course not-how
should you? I'm-for goodness sake, my
dear boy, don't look SO terribly fright
ened! I'm your aunt-your Aunt Anne
liza, come over from Australian
The shock was severe one to Flush.
ington, who had not even known he pos.
sessed such a relative He could only
say, "Oh," which he felt even then was
scarcely q warm greeting to give an
aunt from the antipodes.
"Oh, but" she added cheerily,
"that's not all. I've another surprise
for you The dear girls would insist on
coming up, too, to see their grand col
lege cousin. They're just outside. I'll
call them in; shall I?'
In another second Flushington' S
small room was overrun by horde of
female relatives, while he looked on
gasping
They were pretty girls, too, many of
them, but that was all the more dread
full to him. He did not mind the palmer
ones half so much. A combination of
beauty and intellect reduced him to
condition of absolute imbecility.
He was once caught and introduced
to charming young lady from Newn-
ham, and all he could do was to back
feebly into corner and murmuI
"Thank you" repeatedly.