Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-08-19
MAKING A
 SHOW
By D. j. FINLAY

1 lcoo, ludl uc Wd6 iuOIt COulm uulCdtlV'
 and companionable than any relative
 outside of my immediate family. H.
 would sit down and spin yarns for mt l by the hour whenever we were together
 but there was one subject on which, fol
 a number of years, had failed to draw 1 him out; and that was often a matter of serious thought to me, and deter
 mined to find good opportunity to gel 1 at the facts of the case
 1 One evening, as we sat together in my uncle's comfortable mansion. I found him in very communicative mood, and
 partaking rather freely of his choice old
 sherry, of which he kept good supply
 and. to my astonishment, he preached the subject which I had promised to bring up
 My dear boy" said he. q suppose you
 have often wondered why remained all
 old bachelor?"
 "Yes, uncle," I said, in an airy, of- hand way, which did not at all betray the depth of my curiosity. q am sure you must have had ample opportunity to see
 the cream of society and make suitable
 choice of a companion"
 Well" said he, T will tell you; and
 the story may be good subject foryou.
 dreams of future speculation.
 When was young man was rath-
 CT fond of making good show in so-
 ciety. At times this was performed on very limited capital. Shortly after I settled in New York, made the ac- guaintance of beautiful and estimable young lady, Miss Clorinda Swan, and I lost no time in paving the way for a matrimonial alliance with her
 -"One evening the subject of converse tion between us ran upon operas. and the upshot of it was that invited
 Ciorinda to go to the Academy of Mu- sic the next evening As have said, my means were then rather limited. and now had just enough left to pay for the tickets, but no surplus for carriage. supper and ct ceteras. With these de- termined to dispense, as thought my fair Clorinda was too sensible to be affected by the loss.
 Fortune favored me at the start; the evening was fine and the weather dry, so at the appointed time I made my appearance. dressed in the best I could afford. and waited patiently for Clorinda. She soon put all my fears on the carriage question to flight by assur- ing me that she preferred walking.
 We chatted gayly on the way to the Academy, and were in due time for the performance. which was the opera of Martha with a popular prima donna in the leading role. Of the performance I need not speak The opera was all that we could desire, and was rendered most admirably.
 When the performance was over we descended the stairs amid the. gay throng, and soon reached the sidewalk. But. oh, horror of horrors! It was rain ing! What was to do? To get car riage, without having cent to pay for it, made my blood run cold. A happy thought occurred to me in a moment, and in a nervous whisper I asked Clorinda if she had rubbers on; but, to my dismay, she answered.:
 No; my boots are very light, too. and could not think of walking. We must get a carriage '-- "Of course there was nothing left for l me but to face the music, and I hailed | one of the many drivers who were anx- ious to get passengers. assisted my 1 fair Clorinda to seat, and in few mo- | ments we were whirling along through l the rain. Hardly had we gone two blocks when Clorinda said she was hun gry, and asked me to stop and get SUD- | per. My feelings can easier be imag- | ined than described. as thought of my empty pockets, and tried to reason her out of eating so late at night. All my arguments were fruitless, however. for my dear Clorinda was not to be thwarted.
 Thinking that fortune might be- friend me by some means then a mys- .ery to me, ordered the driver to stop at the nearest restaurant We entered the saloon and took seats at table in he center of the room. I determined to eat as little as possible, but Clorinda ras not by any means so delicate, and quietly took the liberty of ordering what she wanted. In vain looked around o see if by chance the saloon contained Tn acquaintance: but. to my dismay. lot familiar face was visible.
 As you may imagine. I was not in a ,urry to leave the table. but my con- ,anion began to show signs of restless Inxiety to get home, so thought had letter start and have 1t over as soon as ossible
 T had formed many plans of how ras 10 pacify the cashier at the desk. ut the wretch had more human nature q him than I imagined. |
 While walking down the saloon turned to Ciorinda and suggested that he had better go out and get into the arriage while 1 was settling the bill nd buying some cigars. which want q to take with me. To this. fortunate '. she made no objection. q walked on till I came in front of he smiling individual who was waiting 1 pr my cash. and with as bold an air of innocence as I could assume. I told him had forgotten my pocketbook in the urry of getting ready for the theater.