The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-04-17

apecliyo-the narrow stairway later
voning "fur q bachelor, or a spinstor,
but not for them a. il married For
them az Is married.-an' ] hatter my
self o. I knows, being myself a mar.
ried woman, this ere biiou residence
amt 'alt nor yet quarter large
enough. A man may DO ea fond o.
his wife es ever it Is possible for i'm
TO be; a woman may be os fond Of her
'usbaud az 'er ever ken be, but they
don't want to be knocking up agin
each other al the liyolong day"
Here tho figure In the rowan berries
summarily disappeared into tho tiny
drawing-room. The tall patrician
man, preternaturally embarrassed,
strobe into the tiny dining-room
aud the garrulous caretaker was left
to finish her speech to empty berchea
She imagined herself to DO a woman
Of singular penetration, however. II
was her boast that she could grasp
situation at a glance and take il all in.
Therefore she was by no means dis
concerted till Autter Of skirts smote
her ear, and the woman with the
rowan berries reappeared, the man
having gone upstairs, saying IN a whis-
per, with indignation traceable in
every word:
"That gentleman is . perfect
stranger to me. 1 have never seen
him before today in my life. We
CHANGED to arrive at the station to-
gether. And now you can go. There
is no occasion for you to follow me
over the house, prefer to look at it
alone. BY the bye" she added, 81
should advise the owners to put it in
other hands. You evidently don't
want to let it,"
1t does not take long to look over a
six-roomed cottage. In ten minutes
the man was out on the slope of gar
den in the rear looking idly ahead Of
him across the reach. He had seen
in a fash through the stair case win
dow the rowan berries going upstairs.
He caught in a flash now the rowan
berries coming down.
"Would she go straight out by the
hall door?" he asked himself; cor
come into the garden?"
A rustic of the silk skirts coming
down the path towards him, a glimpse
of comely figure silhouetted mOmen-
tarily against the pendent ivy, was the
agreeable answer to this query.
GAS we have both come long dis
tances, and indisputably upon the
same quest" she began, cit is but
fair, indeed, the right and civil thing
to do, 1 think, to ask you if you have
come to any decision about the house
1 believe"-here her eyebrows went
up and she showed CLEAN of teeth
Sin all business matters man takes
precedence.
''But in matters of sentiment" he
interrupted her, "woman.
Sentiment" she said. "Do you
think, then, even in her business tran
sactions, a woman is necessarily senti-
>mental?"
II certainly do" he answered.
She moved on down nearer the
tagged edge of the reach, and stood
looking away across it to the green
meadows opposite, each detail of her
charming person duplicated in the
water with distracting accuracy.
"Ah, if you knew me BETTER" she
said, ''you would find that I am a
most prosaic creature. I threw aside
sentiment ten years ago, when I threw
aside my youth. Ny head at this mo-
ment, if you could see the workings
of it, is full of the prosiest specula-
tions as to the drainage of the cot
tage, the exact character of the sol
on which it stands, for I have strong
suspicion that it is built upon clay.
I am propounding, too, whether like
the kitchen range. The scullery
strikes me as having been thought o
afterward; and about the bathroom
fittings / am just wondering. 1
seems to me they are inadequate, a
compared with the howery suggestion