The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-07
are delightfully picturesque. Isn't that a


nave found an answer to that dismal
question, is life worth living? The re-
ply is, Yes, when you can infuse some
fun and adventure into it. And now,
having made a clean breast of all our
sins, must leave Off II is time to make
the beds and turn in. Hoping that you
Will enjoy your holiday as much as we
are enjoying ours, believe us TO remain,
your affectionate nieces Edna and Clare
Armstrong"
We'll, upon my word" gasped Mrs.
FERGUSON, when she came to the conclus-
ion OF this epistle. What do you say
to that. Tom? / never heard of such go
ings on in all my life Those girls will
have no characters left by the time they
come home. Fancy, picking up two stray
men in that promscuous fashion. 1t
amt decent. No. positively, it amt de-
cent"
1T may be very nice, as Edna says"
rejoined Mr.. Ferguson, but young men
are young men, and if they amuse them
selves at the pretty gipsies' expense, no
one can blame them. l should do the
same in their place"
"Thomas!" calculated Mrs. Ferguson,
in tones of severe reproval
Il mean, my dear, if l were thirty years
younger or SO, and hadn't you to keep me
in order"
You may thank your stars you're mar
ried to me. Not one woman in a nun
dred would have kept you straight. You'd
be regular Don Juan If you got the
chance
Il never get it," sighed the oppressed
husband under his breath.
"A good thing for you that you don't.
AS for Edna and Glare, l consider they
have entirely ruined their matrimonial
prospects by this idiotc freak of theirs.
Directly they return to town it win be all
over the place that they have been ram
paging about the country in a common
gypsy cart
Now. anyone who has observed the pro-
gression of the vehicle designated, will
be aware that "rampaging" was scarce
ly the proper term to apply; but Mrs.
Ferguson was exceedingly indignant, and
when in one of her wrathful moods had
no action of allowing her flow of Ian
guage to be checked just for want of
an appropriate word Like many of her
sex, she was more eloquent than accu-
rate when aroused, and often showed a
fine disregard for grammar.
A whole fortnight now went by and al
though the excellent lady posted on an
average three letters a day to her nieceS,
imploring them toaconsider their reputa-
tons, and to abandon their vagabond
mode of living, no answer was Vouch-
safed to these numerous appeals She
ended by getting seriously uneasy, and
was convinced Edna and Clare must have
been fallen upon by some horrid drunken
tramp and foully murdered. Every morn
ing she searched the criminal columns,
expecting to see the account of some hid
eous tragedy, in which the unfortunate
girls figured as heroines. She even con-
templated going to Guildford and tracing
them step by step, until at last she should
find herself in a position to identify the
mangled remains of the victims. Mrs
Ferguson was in this unhappy and des-
perate state of mind, when, lo one fine
morning the postman delivered long let
ter from Edna, whose contents fairly
amazed the recipient. We will let the girl
tell her story in her own words
Dear Aunt" she wrote. Such news.
l wonder what you and uncle will say to
it. Both Glare and l are engaged to be
married And who do you think to? But
you will never guess, so l may as well in
form you at once that we are the at
fanced brides of Mr. Treherne and Sir
Arthur Cochrane. From very shame
have not been able to write before, for
since you last heard from me we have
never left the gates of Perryvale park.
Let me confess that the situation had
charms beyond the mere scenery. We
soon discovered this fact However, to
begin at the beginning. l told you we
were going to have our pictures taken by
Mr. Treherne. He appeared the next
morning, and Sir Arthur accompanied
him, although he doesn't paint l don't
know exactly how it came about, but we
all got very friendly and intimate, and 1t
shortly became evident that the portraits
could not be completed unless we con-
scented to give several sittings. Mr.. Ire
herne took nearly the whole of the first
day to sketch US in to his satisfaction.
Meanwhile, we puzzled our artist and
his cousin tremendously. That was easy
to tell They could not make out who,
n three Va
they paid US marked attention, but in
rather a free and easy, condescending sort
of way, as if they thought us very much
their interiors. This 'riled' us both, and
we soon made them see that though we
might be gipsies, we would not stand any
nonsense. The correctness of our behav-
Tor produced a decided effect. Our adj
mirers cooled off and became much more
stiff and constrained; yet the odd thing
was, the picture did not progress any
faster, and every morning saw them out
side the park gates, close by our cart
Glare and I remained dignified and re-
served, but we couldn't make up our
minds to spoil all poor Mr.. Trehernes
academy prospects by going away before
he had finished with his models.
cat the end of the first week, however,
we began TO talk seriously of leaving.
Mr. TAeherne implored us 10 stay few
days longer, appealing TO our artistic SEN
Sl0lllt1eS ana NdnllltSf anu We yA1Ah't "
his entreaties. Perhaps we did so the
more readily, because on cross-question-
ing each other, we discovered that we
had both developed a remarkable affec-
zion for the neighborhod of Guildford,
and had no immediate desire to pursue
our travels. Anyhow, we stopped; and
that picture is 70 blame for everything
that has happened since. Well another
week went by. and all that can be said
for us is, we were four young fools to-
gether Glare and l were living in para
disc. brt each day made us feel more
and more the improperly Of the sit
uation We realized that things could not
20 on as they were doing, and determined
before matters got too serious to steal
secretly away.
"Our preparations made, we intended to
depart this very evening. At noon Mr.
Treherne appeared unaccompanied by Sir
Arthur, which seemed to me strange. He
begged to be allowed to see Clare alone
stating that he had a very particular com
municaton to make to her. She turned
as red as a peony all Of a sudden and
very considerably retired into the cart
and left the young people to themselves
And what do you think Mr.. Treherno