Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-06-30
THE LANDSCAPE PAINTER.

OF course, it was very wrong Of her,
for we all know that you should not
talk TO gentlemen who have not been
introduced to you. But when you are
sweet and twenty. and are staying at a
country house all alone, and are rather
bored. and a handsome young man
comes 10 your rescue in a wood, when
your poor little dog has caught its foot
in p cruel trap. how can you possibly
pass him by the very next day as if he
were a stranger? And he was so kind
to the dog. He bound up its poor little
bleeding loot in his handkerchief and
carried it in his arms TO the lodge gate.
Then he said:
DO YOU often walk in the wood?"
She was feeling too grateful to him
to resent his impertinence as she
should have done So she only said:
Sometimes" and thanked him again
win all her heart in her pretty eyes.
He looked I'D to where, through the
trees. the big red house showed its
twisted, old-fashioned chimneys, and
said:
Ny name is Lavender. You are
Miss Verinder, I suppose
She looked at him quickly.
4 am Miss Verinders humble COM
panion My name is Smith.
I'VE are comrades in seryitUde," he
said. Il am Lord Halibuts secretary.
You walk in the woods sometimes.
Then it isn't goodbye DO they let you
come out often?'
Il am nv own mistress at present,
sho said. a lot Of people viii be COM
ing down on the 25th for the heiress'
coming-of-age. They give a grand en-
tertainment to the tenants. Lord Hal
ibut is to be there. What is he like?'
oh" said the young man indiifeT-
emily hes not 2 bad sort OF fellow.
There's some talk of their families
wishing him to marry the heiress. The
estates go very we'll together. But he's
never even seen her; he's been so much
abroad, you know"
4 don't believe the heiress Will have
him." the girl said sharply, and turned
away with her poor little dog in her
arms.
Now. II is quite clear that she ought
not to have walked in the wood-at
least. not 50 soon as the next day; or
if she walked there the next day, she
ought not to have the very hour when
poor Troll had met with mis- misfor-
tune. But TO the bored much may be
pardoned, and, as for Lord Halibuts
secretary, he had a right, one may SUP
pose. to amuse himself. And that
meeting was not the last. How could
II have been? And when you meet a
person every day without chaDerons or
other tiresome people. you soon make
friends. Before the week was ont Mr.
Lavender had heard now Miss Smith
was left an orphan. and had TO earn her
living; and that she had learned that
MIR. Lavender's part in life mus. al
WAYS pc that Of q subordinate.
rs she kind to you?' he asked one
evening. as they sat on a messed tree
trunk. and watched the red sun SCI
across the valley where the corn grew.
"Oh. yes. she's kind enough. the
girl said: AT least, l am sure she
means 10 be.
She's revoltingly clever, I hear.
Beat the Senior Wrangler at Cam
bridge. or something"
she did. But that's not criminal,
and Lord Halibut is, ct least, her part
ner in iniduity. re took a first-class
in Greats. didn't he? Oh, how 1 do
hate clever mem
You have my sympathy. ! abhor
clever women!
They both laughed. And the days
went on: and July melted into August.
and August grew in grace, Till the
time came near Tor the coming-of-age
Of Miss Verinder; and if, during these
days there had been q hand-pressure
so slight as not 10 be worth resertinE.
or a look so nearly tender as 20 mako q
mans hear beat high with hope: II ne
had treasured the fOrget-me-ucts she
gathered by the woodland pond and
pressed them in the volume Of Brown
Ing from which he had read 70 her in
the woods: and if she kept q certain
handkerchief. stained with poor little
Trolls blood. IL a locked sandalwood
box. and took it ont and laid It against
her face, for all its bloodstair, when no
one else was by-all that concerned