Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1912-08-28
Obe
CHEVALIER
By c.. B. L E w IS

nington, bachelor of 40 and living in
a lake city, that he had within his
breast the instincts and sentiments
Of chevalier of old, the speaker
would have been suspected as up to
some confidence game And yet he
would have been right. James Pen
nington did not know himself. Those
instincts and sentiments were lying
dormant and waiting, like newly
| planted Early Rose potatoes, for their
chance to grow and expand.
Even the chevalier stunt comes to
! him who waits, and though it had lain
/ in ambush for many long years, it
finally appeared in the open. Business
called him to Liverpool and he went
| to Montreal to take one of the slow
] steamers to that famous port. Friends
! of his warned him against many
! perils, but strangely enough they for
| got to warn him against the main
| one. His steamer had not sailed yet
! when he made the acquaintance of
! Miss Elite Clay. 1t was one of those
| simple events that are always occur
| ring aboard of a passenger steamer,
/ even when she is fast to her dock.
/ The lady dropped her handkerchief on
| deck and he picked it up and restored
| 1t, and 10! they were acquainted. 1t
was not until several hours later how
| ever, that the young lady gave him
| her confidence. Then she was rather
( forced to do so. The passage had
! been booked for her aunt and her
! self, and some dreadful accident must
| have detained the aunt at the last
moment. Indeed, until the steamer
was miles down the river, it was be-
! lieved that her relative was on
! board
/ The captain was of course appealed
! to, but he could do nothing. Owners
/ and officers of ocean liners do not
know aunts from uncles, and the tears
and sobs of nieces have no effect on
them Miss Clay's Aunt Sarah must
come on the next boat or give up the
| trip. Miss Clay herself must wipe her
weeping eyes and prepare them ready
to see whales and icebergs. She must
confide in some one, and why not in
| Chevalier Pennington? AS they sat
/ together in the moonlight she did not
! hesitate to tell him that she had read
romance, courage and nobility of char
acter in his faceNat first glance. Mr..
| Pennington, in his home city, was
] carrying on the business of selling
sand, lime and guano at wholesale and
retail, and the compliments of the
young lady at his side made his heart
! IL
| adjacent property and add the cement
/ business. Days afterwards, when he
came to think of that moonlight talk
Oh deck, he could remember that he
told Miss Clay all there was to tell,
even to his stealing eggs when a boy,
and that though she had talked
| whole lot she had really told him
nothing.
1t cannot be truthfully said that Mr..
! Pennington fell III love at first sight,
tr that he fell in love at ALL He had
| got into the rut of the sand, lime and
guano business, and he was not a man
/ who cared for changes. Miss Clay did
not seek to arouse his love. She want
ed to look on him as her chevalier
!
| oak from the shores of Lake Erie to
which the clinging vine might cling,
| and that's how that moonlight night
I settled things.
Almost within a day it was under
! stood by all that Mr.. Pennington and
| Miss Clay were old acQuaintances, and
| that when the aunt was first missed,
/ he had volunteered to jump overheard
and swim back and tell her that she
| had missed the boat. He did not do
| any boasting in regard to himself, but
/ Miss Clay, who seemed perfectly at
| home and made acquaintance right
| and left, called general attention to
his many noble qualities. She was so
| persistent about this that the purser
/ felt that he had made a great mis-
take in not seating the man at the
captains table.
The steamer did not collide nor
founder nor attempt to stand on her
head. She went ahead in a manner
that called out encomiums, and ey-
erybody was happy. Mr. Pennington
found himself in full charge of Miss
Clay, and both of them rather liked
the situation. The sturdy oak braced
| himself, and the clinging vine chung
At the end of the third day, however,
something descended upon the decks
Of that ship with flop. It was as
| If farmer had thrown a summer
squash against the port side of an
old brindle cow. One of the lady
passengers had missed three diamond
rings and a bracelet from her state
room. They try to keep all such mat
ters still on shipboard, which is the
reason why they are speedily known
to all
Ehere was talk, and talk and more
talk, and then the theft was of course
laid to steward of the ship and
nothing more done about it.
Next day two other rings were
missing, and on the next a bracelet