Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-08-29

let me resume MISS ASnIOn- Inc
basis of our discussion is now youth,
good looks and the 5000 acres, prin-
cipaliy meadow land"
"Mr. Spencer, 7 hate you. I won
| der whether you were ever in love
yourself"
Miss Ashton, let me reassure you.
/ am a man with a past. At four
years of age, / made matrimonial over
lures to my nurse; the good woman
still lives, and my life is Swallowed by
this youthful indiscretion. But come,
we are wandering from our moutons
and the pasture land. Our problem
now is a one-sided owe affair, in
which FREQ Norman is hear broken,
while you are scathless. Had it been
otherwise, 1 should never have been
consulted, 1 am sure"
Mr.. Spencer, how clever of you to
"Let us confine ourselves to facts,
please, Miss Ashton. and do remember
that the property is 5000 acres in a
ring fence"
"Oh, bother the acres! Well, Mr..
by what train I am going back to
town on Wednesday. Now, do you
think he would bel mean if / did,
should I be-You see, no girl in these
days like to be thought absurdly
prudish. does she?"
LET me put it to you in this way,
Miss Ashton. We will agree that you
don't particularly care for Fred Nor
man. Somewhere. lurking in a quiet
corner. you, no doubt, have a girlish
ideal. Let me suggest, perhaps, a
hero with raven locks and a sweeping
moustache, who bites his neither lip,
and PAGES the apartment with long,
irregular strides"
please. do be serious, Mr.. Spencer"
well, now, / must really be quite
serious, Miss Ashton. Suppose some
day that you meet this ideal or some
other ideal, would you quite like to
tell him hat you wrote to young
Norman about your train-as the
strong probability is that, if you do,
he will be your fellow traveller"
"Thank you very much, Mr.. SpeD-
Ger. You can be so nice, when you
like. ] am going in now to make my
self pretty for lunch. 1 wonder where
the others have been all the morn
ing"
It was more than an hour past mid
night; the men of the party stayin"
at Winners court were still lounging
in the smoking room. There is an
entirely baseless superstition among
all men in all country houses that
their combined conversational powers
are equal to the task of keepin"
each other amused for three hours
or so nightly. 1t is a superstition
that will never die, though it is proved
to be an absolute fallacy in hun
dreds of houses night after night.
The flow of talk had gradually dieC
away into spasmodic inanities, when
the signal was given for abrupt de
parture by the remark: 81 wonder
whether any of you remember that
red setter of mine called 'Victor?'"
The drowsiest of smokers jumped to
his feet with miraculous promptitude
and made a dash for the hall The
dreariness and glaring impossibility
of the after-midnight dog story are
beyond human endurance. Fishing
exploits stimulate healthy imaginative
rivalry, but dog stories are funeral.
There are two or three little details
which are never omitted at the adj
iournment of the smoking room par
lament. The first thing is for every
one to express his surprise, in an al
: most injured tone. at the l~ateness OF
the hour: and then, in Difference to
the sleeping household, heavyweight
men creak about on eXasperatingly
noisy tiptoe and exchange hoarse
. shouts of goodnight with one an
other in what they fondly imagine to
be a subdued whisper. AS these in
teresting ceremonies were being per
formed with all due punctilio, some
one noticed a strong smell of burn
: ing wood, indeed, it was so strong
: that he actually ventured to break ii
l upon the boots of goodnight aroun6
. him to draw attention to it.
: You may bet your life, Spencer
I my boy, that this old barrack of yours
L is on fire. You had better rouse the
E servants, and get the womenfoll
down stairs quietly"
= Don't be an ass, Ted, it is no ust
q frightening the ladies out of Their
4 lives-perhaps for nothing. It's prob
ably only something smouldering il
the kitchen, there can have been nS
, other fires lighted in this weather
Let us see where we are first. Conn
along, boys, I'll show you the way
= When the smoking room party in
vaded the sacred precincts of tn
kitchen there was no longer room fol
- doubt about the fire. The roar of tn
flames could be head in the enormou
cavern of the old-fashioned chimney
>, and a brilliant red light shone upol
, the ~hearthstone and the kitchen floor
As the fire brigade reports so quaint
ly phrase it, the kitchen chimney wa
a well alight"
70 "Cut over to the stables, Charlie
IT will you, and get them to saddl
Ouickstep for you, and hurry int
&c Lifted as hard as you can go. TIL
fire engine is at the town hall. The.
N may perhaps turn out a little quick
II err for you than they would for
is groom, and you needn't mind knock
re- ing the horse up; it can't be helped
in Send the men from the stables owe
n here as soon as they have saddle
IF your horse"
"Come along, you men, we can d
" nothing down here. I'll TAX you u
he on the roof by the back stairs. Com
up as quickly as you can. We ha
better get the blankets out of tn