The herald., 1895-01-05
CUPID AND PSYCHE.

| w l. LII x1lND l. ~ l. OlINJ
His name upon the ships books wa:
Edward Braithwaite Colchester, but be
tween Tilbury and Sydney harbor he
was better known as Cupid. His mother
was widow, with four more olive
branches, absolutely dependent on he,
own and Teddy's exertions.
At the best Of times kindergartens
for the children of respectable trades.
people are not particularly remunera-
tive, and the semidetached villa in Sy-
denham was often sore]y tried for petty
cash.
But when Teddy was appointed fourth
officer of the x. Y. q. company's steam
ship Cambrian Prince endless possible
ties were opened up.
If you will remember that every
thing in this world is ordained to a
certain end. you will see that Teddy's
future entirely depended on his falling
in love-first love of course and not the
matter Of fact businesslike affair that
follows later.
Aftor his second voyage he obtained
fortnight's leave and hastened homo.
Being fond Of tennis and such like
amusements, ho was naturally brought
into contact with many charming girls,
who, because he was strange man and
q sailor, We're effusivoly polite
Then he fell hopelessly in love with
Z horribly impossible girl, and in the
excitement of tho latest waltz proposed
and was accepted OH the strength of a
fourth officers pay, an incipient mus
tache and dozen or SO brass buttons.
During the next voyage his behavior
toward unmarried women was marked
by that circumspeot;on which should
always characterize an engaged man.
lie mover allowed himself to forget
this for an instant, and his cabin had
for its chief ornament plush framed
likeness of a young lady gazing with a
wistful expression over palpably pho
tographic sea.
Now, it was necessary for his ultimate
happiness that Teddy Colchester should
learn that, like his own brass buttons,
without constant furnishing young
lady's affection is apt to lose much of
its pristine brightness, and that too
much sea air is good for neither. Ho
licked off the days Of absence, and as
his calendar lessened his affection IL
creased.
At Plymouth a letter met him,
jerky, inly schoolgirl epistle, evidently
written by writer very cold and mis-
cradle, and the first reading stunned
him.
Had he seen a little more of the real
world he would have been able to read
between the lines something to this eff.
feet: You're Teddy, three months
away, and I'm madly in love with
soldier.
Then he would have noted that the
writer was staying in Salisbury, after
which he would have hunted up his
home papers and discovered that thu
Royal Wiltshire yeomanry cavalry wers
encampod at Huntingdon Down.
But as he had only seen life through
telescope he could not do this. Conse-
quently his pain was trifle acute.
His mother wrote him four pages at
sympathy.
But though he wondered at any girl
jilting her boy she could not help
feeling of satisfaction at its being still
in her power to transmute three-quar-
tiers of his pay into food and raiment
fer her brood.
Next voyage the Cambrian Prince
had her full complement Of passengers
and the Kangaroo Girl, whom perhaps
you may remember, was of tho number.
At Plymouth a little reserved girl
Joined, and as sho is considerably mixed
up in this story you must know that
she rejoiced in the unpretentious name
of Kinks.
For the first week or so Teddy held
very much aloof from the passengers. en-
gaging himself entirely with recollec-
tions of the girl for whose sake he was
going to live 'only in memory.
Being an honest, straightforward
young fellow, he Of course followed the
prescribed programme of all blighted
love affairs. He began by plying him
self for tho sorrow he was undergoing,
then went on to picture the future that
might have been theirs had she married
him, but before they were clear of the
hay he had arrived "a inyariapie
conclusion and was plying himself for
plying the girl who was foolish enough
to jilt such an entirely estimable young
man as Edward Braithwaite Colchester.
One moonlight night, after leaving
"Gib, " he was leaning over the rails of
the promenade deck feeling sympathet-
ically inclined to the world in general
when somebody stepped up behind him.
It was Miss Kinks. She prefaced her
conversation with two or thrco questions
about tho soa, and he made tho astound-
ing discovery that her voice possessed
j1st tho note OF sympathy 10 required
Ter his complaint.
Flo had felt sorry for her beoau-e
ether people snubbed her, and she for
him because she had been told exagger-
atcd stories about his love affair. To-
gethcr they made rather curious
t.of1Dla