The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-13

their mines Yesterday They have a private
car as large as SheDler's and even more
sybaritc, and they'd been making a tour
of inspection over their properties. They
lunched with us. Knowing the Milbreys. you
Will divine the warmth of their behavior
toward the son. IL was too FUNNY at nrst.
Avice was the only one to suspect at once
that he was the very considerable person
age~he is, and So she promptly sequestered
him. with skill born of her long practice
in the depths of the earth. somewhere near
China. | fancy. Her dear parents were
furious. Dressed as one of the miners they
took him to be an employe. The whole party,
taking the cue from outraged parenthO0d.
treated him icily when he emerged from
of those subterranean galleries with
that tender sprig of girlishness. That is, we
were icy until on the way up, he remaining
i'm the depths, Avice's dear mother began
to rebuke the thoughtless mink for her in
discretion of strolling through the earth
chatterbox, with joyful malice. revealed
that the young man, whose name none OF
us had caught. was Bines, and that he
owned the mine we were in and she didn' I
know how many others, nor did she believe
he knew himself. You should have felt the
temperature rise. 1t went up faster than we
were going. By the time we reached the
surface the two MilbreyS wore looks That
would have made the angel of peace and
good will look full of hatred and distrust.
Nothing would satisfy them but that we
courtesy. I waited because / remembered
the daughter, and Oldaker and the Ang-
stead twins waited out of decency. And
when the genius Of the mine appeared from
out his golden catacombs we fell upon him
In desperate kindness
Later in. the day l learned from him tina I
he expects to bring his mother and sister 70
New York this fall. and that they mean 10
make their home there hereafter. OF course
that means that the girl has notions of mar
riage. What made me think so quickly or
her is that in San Francisco. at a theater
last winter. she was pointed out to me. and
while do you not the injustice of supposing
it would make the least difference TO you,
she is rather a beauty. you'll find figure
fullish, yellow hair and good-natured,
well-featured, pleasing sort of face; bit
rocco in manner. / suspect; little too san
Francisco, as so many of these Western
beauties are, but you'd not MIND that, and a
year in New York will tone her down any
way.
Now il your dear uncle will only confer a
lasting benefit upon the world and his title
upon you. by paying the only debt he is ever
liable TO pay, l am persuaded you could be
the man here. / know nothing of how the
fortune was left. nor OF Its extent, except
that it s said to be stiffish. and out here that
means a big, round sum. The reason L write
promptly is that you may not go out of the
country just now. That sweet little Milbrey
chit-really, Avice is far too old now for
ingenue parts-has not only grappled the
son with hooks of steel, but from remarks
the good mother dropped concerning the hne
qualities of her son, she means TO convert
the daughters dot into Milbrey prestige
also. What a glorious double stroke it would
be, after all their years of trying. However.
with your title. even in prospective, Fred
Milbrey is no rival for you to fear providing
you are on the ground as soon as he. which
is why 1 wish you to stay in New York.
/ am indeed gratified that you have brok-
en- off whatever affair there may have been
between you and that music hall person.
Really, you know, though they talk so about
US, young man can't mess about with
that sort of thing in New York as he can in
London. So I'm glad she's gone back. and
as she is I'm no position to haom you should
pay no attention to her threats. What under
heaven did the creature expect? Why should
she have wanted to marry you?
l shall see you probably in another Tort
night
You know that Mibrey girl must get her
effrontery direct from where they make II.
She pretended that at first she took young
Bines for what we all took him, an emplOye
of the mine. You can almost catch them
winking at each other, when she tells 1t.
and dear mamma with such beautiful resig-
nation. says. my Avice is so impulsively
democratic Dear Avice, you know, is real
ly quite as impulsive as the steel bridge our
train has just ratified over. Sincerely,
JOSEPHINE PRESTON DRELMER.
From Miss Avice Milbrey to Mrs. Cornelia
Van Geist, New York.
Mutterchen, dearest, i feel like that green
hunter you had to sell last sprins-the one
that would go at fence with the most
perfect display of serious intentions, and
then balk and bolt when Ii came 10 jump
ing. Can it be that i. who have been trained
from the cradle to the idea of marrying for
money, will bolt the gate after all the ex-
pense and pains lavshed upon my educa-
ton to this end; after the years spent in
learning how to enchant, Subdue and ex-
plot the most useful OF all animals, and
the most agreeable. barring a few? And
yet, right when I'm fittest-twenty-four
years old. knowing all my good points and
just how TO coerce the most admiration
for each. able nicely to calculate the exact
disturbing effect of the ensemble upon any
poor male. and feeling confident OF my ex-
cessively eligible paru when L decide for
HMM this situation, striven FOR so ear
nestly, | feel like boiling the bars. How
my trainer and jockey would weep tears of
rage and despair II they guessed it!
There. there-I know your Shrewd gray
eyes are cracking with curiosity and you
want to know what it's all about. whether
to ecold me or mother me, and Will
please omit the entrees and get to the roast
mutton. But you dear. dear old aunt you,
there Is more vagueness than detail. and |
know I'll strain your patience before I've
done. But. to relieve your mind, nothing at
all has really happened. After all, it's
mostly a troublesome state Of mind, that L
shall doubtless find gone when We reach
Jersey City-and in two ways this Western
trip Is responsible for IT, Do you know the
Journey itself has been fascinating. Too
bad so many of US cross the ocean twenty
times before we know aenything of this
country. We loiter in Paris, d0' the stupid
German watering places. the Norway fiords
down to Italy for the museums. the
chateaux Of the Loire, or do the English
race tracks, thinking we're unused: and all
the time out here where the sun goes down
is an intensely interesting and beautiful
country OF our own that we overlook. You
know I'd never before been even as far as
Chicago. Now, for the first time, / can APP
preciate lots of those things in Whitman,
that
81 think heroic deeds were all conceived in
the open air. and free poems. also.
Now ] see the secret of making the best
persons:
II is to grow in the open air and TO eat and
sleep with the earth.
I mayn't have quoted correctly, but you
know the sort of thing / mean. that sounds