Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-06-23
|DOLLY'S
CATCH -
BY REV. LEANDRR TURNKEY

noLLY'S name was appropriate, for
IL she looked like q big blueeyed
doll. When the pet name was given
her that afterward from force Of use
became her name, she was sweet 16,
little, dainty, slender, and prettier
than a doll.
Time had changed her a little. There
was less sparkle in her eyes. but more
sympathy; her waxen complexion had
suffered and her face was beginning
to show wrinkles, Notwithstanding her
art of concealment; and, worst of all,
she was growing stout. She would
look at herself in the glass and ex-
claim:
"Of all things, a short, stout woman!
l will diet myself thin, if / die in
doing it."
But Dolly had a healthy woman's
appetite, and there were many dinners,
and suppers, and teas, and %1uncheons,
and banquets in the set in which she
moved, and the good Resolutions
good resolutions.
In her early twenties Dolly had been
q favorite among the young men, for
with her beauty she combined not a
few accomplishments; she was spright-
ly IL not witty, and tactful IL not clever,
and withal a greater fiatterer never
lived, and what does any man like so
well as fiattery? Then she had a way
Of looking her batteries with admlrine
eyes. She was a thorough coquette,
and any competent coquette has her
way with men for a time.
Dolly's parents we're not among the
rich, but they were far from poor.
They and she went where they liked
and had what they wanted, If money
would buy it. Dolly delighted to be
wooed. and in those early days she
had suitors In abundance. There were
suitors long and short, literally and
metaphorically, and there we're suitors
grave and gay, with titles and without.
But Dolly enjoyed the game Of being
sought too we'll to end 1t by being
caught. Or, perhaps, to be absolutely
just to her, she was too particular.
With each requisite q woman adds to
her ideal the list of men who can meet
the requirements is cut in twain. At
any rate, the summer. and the heyday
of youth had passed., and Dolly had
made no hay.
At one time she would have married
but for the mischance of loving a nan
who did not comply with the specifi-
cations in her table of requirements
for a husband. First, the man she
loved was poor, and poverty she could
not abide. Next, his name was Nathan
Brown-shortened Familiarity to Nate
Brown-and the thought of giving up
her a"ristocratic patronymic for such a
name as Brown, especially when she
could have a baron by merely dropping
her eyes.
Mamma" she said one day during
this period, 81 think every husband
named Brown is to be congratulated,
for at least his wife loves him or she
wouldn't have married him"
You could do worse than take
Nate" replied the mother. "He is poor,
but he is a man who will make his
way. And he loves you to distraction"
But Dolly refused him, as she con-
fessed to herself, to save some shred
of her nervous system. He left the
city for awhile after that. And when
he ~returne1 1t was to give himself to
business with a devotion that caused
him to abandon society altogether. His
old circle saw him no more. And hard
after him went the baron and the
others, until all were gone.
With increasing wrinkles and weight
and the Indifference of men who used
to talk love, Dolly began to realize
her mistake. But of all the sad and
pleasing memories of her triumphs the
one always with her was that of the
love making of Nate Brown. And she
knew now she was sorry she had re-
fused to zeal his plain name.
One winter day Dolly was alone in
her fathers great house. She was
wearied of over-much feminine So
ciety, and when her parents went out
elected to remain at home and read
her novel in preference to accompany
ing them into the buzz. 1t was maids
day out, and both cook and house,
keeper were gone. The esnshman and
man of general utility about the house
lived under another roof. Dolly's par
ents lived modestly for people of their
sec al rank, And so it was that Dolly
was entirely alone in the great house.
She sat down in n of the easy
chairs in the small parlor to read her
book. 1t was a favorite seat with her.
BY her chair there was a curious little
table containing a hidden drawer
opened by a spring; and this drawer
contained many precious and curious