Year: 1873

HOW sle looked II seventeen,


As bride" Locker.


II am going to tell You tale, my
dears of something that happened to me
nearly sixty years ago; and though YOU
know poor old granny can't be trusted to
remember where she put her specks five
minutes since. you may depend upon it
she remembers what occurred on q certain
August night when she was younger than
any OF you are now. You must know
that when | was q girl ! was thought
quite Il beauty, and had as many beaux
in dav rs anybody. But there-that is
neither here nor there One of them was
soldier-your grandfather" (She point
ed to his portrait in her brooch.) "And
you may smile. the girls of that period
liked a military coat quite as we'll as girls
do now | thought him perfection when
| met him first at bennington Spa, and
ever after.


"But, like all the charming men ever
saw. he hadn't n penny, and his old uncle
had a temper as hot as Sir Harry Pottin-
gers curry, and constitution like ten
penny nail. That, | rccOlect was what
my father said when my handsome beau
ventured to hint AT an alliance one dav in
the pump-room at Bath. That was in
January Six long months and six long
letters passed tor both of us, and August
found me ut school at Weilesdean, and
your grandtather's regiment quartered at
Warwick. He was always walking over
though it was q good seven miles, at
least in those days he used to tell me he
walked; but | found ont afterwards that
he sometimes left his horse at the black
smiths in the village, and that looked as
ii he rode. But Ignorance was bliss then
and | think it was the sight of his hand
some brown face and soldier like figure
in the laurel walk at Wellesdean that
finally turned the scale in his favor


''Our meetings We're very romantic.


Your grandfather had to climb three
terrible high stone walls, break through a
hedge OF two, and Chamber up a ha-ha
fence, at imminent risk of mantraps and
spring-guns which certain boards declared
were set all over the grounds of Welles-
dean House, before he could possibly
reach the laurel walk, at the very end of
which. dressed in a white book muslin
and mighty wide blue sash, was waiting
for him


''And then, our delicious secret-for, of
course, two or three of my most beloved
bosom friends knew AL about our attach
ment, and lent me every possible assist
ance in making excuses to Miss Maybrick
for walking ont Just at the very time when
Edward was due. How we used TO talk
everything over; and how reluctantly
they left me, to keep watch whilst talked
to your grandfather in an old summer
house in a remote spot in the grounds !
How often the dear timid things would
run to the back of the arbor, and whisper
between the leavos-'Oh, Lefty. dear,
pray come; we feel sure we hear some
body comingn And when he was gone,
how they all twined their arms around
me. till they knew what he had said in
our ten minutes interview.


1T was during one Of those highly i'm
proper meetings, when the young ladies
on the watch came as usual, in state of
dreadful repidation and alarm, to tell me
they were quite positive they heard the
rustic OF Miss Maybrck's silk in the dis
tance, that my gallant swain threw him.
self at my feet, rs | was about to run
Oft with my dear young friends and seek
the friendly shelter of the school-room,
and with his knees on the hard pegs of
wood with which that summer house was
tloored-a dreadfully uncomfortable posi-
ton for him it must have been-he began


Miss Eden-Lettia-I must implore
Of you to put an end to this wretched sus-
pense. Say that my devotion is returned
Oh, let me know my fate, Letita | feel
you cannot say Non


cat last ] pronounced the fatal Yes, >
and your grandfather gave one great Jump
that sent the girls scampering off, seized
me in his arms, and declared l had made
him the happiest man in the universe.


''But he did not occupy this envable
position long. or happiness and continent
ment don't 90 together; for be began to
say that he should never be happy until
he could call me his wife, so that it should
be out of the power of anybody to separate
us.


"'But, my dear Edward remonstrat-
ed, 1T was but this moment that you called
yourself the happiest man in existence.
Unhappy so soon?'


Happy, yet unhappy he replied,
looking at me with his dark eyes. For
how soon must we part, not to meet again
for two long days? Oh, Lefty, is it not
monstrous that your father and my cam
tankerous old curmudgeon of an uncle
should be such surly old rascals?'


"speak toryour uncle, Edward, please
| said, firing up; but, melting the next in
stant, | added though it is cruel, very
cruel, Of my dear father not to see your
merits. never knew him 50 unreason-
able before


"'Your father is the soul of honor, and
i ought not to complain of him, but of
the fate that made me a pehniless soldier;
but l love you, Lefty, as no man ever
loved woman before, and my love makes
me bold. The proverb says, "Faint heart
ne'er won fair lady, '"-he sank his voice
into whisper; and the end of it was he
begged me to elope-talking wildly Of
Gretna Green and special licenses, and
dozen things besides


81 told him could never consent to de-
celve my dear father, though I would
willingly make any other sacrifice for him.
Your grandfather, my dears, had natu-