The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-01-10
CHATTER 1Y.

l.
sitting on deck with that delightful
young man who came on board at Brin-
disi. He was tall and slight and had
straw colored mustache. Aggie had al
ways had a sneaking fancy for straw
color. And besides he was seldieg and
aid camp to the lieutenant governor
of somewhere up country. (Aggie's
Indian geography was as deliciously
vague as an Indian secretary's, and
somewhere up country was about as
definite to her as any particular name
of any particular distriGt. She regarded
all India, indeed, as naturally divided
into two main parts-the part where
Phil was stationed and the part where
he wasn't. Further than that she never
tried to go. When people on board talk
ed to her glibly Of the Punjab, Or the
Central Provinces, sahafanpaf, ef Mq=
zaffargarh, she nodded and smiled
benign acquiescence, CLOSING over her
ignorance with the charm of her man
ner.)
Aggie and the handsome young man
got on together admirably, He was 4
certain Captain Angus Stuart-eonjee=
tured from his name to be of Scotch ex-
traction-and he had fallen victim to
Aggie S fluffy hair the very first moment
he ever set eyes OH her. Indeed he had
talked to her for half an hour on deck
in Bripdisi harhor and been desolated to
learn by that time that she was not
only engaged, but actually going out to
io1 tn nxrn1 TsQ-
fiected with certain bland pleasure at
that early stage of their brief acquaint-
ance that there's many slip 'twixt the
cup ana the lip and that people who
go out to India to get married dent AL
ways persevere i'll their prime intention
when they see their beloved i'll his In
dian avatar. Had it not been for that
slight hope Captain Stuart would have
avoided talking to Aggia altegether, for
being a Scotchman he was of course
both prudent and superstitious, and he
felt the very instant he began to talk to
Der that here at last was his undoubted
affinity.
If you have ever lain at anchor in
Brindisi harbor, or ever made trip
from thence by P. and o. to Port Said,
you will be we'll aware that there's
nothing for sensible man TO do with
his time as he skirts the shadowy coast
of Crete but to make love to some fit
and proper person. Now Angus Stuart
was most sensible man, and though he
had too great IA respect for vested inter-
ests exactly to make love to another fell
lows at1ianeed bride on her way pat te
Bombay to join her future husband, yet
1t must be candidly admitted by an Ina
partial historian that he sailed very close
to the wind indeed in that respect and
made himself remarkably agreeable to
Aggie. She had a chaperon, of course.
No well conducted young woman could
trust herself to the Mediterranean and
the Indian ocean withaut the services Of
a chaperon, but what the use OF that in
dispensable article in every young lady's
wardrobe, venture to ask, if it persists
in being seasick and sticking to its berth
the whole way out from London to
Alden? The consequence was that Aggie
and Captain Stuart were thrown a great
deal together during the course OF their
voyage. Whan Aggie sang to the Penin-
sular and Oriental piano in the big sa-
loon, it was Angus Stuart who turned
over the leaves of her music book. When
Aggie sat on deck and declined lunch
with thanks, for pressing reasons, it was
Angus Stuart who brought her up the
unsugared lemonade and one dry biscuit
which alone appealed to her maritime
appetite. Old ladies on board remarked
with malicious glee what pity If was
poor dear Mrs. Mackinnon WASH we'll
enough to come up and look after her
charge. Old gentlemen. observed with
knowing smile that Miss Oswald was
going out to be married at Bombay, but