The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-02-18


Jacob Middleton was a bachelor, yet he
had good 'ucome as partner in large
mercantile Mouse. He was fond of society
He lived in one of those extremely select
boarding houses frequented 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 agree.
able 70 the now somewhat elderly buck,
whose years of residence gave him the
privilege of a host in the parlor after din
ner. Middleton spent his vacations at
Narragansett, and there, too, being 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
by year he added to his well chosen invest
ments and shirked the duty of stimulating
trade by distributing a part of his large
income for the knickknacks and chiffons
of wife. Why was this? The secret
lay in the double eyeglasses which hung
about his neck and which he was seldom
seen to place upon his nose, though he was
never observed to read newspaper in
public, and his private sitting room would
have revealed the fact that they were in
use nightly when Middleton 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 an unhappy experience to which
the sympathy of the world has never. been
called, although our hero's was probably
by no means an exceptional case.
There came to Middleton's boarding
house one winter family from Alabama,
important people before the war, father,
mother and daughter. General Rosa was
a horid, portly man, obviously cholerio,
careless in the details of dress, for even
scrupulously white wristband sometimes
showed frayed edge, and his evening
clothes were shiny at the seams and def
Gent in their complement of buttons He
was undoubtedly gentleman, reticent of
personal observations, in spite of his fiery
nature, full of petits soins to ladies and
punctilious In attentions to them, espe-
cially SO to his somewhat faded wife and
his tall, dark eyed daughter. Fortune or
the kindness of the landlady placed this
young person at Middieton's left hand on
the occasion when the family first APP
peared at the O'Clock dinner No pres
entations took place--in fact, Mrs. Sim
mons 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 an
establishment was as in the parlors of a
private house, considered sufficient guar
antee to warrant ordinary intercourse.
Middleton had heard the names and con-
ditions of the new arrivals from the man
who had come up to brush his coat before
dinner, and from g Fish, Miss Rosa? Do
you like it well done? Some gravy?" he
soon slid into genial and animated con-
versation with his neighbour who had the
pretty southern softened TT elongated
vowels and the slow musical tones of her
native state.
Pride ourselves as we may on our accu-
rate accent and clear speech, there is al
ways something attractive in those who
offend our standards in the way of soften
ing grace, but Middleton thought little of
Miss Rosa's voice or of anything else, so
beautiful his neighbor seemed to him. 1t
had CHANGED that year that no young la
dies had visited the house. At the end Of
his annual stock taking and accounts he
had had an unusual lot of night work at
his office, porting over columns of figures
in his ledger, and the poor fellows weary
eyes were fairly bathed by the contempla-
ton of a face and figure which impressed
him as the most beautiful he had ever
seen.
Outline, color4ng, the facial angle that
vital element in beauty, the shape of the
eyebrows, the curve of the lips, the swell
of the throat, the delicate bust, the poise
anu carriage of the figure, all seemed to
him perfect Not only did he forget to re-
ward himself with those dainty tidbits
which, though they only reach him cold,
are in some degree the acknowledged COM
pensations of carver's labors, but Mid
dleton almost neglected to eat at all. In
fact, some of the young men who occupied
hall bedrooms and the lower end of the ia
BILE INDUCED in the exchange of knee pres
sures and meaning looks before the COM
pany broke up, SO apparent was the i'm
mediate enslavement 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 attempt
cd 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 poem of Tennyson by taking up
the volume of his works lying on the ia
BILE and handing it to Middleton it might
have been observed that his eyeglass 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 changed the subject some
what abruptly.
However, day followed day, each devel-
oping more and more of the amiable re-
sources of Middleton in courtesy and de-
votion. Drives in the park, theater, opera,
picture exhibitions, were diversions in