The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-26

pose"
 ~ the face of it there seemed no
 reason in the world why Alfred O Hardie should not marry Julia Dodd and Why Edward Dodd should not marry Jane Hardie. Both families lived in the town of Barkington, both young men were at Oxford and the two. girls were fast friends. MT. Hardie senior con- ducted the local bank. as his father had done before him, and was better oil In this worlds goods than the Dodds. But then Mrs Dodd had come of a high and mighty family, and though to the horror of her titled relatives she had married the captain of an East Indianman, Cap tain Dodd's social standing was quite equal to that of the banker. He received a good salary Mrs. Dodd had snug lit- tie fortune of her own, and for the Hp-ies to ally themselves. through her, with the Fountains and Bazalgettes was an honor which more than overcame any discrepa ncies as to worldly wealth.
 At Oxford Alfred Hardie was a sort pf Admirable Crichton-wrote prize poems, throttled the classics with one hand and without half trying, sported gleefully with philosophies ancient and modern and rowed and cricketed better than anybody else at the university.
 According to all accounts he was bit of a prig and a bit of snob, well satis- fled with himself and thoroughly con scious of his own excellencies. That is probably why Fate, seeing that he was a. good fellow at bottom, after all, took him In hand and knocked the nonsense out of him.
 Edward Dodd was square built, sauare-souled young man, with great taste for mechanics and figures and not much of head piece for philosophy and the classics! He was a match at boxing with the Tinkelton terror, but Aristotle knocked him out in the first round
 His sister Julia was beauty of the fresh, country type, carefully brought up by her mother, not more sentimental than ! girl of her age ought to be, and she regarded her mother with deep af- fectioa as an elder sister.
 As for Jane Hardie, she was a good sort of girl enough but obsessed by an extravagant religious fervor. She found texts for lay sermons in a casual remark about the weather and food for moral reflections in hard-boiled egg
 In her work as a district visitor she scorned to minister to the "perishable bodies of her poor when there was so much to do in saving their ''imperishable souls" Had she lived in an earlier age she would have sent all low churchmen to stake quite cheerfully for the good of their souls. But she loved her father and her brother-the poor girls mother had long been dead-and she loved Ed ward Dodd Edward, of course, thought Jane was an angel.
 As sor Captain Dobb, he was on friend ly ani even speaking terms with his fam iIy, and enjoyed his occasional visits to Albion Villa, his home on the outskirts of Burlington exceedingly. But most of his time he spent knocking about on the high seas between Canton, Calcutta an, the ports of Britain; and Mrs. Dodd controlled the affairs of the family Mrs Dodd in spite of her relationship with the peerage, had a good store of hard common sense, hated slang and drew h,r remarks from a fathomless we'll of polysyllabic English. When Mrs. Dodd saw that in the long vacation, Alfred was hanging about Albion Villa half the time and managing to meet Julia in the street or in the garden the other half. sne recognized the symptoms and brought the young people to book at once. When Alfred said frankly that he wanted to marry her daughter and was going to do so, Mrs. Dodd objected. All mothers do that unless they have made the selec- ton. Mrs. Dodd had not selected any body for Julia as yet, but she was going to when the time came-which amounted to the same thing. But when the good woman saw how deeply in love Alfred anI Julia were, she relented and said: well. Mir. Hardie, write to your father and get his consent, and then we will have wedding when you finish your course at Oxford if both of you are still in the same mind.''
 >iet his fathers consent, That was too easy. Sc the complacent youth sat down right there in the parlor of Albion Villa. and wrote to the governor" who was up in London for a week or so. Mrs Dodd too, thought that Richard Hardie would { accept the alliance as an honor and show becoming gratitude for her condescenson. Vast was her surprise. then, to receive few days later the following note from Hardie Sr.
 "Madam-I have received very iuve- nile letter from my son by which I learn that ne has formed sudden attachment for your daughter. I write to inform you that this match is out of the question"
 Mrs. Dodd was filled with a high-bred. poysyl'abic anger. She called old Hardie's 'parvenu'' in a tone which sounded al- most profane, and warned Alfred off the premises. But. seeing that Julia began to