The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1896-12-03
TOO YOUNG TO MARRY

johnnie Madison dWelt In NOrman'S
inn when he first came to London He
was the only son of his mother, and
she was a canon's widow. 1t was at
her desire that he set up his household
goods under the time-worn gables of
Norman's inn; for there also dwelt a
kinsman of the late canon's, Arkwright
by name, who was always alluded to in
the family as "a steady, plodding young
man." and was supposed to live amid
picturesque litter of briefs and books;
and the canon's widow hoped he might
exercise a mildly restraining influence
over Johnnie, being nearly twice his
age.
Now the steady, plodding young man
looked forward to his arrival without
enthusiasm. He remembered Johnnie
as very inky schoolboy of phenomenal
lung power and unprepossessing ap-
pearance, and felt assured that by now
he should have developed into rakish
young man with taste for small dogs
and large neckties, and greatly given
to entertaining noisy company; we'll
knowing that the chastened atmos-
phere of cathedral town does not nee
essarily induce an affection for quiet
living in the youthful breast.
Johnnie, however, proved to be
fresh-colored, amiable youth of %,
more plentifully endowed with muscle
than with brain power, and with no ap-
30 TIM, 4 ta% olry
to grief amid what Arkwright would
have called-he sometimes wrote for
the papers-the shoals and quicksands
of London life. He neither gambled
nor drank, nor gave his mind too en-
tlrely to the lightly clad allurements of
light opera. On the contrary. he read
with industry as though already covet-
Gus of the woolsack, he danced and
dined assiduously at houses of ire
proachable responsibility; and, in Ark
wright's company, when he did not
talk cricket he talked shop.
/ Then by degrees, when returned from
nocturnal adventures, he began to favor
Arkwright with many condolences re-
garding his attitude toward various
members of the other sex; for Johnnie's
affairs Of the heart became at last
alarmingly numerous. Not that he
aimed at playing the part Of Don
Juan; but, being of highly inf1ammable
material, his heart was successfully
ignited by pleasing variety of dam
sells.
rate brought him face to face with
the one and inevitable damsel at last.
however. Audrey St. Clair was a dark
eyed girl Of 20; Johnnie thought her
charmingly fresh and natural. Mrs.
Leverson's ball was a rapturous occa-
sion to him, and Mrs. Leverson's niece
Audrey entirely dispossessed all other
\ idols, from that date, of the pedestal
upon which Johnnie had successfully
placed them.
OF Mrs. Leverson herself her enemies
said that she had been pretty; elderly
gentlemen had been known to call her
fine woman, while young ones thought
her mot halfbad fun" She possessed
an abundance of obviously dyed hair,
a somewhat ELUSIVE manner and a
faultless taste IN dress. The late Ia
mented Captain Leverson had INDUCED
q taste for speculation, with disastrous
results, and hence the few people who
remembered her were surprised to find
the widow when she returned from a
long absence abroad so comfortably in.
stalled as she was In her house at Chel-
sea.
johnnie she seemed to hold in high
favor. He was allowed to take her and
her niece through the polite mobs OF
the picture galleries; he never failed to
appear at her at homes" and he fire.
quently made one at her theater par
ties. But, although he thought Mrs
Leyerson "aw'Hy kind, and all that sort
of thing" she would have preferred tc
see her niece subject to less worldly In
fluences than those brought to beai
upon her.
In accordance with the fitness o.
things, he vaguely imagined she should
always be dressed in white, wander
ing through sheltered rose gardens ant
INDUCING an amiah!e solicitude TO
birds and dogs and poor old cottagers-
village Lady Bounti2ul, in short. An'
to tell the truth the unconscious maidel