The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-08-08
A TUNNEL KISS.

Fraulein Martha, Il pretty blue eyed
blond, sat in a second class carriage
III a train which was hurrying to-
ward the Rhine. We had struck up
ali acquaintance, as tourists often do.
AS u rule, l don't care to have any
thing to do with my fellow passen-
gers, but Fraulein Martha had quite
captivated me. AS she entered the
compartment for nonsmokers l had
taken her travelling bag from her
hand and put it carefully on the rack
for her. Then l had resigned my COR
ner seat to her and put up the Win
dow SO as to protect her from the
draft, which she found too strong.
AS the train started we exchanged a
word in praise of the weather, which
had become much cooler after a
heavy rain and was very pleasant for
travelling, and we gradually got into
Il very interesting conversation.
Fraulein Martha chatted very nice
ly and made no p%retension to super
fine education. She could not be call
ed young, but when she laughed she
became child. Her laugh was clear
and silvery, and her face lost its
rather serious expression. This in
duced me to make all kinds of jokes,
which evidently amused her i'm
mensely. When a girl laughs as
Fraulein Martha did, the man who
provokes the laughter becomes a
humorist in spite of himself. She
was d capital listener, too, and it is
a rare thing to find a good listener
among the "other sex" AS she lis
tened her face responded to all l said.
Besides being SO charming mentally
she had a very pretty, elegant figure,
which the eye of a connoisseur (my
eyo) never wearied of watching and
discovering new traits of beauty.
She was dressed in a very simple
travelling gown which displayed to
perfection all the pretty lines of her
form.
She was not alone. In the next
seats of the compartment sat a mar
ried couple, and opposite them was
their daughter, a pretty, shy girl
who had just emerged from the
bread and butter miss state. These
people were relatives of Fraulein
Martha, who, when l asked her to
tell me something about them, said
that the man was called Fenchel and
was possessed of the mistaken idea
that he was the wisest mani in Chris
tendon. He thought that he could
hear tho grass grow if he tried to,
though, as a matter of fact, he never
did try to, and also that he possessed
the gift of prophecy.
To him coming events always con-
siderately cast their shadows before.
If he did not happen to have foretold
an event before it happened, it was
simply because it had Slipped his
memory; another time he wouldn't
forget. Frau Fenchel admired her
husbands extraordinary qualities
and therefore did not dare to contra.
dict him when he asserted that the
young man who was sitting with her
daughter was nc son-in-law for him,
for it was easy to see that once mar
ried the young rascal would turn out
u thorough Don Juan and would
cause unheard of misery in the
household.
The young man in question, who
was called Taube, Bernhard Taube,
did not look likely to fulfill such a
prophecy. He was as shy as Fraulein
Roschen Fenchel, with whom he was
deeply in love. Both these facts were
quite evident. The most daring deed
he had eve perpetrated was when
Herr Fenchel, having informed him
that he intended to accompany his
wife and daughter to the Rhine on
the following Wednesday, he (Taube)
had said that, strange to say, he, too,
was going to the Rhine OF the same
day and, with Herr Fenchel's per-
mission, would join them.
This was not very agreeable to old
Fenchel. In the first place, as a
prophet he ought to have foreseen
the young mans intended journey.
and, secondly, he was afraid that
Taube's society would be more &C.
ceptable to Roschen than he ap-
proved of.
In the latter assumption he was
right. Roschen was as happy as Herr
Taube, although the young people
had only ventured to hint as much
to Frau Fenohel, who, aware of her
husband s aversion to Taube because
of his concealed Don Juan proclivi-
ties, had limited in return that Ros-
chen was too young to think of love
and Harr Ta, II ba u,ao not old opo,,ob