Connecticut western news., 1896-07-09

"As we have both come very long distances and indisputably upon the same quest" she began, ''it is but fair, in deed the right and civil thing to do, think. to ask you if you have come to any decision about the house? I be- leve"-here her eyebrows went up, and she showed gleam of teeth-'in all business matters man takes precedence. !"
 But, in matters of sentiment" he interrupted her, woman"
 "Sentiment?" she said. "Do you think, then, that even in her business transactions & woman is necessarily sen- timentalf"
 "I certainly dc" he answered.
 She moved on down nearer the Jagged edge of the reach and stood looking away across it to the green meadows op- posite, each detail of her charming per son duplicated in the water with dis tracting accuracy.
 "Ah, if you knew me better" she said, "you would find that am 8 most prosaic creature. I threw aside senti- ment ten years ago, when threw aside my youth. My head at this moment, if you could only see the workings of it, is full of the prosiest speculations as to the drainage of the cottage, the exact character of the soil on which it stands, for have strong suspicion it is built upon clay. I am propounding, too, whether I like the kitchen range. The scullery strikes me as having been thought of afterward, and about the bathroom fittings am just wondering. It seems to me they are inadequate, as compared with the howery suggestion of sanitary perfection conveyed in The Daily Telegraph; and, we'll, the draw ing and dining rooms are certainly rath- ar circumscribed, aren't they?"
 "Yet, at the same time, you are agree ably pleased on the whole?" be suggest ed.
 "On the principle that nothing, even in six roomed cottages on the banks of the Thames, can entirely reach the full ness of our expectations-yes-"
 He smiled and spread his hands.
 "In that respect the best of us are but as little children ever searching after what is absolutely impossible in this world-perfection," he answered.
 "Yes, why is it? We should not like it if we could get it either. Yet we search, search, search, and waste our whole lives.
 She turned her arch glance toward him and waited.
 Ut is our disease. Perhaps it is put there purposely that we should not grow too fond of living. Besides-and here comes the irony of tiff every thing were perfection we shouldn t know it. "
 "No, we should want counteracting foils, like milestones, to show us it is perfection. Her eyes travelled up the green slope toward the house, and she added, reverting to it: But you, you also, like this by no means faultless bi- jou residence. Yes, can see by your face. Your face assures me that you have seen something today that pleases you"
 He dropped his hazel eyes upon her and leaned on his cane.
 "Yes," he said slowly. "I have cer- tainly seen something that pleases me today. But," he added quickly, "I am willing to waive priority if l have it, which doubt, in your favor and back out of all competition with regard to the bijou residence. After all. what does it signify I am a bachelor; any thing will do for me"
 "And am spinster, she said with smile. "Why should not anything do fsr me?" ...-
 For all their never 'avin met till this ere morning, they seem to be mighty friendly" observed the care taker watching their departure down tbe shady road together later. "It seems to me to, be more question of taking each other than taking the house. They ain't said nothing about the house enc way or t'other, but they lave said . good deal about each other judging by their eyes"
 The woman picked more wild flowers e she went back, the man assisting her. Midway down the dusty lane they rested on a fallen oak, the victim of recent cyclone, and told each other their biog- raphies. At the inn, close to the rail | way, they lunched together in the inn parlor, criticising the proprietor's ideas | of art afterward, task of elastic qual- ity according to the degree of opportu- nity for lingering desired. And she-she | never looked prettier, even in her palm fest days
 Have you ever traced the genesis of an acquaintance? It may be quite as capa' ble of wide advances and undreamed conclusions as the genesis of speech. You may begin in the tropic of Cancer and end in Siberia; or you may begin il Siberia and end in the tropio of Cancer it's all a matter of chance. But thi: man and this woman began and ended in the tropic of Cancer, and so there wal marriage in the paper, but the hijor Hesidence is still unlet. .-George Wemysl in Sketch.