The Saint Paul globe., 1900-06-05
CHORT STORY
y OF THE Day.
DEGEVERS EVER.

dCQuII0O- ne Iudu VI the WOrlQ VINO mas
| tried all things and held fast that which
| is bad may go adj to pieces over some
| Henrietta, through whose Wiles the green
| boy from the country district would see
| in an instant. The capitalist and the
| bank president fall victim to quite as
! many bunco games as the farmer and the
| cowboy. And the same lack of rule holds
! good in the world of women. The blush
! Ing maiden from a French convent may
| be quite as able to take care Of herself as
| the young woman who has absorbed mod
! ern hctlon, seen men and manners of
| many sorts and been given her own head
in all things. 1t is a matter of common
| sense and intuition, and it all depends
| upon the girl
But Miss Porter's father did not see
+, that. He had theories to the contrary
| and he believed in letting a girl from her
| earliest infancy see all she wanted of the
| world, that, having attained to maturity
| she might be able to judge accurately for
| herselt 1t was a comfortable theory,
| moreover, and saved Judge Porter trou-
| Die. There were thOse-certain neighbors
and friends of little Miss Porter's de-
| ceased mother-who would not admit tha t
! 1t was theory at ALL They said that
Porter neglected his only child and let
| her run wild.
| AT the age of five little Miss Porter was
! a gourmet; smoked her cigarettes with an
| air and swore huently But at the age
| Oh twenty she was as innocent-if not as
| ignorant-as the aforesaid convent maiden
! Is popularity supposed to be-
1t was at this period that she met CAL
verley. He was English and handsome
| ana agreeable. One of her not entirely
unobJectionable girl friends had presented
| him. and, after the custom Of America
| and more especially of the West. nothing
1urther was necessary. If Miss Porter
| thought about 1T at all, she thought it
| would have been the height Of folly and
! lnhospltal1ty to have asked further uues-
! tlons. She had managed all those little
| matters alone. Judge Porter believed that
| she was equal to it by reason of his train
| ing; and, besides, he had other things to
| attend to.
But by and by one of the aforesaid
friends of her mother decided, after much
prayer and fasting, that it was her OBJ
Vlous duty to warn Miss Porter, since
there was no one else to do 1t. She
tremoled at the necessity. Once. In the
| Gays or Miss Porter's tender infancy
| some good advice had been met with a
| storm OF bad language, at the mere mem
| ory OF which the good lady had shud-
| dered and shriveled ever since. But that
| nad peen long years before Miss Porter s
ldhgua was moderate now, not only
moderate but slightly British, as aDDear-
| ed when she received her mothers friend
| ana LED her to coZy corner and proceed
| ed to brew her tea.
Inc O'Clock tea habit had never been
| very strong with Miss Porter. Doubtless
| 1t was another result of the Influence Of
! CalVerley-who was just then in the IL
prary across the hall smoking and read
| ing. and making himself entirely at home
y! saw you at the theater the other
night, began the elder woman
YES said Miss Porter
Who was the man you were with?"
IL was the scandal of Miss Porters set
which was good one in spite of all
that she did without chaperons upon
most occasions. II daresay it was Mr.
Calverley,' said Miss Porter She knew
it was, and SO did the other
"Calverley? Do I know him? What
is the rest of his name?'
Miss Porter tried not to look proud as
she spoke the sonorOus syllables and en-
phasized the hyphen. 'Tt was Giles
Hartpole Clayton-Calverley," she said
OH! said her mothers friend; "and
where Is he FROM"
He was from England. from London
OH she said again; "and who is
he?"
Miss Porter informed her that he was
well connected-splendidly connected. She
was little vague. but tnat was because
she could not keep all the names at her
tongue s END.
How had she met him? It was be-
coming decidedly cross-questioning, and
Miss Porter raised her brows. There
was the same look in the baby-biue eyes
beneath them that had preceded the evil
language years ago. But she was quite
deadly civil now. II met him through
friend. Were you at the dance last
night?" she said.
I'LL tell you about that later Tell me
TN,I-
perfectly sure about him? One has to be
so careful of these Englishmen who are
not properly accredited"
Miss Porter laughed-a naughty laugh.
Not properly accredited. indeed A friend
of the prince, a relative of more or less
+ half the peerage, on nickname terms
with all sorts of dukes and lords and
things, a man of his perfectly apparent
means! Not properly accredited, indeed.
Her rebuke was terrible, though brief.
She mentioned her own judgment and
knowledge of the world, and her mothers
friend withdrew, baff1ed, yet doubling.
AS she went, she caught sight of Cal
verley in a big, leathern chair before the
fire, smoking his briar pipe, and that
night she told her husband about it.
what can John Porter be thinking OFF,
she demanded.
His own troubles, perhaps" he sug-
gested.
."The man is taking possession of the
whole place"
Her husband dropped into poetry:
." His easy, unswept hearth he lends
From Labrador to Guadaloupe:
Till, elbOwed out by sloven friends,
He camps, at sufferance, on the stoop.'
1.-The Spanish is bad. but the senti
ment's all there"
Some one ought to put stop to It."
Don't you be the some one, then. Let
her work out her Own-salvation. If she
is in love with him, she'll do as she
likes; if she isn't, it won't matter"
There was presently no doubt about her
being in love with him. She was frank
in most things, was Miss Porter There
was but one matter in which she could
bring herself to dissemble. and only then
because Calverley impressed the great
necessity for it upon her. He explain
ed that though he loved her to madness
and must marry her, there were some
times reasons which Americans could not
understand why it was best for English
men who were friends of the prince, and
so very well connected as he was, to
keep their marriages secret for a time
The girl from the French convent might
have seen through that But Miss POr-
ter believed it. Any way, the notion Of
an elopement rather appealed to her
Californian love of the picturesque. Upon
the day set she went over across the
bay with a light heart, and made her
way to the sequestered spot where he
was to meet her and take her to the
church. He was not there. She wait
ed, but he did not come.
At sunset she recrossed the bay alone,
a sadder but not yet a wiser girl. Such
was her judgment and knowledge of the
world that she thought Calverlsy must