Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1905-02-01

! His Ideal Woman
INSTRUMENTATION

hack from India was to spend
week with my people in the country
A good deal can happen in five year;
and we naturally had plenty to tall
about. But l tore myscif away a
last with a promiseeto return TO
August and settle myself in town il
my old lodgings off st. James street
Apart from the yapIous business
matters requiring my attention
my investments had not improved
during my absence, and it was nee
essary to cast my eye about for 9th
er securities-London at the mo
ment appealed to me irresistibly.
There within the four mile radius
was massed the whole of what | haC
missed during my five years in re
mote station in Burma-the life
the motion, the perpetual sense OF
something going on, of being in
close proximity, if not in absolute
contact, with the source of current
modes of thought, of hearing the
ceaseless hum of the wheels of civ
ilization, the throb of actually, OF
which not even the echoes had pene-
trated to the squat white bungalow
on the banks of the Irawadi, where
the monotony had not been varied
by even so much as moments
fighting, and one made up for saw
ing ones intellectual by overfeed-
ing ones physical instincts.
Once in town | found myself
plunged into q vortex of amusement.
There were old friends to be looked
up" When Cooked up" they in
sisted on dinner, to be followed by
theater or music hall. Some of the
men | had "done the town" with
five years before had got married.
I had to make the acquaintance of
their wives. Others who had been
married had been divorced. l had
to forget that they had ever been
married.
One way and another l was so
busy that it was not till the end of
a month that l remembered that |
had not seen Wetherby. He had al
ways been zone of us" III the old
days at Oxford and elsewhere, pre-
pared for anything and everything,
and | could not make out how it
was that / had not already come
across him.
"Oh, Wetherby," said Benson, the
stockbroker, when l asked him what
had happened to our old friend, 1--WE
never see Wetherby now. He is sup
posed to be in love. For myself, |
believe he was just going to marry
a girl, and she died, with the result
That he has been brooding over her
death ever since.
Anyway, no one ever seems to
see him anywhere, though he's still
got the same old rooms in the tenn
pie. Go and look him up by all
means, but ], don't suppose you'll be
able to see him, or, if you do, to get
out of him. AS | say, he
never seems to 60 out anywhere,
though, as you know he used to be
'uch great ladies' man.
"With strong views as to the ideal
yoman," I put in, remembering va
.ious conversations we had had on
he subject.
eyes," assented Benson, che was
Ilways great on the woman ques-
ion, talking about the perfect !
ype' and all that sort of bosh. He |
Ilways was a bit of dreamer"
"Perhaps," said maliciously, !
that may account for his never be- |
ng seen now. He may have found |
his type and be keeping her to him
elf"
Perhaps" said Benson. "How-
yer, you go and see him. You and
le used to be such terrific pals you
nay be able to get more out of him
han we other fellows have been
Bile to do"
DWELL, III go anyway" l said.
| went down to the temple that
cry night. Ny loud knock on the
utter door of his chambers brought
Vetherby himself to open it. 1t
truck me that he looked half con-
used, half annoyed, as if had sur
rised him at a moment when he
as occupied with other matters and
esented intrusion. / wondered
neither, after all, the perfect type"
leory was right.
put my suspicion aside, how
yer, when, recognizing me at last
the semiobscurity of the stair
lse, he seized my hand and shook
warmly. 'My dear fellow" he
lid, '1 am delighted to see you.
Then did you get back% He over
helmed me with questions as | fol-
wed inside and pulled a chair up
the open window facing his own.
or an hour we sat talking over old |
mes and smoking. The CONVERSE
on, reminiscent, as for the most
art it was, enabled me to see that
some respects he was changed
ON the man / had seen five years
.{ora IL .roLo ,,ora 1al.ha~o f.1x,