That
Mysterious
Major...
ETHEL A. SOUTHAM
CHAPTER II.—(Continued.)
Great was his disappointment, how
ever, as he laid the book on the table
and opened it at the page at which it
had begun to open naturally, to find
that, instead of the stranger's eyes
being riveted, as everybody's always
were, to the bottom of the leaf, where
the names of Lady Howard and Miss
Jtrelyn Luttrell boldly confronted the
reader, with the full address appended,
they Instantly wandered off to a few
lines above, where, in easily decipher
able letters, was written "Gilbert Falk
land.”
“Thank you; that will do." He
closed the book and pushed it aside.
“I am very sorry to trouble you, sir,
but"—and the waiter placed an ink
stand and pens at his elbow—"per
haps you’d kindly add your name."
“My name? Oh—yes—very well.”
He was staring somewhat abstract
edly through the window; but at the
request he took up a quill, dipped it
Into the Ink, and was Just beginning
the line with a rather awkward-look
ing “S,” when he suddenly paused,
hesitated a second, and, drawing hur
riedly through the capital, finally
wrote "Major Brown. I^ondon," in
clear, legible characters.
A few minutes later Major Brown,
as he designated himself, rose ab
ruptly from his chair, and, with his
hands in his pockets, was crossing the
room toward the door, when a glimpse
of a dainty lace handkerchief lying
half concealed beneath the folds of a
tablecloth attracted his notice. He
stooped to get it, and, glancing at the
monogram and crest embroidered in
one corner, was about to hand it to
one of the waiters to deliver it to its
rightful owner, when a faint smile for
the moment dispelled the frown which
had gathered upon his forehead, and,
without a word, he quietly placed it in
the Inside pocket of his coat.
“My dear fellow, you are a fool!" he
murmured to himself. “Fancy throw
her pause in some amazement, to be
hold the wearer of the light shootlng
sult, who had apparently been as
deeply engrossed in the contents of the
"Royal George’’ post-bag as herself,
advancing toward her.
"But Is not this for you? You must
have overlooked It, I fancy,”
Evelyn glanced quickly at the en
velope which he was offering to her,
directed Indisputably to herself, and
then, looking up. found herself encoup
tered by the very sanye pair of gray
eyes which she remembered meeting
for the first time in the table d'hote
room the night before.
"Thank you—It Is for me,” she an
swered. with u vague sense of wonder.
"I cannot think how I missed It.”
"Oh, easily, I should imagine," was
the prompt reply. "Among so many,
it is no difficult matter to miss one.
Still, as this has come to light, had
you not better see if there are any
more?"
"Perhaps I had,” answered Evelyn,
wrinkling up her forehead perplex
edly.
She was turning to the table once
more, when a hand was laid with a
somewhat familiar gesture upon her
arm and a voice said:
“Good morning. Miss Eve. Her lady
ship has sent me to find you. What
are you doing here?”
“Only trying to sort these letters
Have you been for yours yet?”
"No; I prefer my breakfast first.
Letters are not always calculated to
improve one's appetite. But come—
Lady Howard wants to know what
your opinion Is of the weather. She
thinks It is too hot for that drive
which we were talking about.”
"Very well, I am coming; but-"
She hesitated a second, and then
glanced quickly towurd Major Brown.
"Thank you very much,” and, with a
graceful little inclination of her head,
she turned to follow Gilbert Falkland.
“BUT, IS NOT THIS FOR YOU?"
Ing away such an opportunity! This
at least will be an excuse for one word
with the curly headed divinity!”
CHAPTER III.
The sun was streaming with all the
persistence of a hot July morning sun
through the interstices of Venetian
blinds Into a large private sitting room
on the ground floor of the "Royal
George" as Evelyn Luttrell. looking
delightfully cool In a pink cotton gown,
put In her head at the open window
and surveyed the scene In astonish
ment.
"Nobody down? Are we really the
first, after nil?" she exclaimed ad
vancing to the middle of the room and
glancing quickly from the tattle to the
flock ou the chimney-piece. "Well,
Haiti bo. |t Is of no use walling We
may aa well go and see If (here art am
letters for us thia morning."
As she spoke she opened the d»*»f
and passed out Into the tun!, softly
a r pc ted corridor, which seemed after
Ike keat and glare of the heark, where
<he and Iks poodle had beea having a
run. a perfect paradise in . outre*'
-twinging ksr ket carelessly in h»i
hand ah* hurried along toward the
table where the morning delivery of
tetters wae always to be found
A tall, military looking man In .«
light grey ahootiag eult wae standing
-a* unity survey tag the poet ee Kveiya
■rsu up to it end rapidly »■ aimed ike
ilffuteat add re wees Her e> rutihv wae
MMUrweaef ill. however Neither her
men not her aunt a same met her evre
span cay uf the eavetope* and she
had larked away aad was about l«
MM Ik*' kai I W • t • I"
arrested her foot steps
"t keg your pwrd>.a'
The words. gpoh*a la slug whirl v
reartestM luaee aad a*«umpaht*d by a
•light hut meat chivalrous bow made
who had stood watching the proceed
ings with a distinct shadow of annoy
ance upon his face.
"Who on earth is that fellow, Miss
Luttrell?" was the immediate inquiry.
Evelyn ga*ed down thoughtfully at
the address upon her letter.
"Emo answers Who?1 It is a ques
tion I myself was Just going to ask
you. All that 1 know of him U that
he was having his dinner alone late
last evening when I went to get Sambo
a hone, and that he handed me this a
moment ago."
