The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1902-12-05

Z Nashville, Tenn.
w.ss..* i !. +
mo indeed; | feel better for it"
"Are you equal to an.evening out?"
81 guess so, if it's sufficiently
mild
It'll be mild enough. You know
we have a magnate here, Mr.. Jasper
Grierson?"
eyes, I've heard of him."
swell, he has daughter, and this
is her evening I'm commanded to
produce you as soon as you're able"
"I'H go, though I shan't know any
one but your mother and Miss Ger,
trude."
Raymer laughed, and then blushed.
"rhey won't be there. That is
Oh pshaw! 1 suppose / may as well
tell you first as last. There are two
social c1iques here, big one and
little one. Miss Grierson is la dame
d'honneur of the first, and my moth
err and Gertrude affiliate with the
other"
81 see," said Griswold. "And you
hold an even balance between the
two"
"N-o-not exactly. But I'm under
obligations to Grierson, and can't az
ford to be offish. But Miss Margery
is a very clever little person, and well
worth knowing on her own account.
I'll call by for you with the buggy
at nine."
"Thank you," said the GONZALES
cent; adding, as if it were an after
thought: "Will Miss Farnham be
there?"
Hardly" rejoined Raymer, gather
ing up the reins. "She is with the
minority, too. Queer little world,
isn't it? So long, till this evening.
Better 60 in and lie down awhile"
CHAPTER XVII.
On the way to Miss Grierson's
"eyening" Gyiswold amused himself
by specializing upon the probable
barbarism of country reception.
without suspecting it, he was insu-
lar to degree little short OF
Britannica; but he meant to be very
good-natured and charitable, and TO
do what one man might toward
ameliorating the barbarisms.
Wherefore he was properly humili-
ated when they were met at the door
of the Grierson mansion by trained
servants and announced in the draw
ing-room with such pomp and CIR
cumstance as was neither countrl-
fed nor barbaric. In good truth the
reyulsion was so great that it was
he and not Miss Grierson who was
embarrassed when Raymer intro
duced him.
.How good of you to come to us
on your first day out, Mr.. Griswold.
Let me make you comfortable" Sac
piled the cushions in corner of the
wide divan and made him sit down.
"You are just to be an invalid this
evening, you know I'm not going
to let anyone bore you.
Griswold gasped once or twice, and
grappled manfully with the facts. A
young girl was at the piano; there
was a pleasant hum of conversations;
everybody himself excepted, seemed
quite at ease; the lights were not
glaring; the furnishings were not in
bad taste; in word, the keynote
was altogether weil-mannered and
..ul..r and conventional 9
And his hostess. Griswold had
met beautiful women, but none to
compare with her. She shone upon
and dazzled him. The charm was
purely sensuous, and he knew it, but
he basked in it like a lizard in the
sun. But he was forgetting to thank
her.
oForgiye me, Miss Grierson; I'm
not usually tongue-tied. But it is all
so charmingly homelike; SO vastly"
She supplied the word with sill
very little laugh.
"Different. l know. You thought
we were barbarians, and so we used
to be. But we're improving. | wish
YOU could have known the old Wa
haska."
II can imagine it, he said.
81 wonder if you can. They used
to sit around the edges OF the room
and behave themselves just as hard
as they could, and bore each other
to DEATH"
..It's miracle" he said, giving her
full credit. I'D like to know how
you did it,
She laughed lightly and did not
deny her handiwork. ut was simple
enough. When we came here
found lot of good people who had
fallen :nto q way Of boring one An
other, and few who hadn't; but
these last held aloof. We opened our
house to the many and tried to show
them that church sociable wasn't
exactly the acme Of social enjoy
ment."
Griswold saw in his minds eve Q
sharply etched pictnre. Of the rise OF
a village magnate. Verify, Miss