The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-07-19
The PRINCETON UNION: THURSDAY, JULY - 1906

information that she had "a hob
nailed western way" Of treating her
admirers.
Mauburn, too, was shrewd enough
to see that, while she frankly liked
him, he was for some reason less a
favorite than Baron de 7alliac.
It'll be no easy matter marrying
that girl" he told Mrs. Drelmer.
shes really dear, and awfully good
fun, but she's not bit silly, and I
dare say she'll marry some chap be-
cause she likes him, and not because
he's anybody, you know"
Make her like you," insisted his
adviser.
"On my word, wish she did. And
I'm not so sure, you know, she doesn't
fancy that Frenchman, or even young
Milbrey."
I'll keep you before her." promised
Mrs. Drelmer, land wish you'd not
think you can't win her. 'Tisn't like
you"
Miss Bines accordingly heard that
it was such pity young Milbrey
drank so, because his only salvation
lay in making rich marriage, and a
young man, nowadays, had to keep
fairly sober to accomplish that.
Really, Mrs. Drelmer felt sorry for
the poor weak fellow. "Good-hearted
chap, but he has no character, my
dear, so I'm afraid there's no hope
for him. He has the soul of mer-
chant tailor, actually, but not the
tailor's manhood. Otherwise he'd be
above marrying some unsuspecting
girl for her money and breaking her
heart after marriage. Now, Mauburn
is a type so different; honest, unaf-
fected, healthy-really he's man for
any girl to be proud of, even if he
we're not heir to a title-one Of the
best in all England, and an ornament
OF the most exclusively correct set;
of line, my dear, that is truly great
not like that shoddy French nobili-
| ty, discredited in France, that sends
so many of it's comic-opera barons
here looking for large dowries to pay
their gambling debts and put furni-
ture in their rattle-trap old chateaux,
and keep them in absinthe and their
other peculiar diversions. And Maui
burn, you lucky mink, simply adores
you-he's quite mad about you,
really"
| In spite of Mrs. Drelmer's two-edged
sword, Miss Bines continued rather
more favorable to the line of De Pal
lac. The baron was so splendid, so
gloomy, so deferential. He had the
air of laying at her feet, as a rug, the
whole glorious history of France
And he appeared so we'll in the VIC
toria when they drove in the park.
1t is true that the heart of Miss
Bines was as yet quite untouched;
and it was not more than a cool, dim,
esthetic light in which she surveyed
the three suitors impartially, to be-
hold the impressive figure of the
baron towering above the others.
Had the baron proposed for her hand,
it is not impossible that, facing the
question directly, she would have par
ried or evaded. .-
| For certain events befell unpropi-
tiOusly at time when the baron was
most certain of his conquest; at the
very time, indeed, when he had de-
termined to open his suit definitely
by extending a proposal to the young
lady through the orthodox medium of
her nearest male relative.
Il admit wrote the baron to his
expectant father, that it is what one
calls very chances in the English,
but one must venture in this country,
and your son is not without much
hope. And if not, there is still Mile.
Higbee.'
| The baron shuddered as he wrote
it. He preferred not to recognize
even the existence of this alternative,
for the reason that the father of Mile.
Higbee distressed him by an incom-
pleteness of suavity.
"He conducts himself like a pork, -
the baron would declare to himself,
by way of perfecting his English.
The secret cause of his subsequent
| determination not to propose for the
hand of Miss Bines lay in the hope
lessly middle-class leanings of the
lady who might have incurred the su-
preme honor Of becoming his mother
in-law. Had Mrs. Bines been above
talking to low people, catastrophe
might have been averted. But Mrs.
Bines was not above it. She was
quite unable to repress a vulgar in
terest in the menials that served her.
She knew the buffers life history
two days after she had ceased to be
| afraid of him. She knew the distress
ing family affairs of the maids; how
many were the ignoble progeny of the
elevator man, and what his plebeian
wife did for their Group; how much
rent the hall-boy's low-born father
paid for his mean two-story dwelling
in Jersey City; and how many hours
a day or night the debased scrub
women devoted to their unrefning
toll.
Brazenly, too, she held converse