The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1909-04-30

ly all affection, too-would be with
drawn from her; and besides the
canon and his sister there were few
who loved her. Yet hard as all this
! was, there were worse features In the
case. II Mr.. Herbert Perry had been
an eligible suitor. forgiveness, after
time, at all events, might have been
looked for; but he was no favorite of
Aunt Maria's, and in the canon's eyes
he was, as we know, utterly worth
, less as we'll as Objectionable. Worse
than all. she had by this time. not
withstanding her lack of opportuni-
| ties, found this out for herself. She
i knew him to be coarse, selfish and
wrapped up in his own pleasure; and
! If his coltish nature broke through
such gilded pale as at present sur
| rounded him-a husband of a few
months, bound by every tie of honor
/, and even of self-interest to behave
himself with decency and circumspec-
! tfon-what was to be looked for
when these restraints should be re-
moved from him, and she became his
indeed? A bitter task to plead for
pardon, when even II granted it must
needs be followed by lifelong pun
ishment!
Before the blow fell on her, which
she knew would shatter so much, 1t
behooved her to do her best to con-
ciliate the canon and turn his heart
toward her. Perhaps If she were to
please him very much an opportunity
might offer itself to confess all AMI
implore his forgiveness before neces-
sity compelled her to do so. When,
therefore, on reaching home, Miss
Aldred informed her that her brother
had asked friend that evening, and
hoped she would feel herself we'll
enough to come down to dinner, she
! answered cheerfully in the aff1rma-
tive.
And when Aunt Maria, noticing
how unlike herself she looked, OBJ
served, "but not if it would distress
you, darling" she replied, "It can
never distress me to please the can
on"
The canon was really pleased; for
under the circumstances, he had felt
that so far as Sophy's conHany was
| concerned he had il J:ttad AIair to
the Laurels in vain. His mind being
set at rest on this point, this willy
man bethought him of asking Mr..
Mavors likewise. Not that he feared,
as some men would have done, a
tete-a-tete with the young scholar
after dinner. His mind was of that
sort which accommodates itself to all
ages or conditions of men, even if
the talk should languish upon other
topics, there was common subject,
Milton, for them to fall back upon.
He asked the tutor purely for Sophy's
sake, since his presence would leave
| the young people more to themselves.
1t did not enter his head that the stu
dent and exponent of Plato could
find any attraction in his ward, and
took his ready acceptance of his in
vitation at such short notice as a per-
sonal compliment.
1t was, as we have said, Sophy's
fixed resolve to please the canon, and
without much thought beyond it she
welcomed Mr.. John Adair with a gra-
ciousness beyond his hopes. 1t did
not strike her that, in case she
showed signs of encouraging his at
tentions, the displeasure of her guar
dian would be all the greater when
he came to know the real state of af-
fairs. It was not her nature
the consideration was not forced
To frlr of
and, moreover, it is possible that her
husbands evil behavior caused her to
regard with less disfavor than hereto
fore the man he has described as
dried herring" He was certainly
thin, thinner in his suit of evening
clothes than usual, and still thinner
by comparison with Mr.. Mavors, who
not only lowered above him, as he
stood behind him, but appeared on
either side of him, giving the young
scholar, for the moment, the remark
able appearance of having four arms.
But when one looked at the Iatters
keen face and speaking eyes one for
got that he was thin, as men forgot it
in Paganini's playing. Mr.. Mavors
certainly did not remark that he was
so thin, but with regret and envy)
that he was so young. From the
canon's note he had gathered that he
was to be the only guest that even
ing, and he was by no means pleased
to find that the same young gentle
man who had monopolized so much
of Miss Sophy's conversation the
previous evening had also been in
vited. In other matters he was by
no means diff1dent; it was not likely
to be the case with gentleman who
had been reported to say of himself,
I'm not a conceited man, but I be-
lieve l know everything but botany"
but in affairs of the heart he felt
that he was freshman, though Gun
happily not in his first year.
After his salutation he confined
his attention to Miss Aldred, not be-
cause she was his hostess and it was
his duty, but from sheer bashfulness
and ignorance of what young lady
like Miss Sophy would expect him to
say. Adair, on the other hand, was
by no means bashful, and entered at
once into conversation with her.
Then Barclay, the butler, came to
the rescue with his battle-cry, Din
ner is served and Adair offered his
arm and took her in. Mr. Mavors sat
opposite to them. His duty to his
neighbol' and his hostess compelled
him to converse with Miss Aldred,
but his eyes often strayed over the
way to !;ophy. What could she find
to say, lie wondered, to this uninter-
estlng youth devoted to the higher
mathematics? and what could have
induced Aldred to ask such a fellow
to dinner? It was not an Egyptian
feast, that a skeleton should be any
attraction to it.
Adair was speaking with approval
of the walks about Cambridge, with
which, as a reading man, he was very
conversant, when note was placed
by the butler in t6e tutors hand,