The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1895-02-16
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society. He lived in n of those ex-
tremely select boarding houses ire
auented by delightful people as regular
ooarders, who, if not the rose, were
very near the rose. Many charming
families also came and went, and some
IF them comprised charming young
mdies who made themselves agreeable
to the now somewhat elderly buck,
whose years Of residence gave him the
privilege of a host in the parlOr after
dinner.
Middleton spent his vacations at Mar
! ragansett, and there, too, being a fair
lancer and assiduous esquire Of danes,
he made many friends and was talked
IF as being devoted in turn to more
than one belle of the Casino, and the
oeach every summer Yet nothing came
Of it. Year after year he added to his
' we'll chosen investments and shirked
the duty Of stimulating trade by dis
tributing a part Of his large income for
the knick-knack s and chiffons of a
, wife. Why was this?
The secret lay in the double eye
glasses which hung about his neck,
Ind which he was seldom seen to place
Upon his nose, though he was OBJ
served to read a newspaper in public;
and his private sitting room would
have revealed the fact that they were
used nightly when Middletn perused
his favorite papers. The fact was that
his sight had failed him p~rematurely,
just when he had resolved that he
could afford himself the pleasures Of
matrimOny, and when, looking about
the world, he found it and many of its
Inhabitants very fair.
His first essay at this time may give
the keynote of many subsequent ones,
and will illustrate an unhappy expert
ence to which the sympathy Of the
orld has never been called, although
u hero's was by no means an excep-
tional case.
There came to Middleton's boarding
house one winter a family from Ala
bama, important people before the
war, a father, mother and daughter.
Gen. Rosa was a ford, portly man,
obviously choleric; careless in the de-
tails Of dress; for ever a scrupulously
white wristband sometimes showed a
frayed edge, and his evening clothes
were shiny at the seams and deficient
In their complement of buttons. He
was undoubtedly a gentleman, reticent
of personal nature, full Of petits soins
to ladies, and punctilious in attention
to them, especially so to his somewhat
faded wife, and his tall, dark-eyed
daughter. Fortune or the kindness Of
the landlady placed this young person
at Middleton's left hand on the occa-
sion when the family first appeared at
the Z o'clock dinner. No presentation
took place; in fact Mrs. Simmons did
not appear at her own table, at the
head Of which Middleton presided in
right Of his residential deanship-as
they say in diplomatic circles. The
fact of sharing in the Inequalities of
so select al establishment was, as in
the pariurs Of a private house, con-
sidered sufficient guarantee to warrant
ordinary intercourse. Middleton had
heard the names and conditions Of the
new arrivals from the man who had
come up to brush his coat befor din
ner, and from "Fish, Miss Rosa Do
you like it we'll done? Some gravy?"
he soon slid into a genial and animated
conversation with his neighbor, who
had the pretty Southern softened "r,"
elongated vowels and the slow, must
Cal tones of her native state.
Pride ourselves as we may on cur
accurate accent and clear speech, there
is always something attractive in those
who offend our standards in the way of
softening grace. But Middleton thought
thing else, so beautiful his neighbor
seemed to him. It had CHANGED that
year that no young ladies had visited
the house. At the end of his annual
| stocktaking and accounts he had had
an unusual lot of night work at his Of
fee. porting over columns of figures in
his ledger, and the poor fellows weary
eyes were fairly bathed by the contem-
plation of a face and figure which i'm
pressed him as the most beautiful he
had ever seen. ."
Outline, coloring and facial angle,
that vital element in beauty, the shape
of the eyebrows, the curve of the lips,
the swell Of the threat, the delicate
bust, the poise and carriage of the fig
ure , all seemed to him perfect. Not
only did he forget to reward himself
with those dainty tid-bits which, al
though they only reach him cold, are
in some degree the acknowledged COM
penSatiOn of a carver'S laborS, u
all. In fact, some of the young men
who occupied. hall bedrooms, and the
| Middleton almost neglected to eat at
lower end of the table, INDUCED in the
exchange of knee pressures and mean
ing chances before the company broke
up, SO apparent was the immediate en-
| slavement Of the old boarder as they
called him. ,
After dinner the same thing went
on-Miss Rosa played and Middleton
turned the leaves Of her music, or
rather attempted to do so, for the
white fingers futtered past his face
invariably before he was aware that
the end of the leaf was reached: And
when she pointed an observation about
a poem of TennysOn by taking up the
volume of his works lying on the table
and handing it to Middleton, it might
have been observed that his eye-glass
still dangled unused while he was
looking at the opposite page from that
which Miss Rosa had indicated, and
that he put down the book and chang
ed the subject somewhat abruptly.
However, day followed day each de-
yeloping more and more of the anna
BILE resources of Middleton in courte-
sy and devotion. Drives in the park,
theatcr, opera, picture exhibitions,
were diversions in which the Rosa
family were invited to share for Mid
dleton was obviously proceeding ID
form and pursuing no furtive and
meaningless Irritation. Even the flow
ers which he sent Miss Rosa We're u.s.
ually accompanied by a nosegay for
her mother, and the general, with the
same easy frankness with which he
would have offered the hospitality Of
his own home, did not scruple to &C
cept the %perfectoes which Middleton
showered upon him, or to take many
a toddy Of the ancient whisky which