The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1904-02-17
CHARM OF THE OVERHEARD
Strange Fascirntion OF Remarks Not
Meant For Our Ears.

SCrlNye fNScSN:ltlSN o. HSmurkAS NoS
Meant For Our Ears.
Why is it that the legitimate conver-
sations Of our associates to which we
have harkcucd from the beginning and
which we are predesiined to follow
slackly to the end. should so often fail
to interest US, whereas the interrupted
remarks we overhear and which were
never meant for our ears, I'll US with
the livelicst curiosity and concern? The
breaking off Of 4 serial story is a trial
to most mems minds. But we know
that another month will bring another
number The inevitable breaking OF
of q cauSerie in which we have 10
share fills US with a sense Of hopeless
and irremediable loss. once over
heard an old English lady say, with
slow emphasis, to a friend: 1T is
charming book, a charming book. 1t
is just the kind Of I book you would
want to give to your dressmaker." And
for fifteen years have speculated IN
vain as to what that volume was.
Apart from the manifest indlScreton
Of giving any book to one dressmaker
and thus withdrawing her attention
from ones clothes. the only appropr1-
ate literature l can think Of IS the in
structye history of -Ananias and Sap
phira, and that has ceased to charm.
4 man waiting patiently at the glove
counter of New York department
store heard one young shopwoman say
no another as she handed down box
Of gloves, Maria told him downright
shed have nothing more to do with
him, and she called him poison faced
adder, he gripped her in the waltz
that scandalous.
This was ALL Customers clamored
for attention, and the confidence ceased
at this point. But the force and rich
ness of the language, the liveliness OF
the aliusion. captivated the hearers
soul He confessed that for years aft
erward, when he was waltzing, with
decorous reluctance under the compel
ling eye of his hostess, memories Of Ma
ria's partner would assail him and he
would find himself envying the adder
the mysterious nature Of his enthusi-
asn.
It sometimes happens that fortune
favors us beyond our deserts or our de-
sires, and the conversation to which
we have no right to listen, but which
we cannot we'll help hearing, goes on
as TRANQUILITY in q railway carriage or
on a steamer deck Us though we were
not in close and helpless proximity.
English travellers are particularly eS-
haustive in their condolences and par
ticularly Indifferent to their surround
ings. In one hour on q Como boat I
have learned q whole family history,
full of purely domestic features-how
Dan had been sent to school at Lau-
same because he was so troublesome
and the school so cheap, and how Con-
nie "a sister-in-law, ! think made the
castle q most unpleasant place Of
residence, and how, Laura, with her
three children. came to stay week
Just when granny was dying, which
was. tc say the least, inconven!ent, and
how the trouble between Harold and
his yyife lay entirely in the bringing up
OF the children. At this point the de-
tails became too intimate for repeti-
tion, though there was no question Of
them from my ears. I
felt like fellow countryman who once
travelled fro:l Bordeaux to Paris in the |
company of a young Englishwoman,
her sister. nurse and child. 81 entered !
that railway carriage" he said. "an in
nocent American bachelor; left it ca
pable Of running day nursery, an in
FAINT schoo! or a mothers congress-
Agnes Re7nl;er in Life.