The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1905-01-06
.eHARM 81 THE ovERaEARp
stranse Isascination OF Remarks Not
Hfennt For our Ears.


AIennt For Our Ears.
Why Is it that the legitimate CONVEX
Stations of our associates to which we
have hardened from the beginning and
which we are predestlned to follow
siackly to the end, should so often fa'!
to Interest US, whereas the interrupted
remarks we overhear and which We're
never meant For our ears, fill us with
the liveliest curiosity and concern2 The
breaking off of serial story is q trial
to most mems minds. But we know
that another month viii bring another
number. The inevitable breaking of
of q causerie in which we have no
share fills US with Il sense of hopeless
and irremediable loss. once over
heard an old English lady say, with
slow emphasis, 10 friend: 1T is a
charming book, charming book. 1t
Is just the kind of book you would
want to give to your dressmaker." And
for fifteen years l have speculated in
vain as TO what that volume was.
Apart from the manifest indiscretion
of giving any book tot one dressmaker
and thus withdrawing her attention
from ones clothes, the only appropri-
ate literature l can think of Is the in
structive history of Ananias and Sap
phira, and that has ceased to charm.
\ man waiting patiently at the glove
counter of a New York department
| store heard one young shopwoman say
to another as she handed down n box
of gloves, Marin told him downright
she'd have nothing. more to do with
| him, and she called him n 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 llvcliness OF
the allusion, 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 cnvying the adder
the mysterious nature of his enthusi-
asm.
1t 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 well help hearing, goes on
as TRANQUILITY in railway carriage or
on steamer deck as though we were
not in close and helpless proximity.
English travellers are particularly ex-
| haustive in their condolences and par
| ticularly Indifferent to their surround
ings In one hour on a Como boat 1
have learned 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-
| ME Ia sister-in-law. ! think made the
castle" most unpleasant place of
residence, and how Laura, with her
| three children, cDme to stay n week
! just when granny was dying, which
was, to say the least, fnconvenicnt, and
how the trouble between Harold and
| his wife lay entirely in the bringing up
| OF the children. At this point the de-
| tails became too intimate for repcti-
ton. though there was no question of
| withholding them from my ears. /
felt like 4 fellow countryman who once
Travelled from Bordeaux to Paris in the
company OF young Englishwoman
4 her sister, nurse and child. 81 entered
that railway carriage" he said, ian in.
nocent American bachelor; | left 1t ca.
pablc of running n day nursery, an in,
FAINT school or mothers congress-
Agnes ReppIier in Life.