Middletown transcript., 1922-11-18

my first nights slumbers under Mrs.
If the books were fair mirror of Miss
Apperthwaite's mind q had been told
that Mrs. Apperthwaite had daugh-
teri. Mrs. Apperthwaite herself, in
her youth, might have sat to an kllus-
traitor of Scott or Bulwer. Even NOW
you could see she had come as near
being romanticnlly beautiful as was
consistently proper for such timid,
gentle little gentlewoman as she was.
Reduced by her husbands insolvency
(coincident with his demise) to keep
ing boarders," she did 1t gracefully, as
If the urgency thereto were only
spirit Of quiet hospitality. 1t should
be added In haste that she set an ex-
cellent table.
Moreover, the guests who gathered
at her board were of very attractive
description, as I decided the instant
my eye fell upon the lady who sat op-
posite me at lunch. I knew at once
that she was Miss Apperthwaite, she
"went So" as they say, with her
mother; nothing could have been more
suitable. Mrs. Apperthwaite was the
kind of woman whom you would ex
pect to have beautiful daughter, and
Miss Apperthwaite more than fulfilled
her mothers promise.
I guessed her to be more than Juliet
Capulet's age, indeed, yet still be-
tween that and the perfect age of
woman. She was Of larger, fuller,
more striking type than Mrs. Apper-
thwaite, bolder type one might put
it-thDugh she might have been a
great deal bolder than Mrs. Apper-
thwaite without being bold. Certainly
she was handsome enough to make 1t
difficult for young fellow to keep
from staring at her. She had an
abundance Of very soft, dark hair,
worn almost austerely, as II Its pro-
fusion necessitated repression; and I
am compelled to admit that her fine
eyes expressed d distant contempla-
| tion-obviously of habit not of mood
so pronounced that one of her enemies
| (if she had any might have described
them as dreamy"
Only one other Of my own sex was
present at the lunch table, Mr.. Dow
den, an elderly lawyer and politician
| of whom I had heard, and to whom
Mrs. Apperthwaite, coming in after
J the rest of us were seated, introduced
me. She made the presentation gen.
! eral; and had the experience of re-
! ceiving a nod and slow glance, in
which there was n sort of dusky, esti-
mating brilliance, from the beautiful
| lady opposite me.
| 1t might have been better hammered
for me to address myself to Mr.. Dow
den, or one of the very nice elderly
women, who were my fellow-guests,
than to open conversation with Miss
Apperthwaite; but 1 did not stop to
think of that.
"You have a splendid old house next
door to you here, Miss Apperthwaite,"
l said. Its privilege to find it in
view from my window"
There was q faint stir as of some
CONSERVATION in the little company
The elderly ladies' stopped talking alb
| iuDlly anu cAtllilSt'l tiiouSi
this was not of my observation at the
moment think, but required to my
consciousness later, when l had per
ceived my blunder.
MAY ask who lives there?" pur'
sued.
Miss Apperthwaite allowed her no
ticeabIe lashes to cover her eyes for
an instant then looked up again.
"a Mr.. Beasley," she said.
"Not the Honorable David Beasley ~
I exclaimed.
"Yes," she returned with certain
gravity which afterward wished had
checked me. "Do you know him?"
"Not in person." l explained. "You
see, I've written n good deal about
him. I was with the Spencerville
Journal until few days ago, and
even in the country we know who's
who In politics over the state. Beas
ley's- the man that went to Congress
and never made a speech-never made
even motion to adjourn-but got ev.
erything his district wanted. There's
talk of him for governor"
"Indeed?"
"And so it's the Honorable David
Beasley who lives In that splendid
place. How curious that isl"
"Why?" asked Miss Apperthwaite.
"It seems too big for one man."
answered; land I've always had the
impression Mr.. Beasley was bach
elor."
"Yes,' she said, rather slowly, che
is"
"But of course he doesn't live there
all alone" supposed, aloud, prob
ably he has"
"No. There's no one else-except q
couple of colored servants"
"What a crime" l exclaimed. "It
there ever was house meant for q
large family, that one is. Can't you
almost hear 1t crying out for heaps
and heaps of romping children?
should think"
I was interrupted by loud cough
from Mr. Dowden, so abrupt and arti
fetal that his intention to check the
flow of my innocent prattle was EN-
barrassingly obvious--even to me!
"Can you tell me-" he said, leaning
forward and following up the inter
ruption as hastily as possible, "wha,
the farmers We're getting for theil
wheat when you left Spencervilley