The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1895-03-23
HIS

Jacob Middleton was a bachelor. Yet
he had a good income as partner in a
large mercantile house. He was fond of
society. He lived in one Of those ex-
tremely select boarding houses fire.
'quented by delightful people as regular
boarders, who, if not the rose, were
very near the rose. Many charming
families also came and went, and some
Of them comprised charming young
ladies 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
dancer and assiduouS esquire OF danes,
he made many friends and was talked
of as being devoted in turn to more
than one belle of the Casino. and the
beach every summer. Yet nothing came
Of it. Year after year he added to his
well chosen Investments and shirked
the duty Of stimulating trade by dis
tributing a part Of his large income for
the knick-knacks and chiffons of a
wife. why was this!
The secret lay in the double eye
glasses which hung about his neck,
and which he was seldom seen to place
] upon his nose, though he was never OBJ
served to read a newspaper in public;
and his private sitting room would
have revealed the fact that they We're
used nightly when Middletn perused
his favorite papers. The fact was that
his sight had failed him prematurely,
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 IN unhappy expert
ence to which the sympathy of the
orld has never been called, although
our hero's was by no means an eXcep-
tional case.
There came to Middleten's boarding
house n winter a family from Ala
bama, important people before the
war, a father, mother and daughter.
Gen. Rosa was a florid, portly man,
obviously choleric; careless in the de-
tails of dress; for eve 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 SONS
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
| tho 1orI1olr rIo11I %hse 0,,n na~SN,,
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 WI table, at the
right of his residential deanship-as
they say in diplomatic circles. The
fact Of sharing in the Inequalities Of
S 10 select an establishment was, as in
the pariors 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 before 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 e.
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 neighbol
seemed to him. 1t had CHANGED thai
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 il
his ledger, and the poor fellows wear!
eyes We're fairly bathed by the contem
plation of a face and figure which i'm
pressed him as the most beautiful h,
had ever seen.
Outline, coloring and facial angle
that vital element in beauty, the shap
of the eyebrows, the curve of the lips
the swell of the throat, the del1cat
bust, the poise and carriage Of the fig
ure all seemed to him perfect. No
only did he forget to reward himsel
with those dainty tid-bits which, a.
though they only reach him cold, ar
in some degree the acknowledged CON
p~ensation of a ~carver's labOrs, bu
all. In fact, some Of the young me
who occupied hall bedrooms, and tn
Middleton almost neglected to eat a
lower end of the table, INDUCED in tn
exchange of knee preSsures and meal
ing glances before the company brok
up, so apparent was the immediate Ell
slavement of the old boarder as the
called him.
After dinner the same thing wei
on-Miss Rosa played and Middlett
!, turned the leaves Of her music,
, rather attempted to do so, for tt
white fingers f1uttered past his fa'
l invariably before he was aware TIL
: the end of the leaf was reached. Al
T when she pointed an observ alton abo
a poem of Tennyson by taking up tt
volume of his works lying on the tab
and handing it to Middleton, it mig
{ have been observed that his eye-gla
: still dangled unused while he w
looking at the opposite page from til
q which Miss Rosa had indicated, al
that he put down the book and chan
ed the subject somewhat abruptly.
However, day followed day each
Weighing more and more of the ann
BILE resources of Middleton in cour
sy and devotion. Drives in the paI
theater, OPERA picture exhibition
were diversions in which the Re
a family We're invited to share for NJ
= 6'eanF was obviously proceeding
~ im md nurSuino no furtiye n;