The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-11-29

the start for the dining room was mace
l offered her my left arm, though l mao
| carefully planned beforehand just what
I would do. She-without hesltatloH
and, as I know now, out OF
for me in my suffertng-Was tahltls
my wrong arm, when 1T hasheo on llle
like a binding blow IN the iace thae
I ought to be on the other side of her.
got red, tripped in the f~ar-spraWlng
train of Mrs. Langdon, tore 1t slgntly,
tried to get to the other side or MISS
| Ellersly by walking in front OF her, re.
| covered myself somehow, stumpied
round behind her. walked on neg tralh'
and finally arrived at her lett sloe' cor
| scious in every red-hot atom or me
tina I was making a spectacle Oh my
self and hat the whole company was
| enioying it. I must have seemed to
them an ignorant boor; in fact, l had
been about a great deal among peopie
who knew how to behave, and had l
never given the matter of how to con-
duct myself on tina particular occa-
sion an i~nstant's thought l should have
got on without the least trouble.
1t was with a sigh of profound relief
that sank upon the chair between
Miss Ellersly n Mrs. sale
from danger of making breaks, so j
hoped, for the rest of the evening. SUI
within a very few minutes l realized
that my little ~misadventure had un-
nerved me. My hands were trembling
so hat 1 could scarcely lift the soup
spoon to my lips, and my throat had
got so far beyond control that l had
difficulty in swallowing. Miss Eliersly
and Mrs. Langdon We're each busy with
the man on the other side of her; j,
was left to my own reflections. and
was not sure whether this made me
more or less uncomfortable. To add to
my torment I grew angry, f~uriously
angry. with myself. I looked up and
down and across the big table. noted all
these se~lf-satisfied people perfectly at
their ease, and | said to myself:
Whats the matter with you, Matt?
They're only men and women,
and by no means the best spec
linens of the breed. You've got
more brains than all of EN- put to-
gether, probably; is there one OF the
lot that could get Il job at good wages
if thrown on the world? What do you
care what they think of yon? It's a
damn sight more important what you
think of them, as it won't be many
years before you'll hold everything
they value, everything that makes
them of in the hollow Of
your hand"
But it was Of no use. When Miss
EIlersly finally turned her face toward
me to indicate that she would be grac-
iously pleased to listen if L had any
thing to communicate. | felt as If |
We're slowly willing, felt my throat
contracting int a dry twist. What vas
the matter with me? Partly. of course,
own snobbishness, which led me
to attach the same Importance to those
people that he sn~obbishness Of the
small and silly had got them in the
of attaching to themselves. But
the chief cause of my inability was
Monsoon and his lessons. / had thought
T wa ocfjr,ot;r,c q ~ ifs prnnar yo1l1a
what he was teaching. But so earnest
and serious am I by nature, and SO
earnest and serious was he about these
trivialities that he had been brought
to regard as whole of life, that I
had unconsciously absorbed his atti-
| was like a fellow who, after
hard for an examination,
that all the questions put to him
are on things he hasn't looked at. I
had been making an ass OF myself,
and h a evening L got the first in
of my sound and just pun-
ishment. 1 who had prided myself on
being ready for anything or anybody.
who had laughed contemporary when
| read how mel and women, presented
at Euroi-ea courts, made fools of
themselves was made ridiculous by
people who, as I we'll know, had
nothing to back their ~pretensions to
superiority but a barefaced bluff.
l 1tu L IlouSil lIilS Oul dI IIle +
I should have got back to myself
and my normal ease; but I didn't, and
long n terrible dinner was ora
and terrible agony of stage fright.
When the ladies withdrew, the other
men drew together, talking of people
[ did not know and of things I did
not care about thought then they
avoiding me deliberately as a
lock of tame ducks avoids a wild n
some wind has accidentally blown
non them. I know now that
my forbidding aspect must have been
responsible for my isolation. However.
[ sat alone, sullenly resisting old Ell
constrained efforts to get me
INTO the conversation, ana angrily sus-
picious that L~angdon,was enjoying my
discontinue more than the cigaret he
was apparently absorbed in.
Old Fllersly, growing more and more !
nervous before my dark and sullen look. (
finally seated himself before me. .I
hope you'll stay after the others have
gone" said he. They'll leave early.
and we can have a quiet smoke and
All unstrung though I was, I vet had
the desperate courage to resolve that
not leave. defeated in the eyes Of
the one person whose opinion I really
about. Very WELL" said I. IN
to him.
Continued Next Week.)