And yet you were thanking him as
if he had done you the greatest service
upon earth!" .aid Falkland, accom
panying hla remark with a steady, pen
etrating look into Miss l.utfiell * face.
‘ What do yon mean” A faint Hush
deepened the color In Evelyn's cheek*
I thanked him. ul i**ir*i> Whuevei
the malt la, he tn certainly a gentle
man."
oh, >es most probably! rejoined
Falkland ironically | know ih<
■tamp of fellow etactlv They alway
baum pt.n -» of this kind *
A i.ithcr tndlgn.cn' little smile
crossed Evelyn's face.
liictte fellows" be proceeded 'are
the greatest humbugs imaginable
A hey do the polite to the ladies ail
i <iay play cards and btlltard* fia the
| heat prat stahea at night and through
i the small hours of the morning sad
I then at the rnd of a fuftiiigh' the*
qiclelty disappear with guile a tulle- -
! Hop of Jewelry. busk notes and sundry
nsw coins stored away rarefully in
^ i' »ir portmanteau* on M ** I ittreil
| *oo are sadly anetperteio eg in the
i ways of the wicked world If tow lake
»•> ad the you will bate nothing auri
to say u< that irrepr*M<habt* iu>>kii<
inditldual “
’ Vo i ce* to sat to him' What It
l an mean *** asks4 Kirlfi rauiag has
brows in astonishment. "I do not sup.
pose that J shall ever speak to him
again."
"Do you imagine that fellow did not
know' whom he was addressing this
morning Certainly he did! 'Luttrell'
is by no means a common name, and
directly be saw 'Miss Luttrell' posted
in the visitors’ book he guessed no
doubt who you were and asked some
one to point you out to him. Conse
quently he has taken the first oppor
tunity of beginning an acquaintance,
which 1 dare say he intends to follow
up as speedily as possible. Ah, Lady
Howard"—here he threw open the door
of the room which Evelyn had for
saken a few minutes before—“1 have
found your niece and brought her back
to you. Here she is.”
“And, by way of improving the occa
sion, he has been offering me a little
of his valuable advice,” announced
Evelyn, going up to Lady Howard and
bending down to kiss her as she sat
at the head of the breakfast table, still
a handsome, good-looking woman. In
spite of the lines of care across her
forehead and the silvery threadB of
hair distinctly visible beneath the soft
folds of her widow’s cap.
“I was only cautioning your niece
against a fellow whom I noticed play
ing rather high in the billiard room
last night, and with whom she had
the ill-luck to have occasion to speak
this morning,” protested Falkland,
strolling up to the window and gazing
out with all the air of a man who was
at home in her ladyship's private sit
ting room.
"To speak? My dear Eve, what have
you been doing?" asked l^ady Howard
in alarm.
"Nothing, Aunt Lydia,” answered
Miss Luttrell, with a decided little
shake of her head. "Do not agitate
yourself, please! It Is only Mr. Falk
land who Is piling up the agony now.
This poor Innocent man who has such
wicked designs on us only handed me
this letter”—throwing down the hap
less-looking note upon the table—
"that is all.”
"And, as an old friend, knowing
what thorough-paced scoundrels habit
ually frequent places of this descrip
tion, 1 have advised her to avoid him
for the future."
"Exactly,” agreed her ladyship
"One cannot be too careful or exclu
sive at a hotel where one encounters
the same person day after day. Who
is this man that spoke to you, Eve?”
"Oh, ask Mr. Falkland,” answered
Evelyn in a deprecating tone. "He
evidently knows more about him than
I do, if he had the benefit of his soci
ety in the billiard room last evening,
and perhaps—who knows?—joined him
in some of his high play.”
Falkland accepted the little taunt
with an air of praiseworthy compla
cency, and turned calmly to Lady
Howard.
“Well, I believe he goes by the ele
gant name of ’Brown.’ That is vague
enough, you would think; but his ad
dress of London only—Brown of Lon
don—is vaguer still.”
“Yes, indeed; anybody would have
difficulty in tracing him. But that re
minds me. As you came in, I was
Just reading in the paper that-. I)o
sit down, though, Mr. Falkland, and
have some breakfast.”
"Oh. no. thank you! I have just
told Henry to have some ready for me
in the coffee room; so I will not keep
you from your3. But you were say
ing-”
"Only that they fancy they have at
last founu a clue to the whereabouts
of that man who committed those fear
fill forgeries about twelve months ago. ’
added Lady Howard, pouring out the
coffee and passing a cup across to
Evelyn. “You remember the Beau
champ case, which made such a com
motion at the time?"
(To Be Continued.)
FOOD IS BETTER THAN TONICS
DeMlltittfMl KiicrKiM |)o Not Kfqulr« the
Stimulation of Drugs.
A professor in one of the many med
ical colleges of this city holds that
there is no need of buying and swal
lowing advertised tonics, because they
accomplish no more than a Judiciously
selected diet will. The professor says
that spinach is richer in iron, which is
the basis of most tonics, than even ihe
yolk of an egg. while the latter con
tains more than beef. The ordinary
dish of spinach and poached egg is a
tonic as potent as one in which iron
forme a part, without the harmful ef
fect of other Ingredients that enter Into
the medical compound. Plants Im
bibe Iron, and It is through them that
we should absorb it into our system
That mineral is present largely lu ap
ples, lentils, strawberries, white beans,
peas, potatoes and most of the red
fiuits and vegetables. Stewed Ida k
i ut rants If taken daily lu their season
will litre anaemia that has heron*
chronic. It Is the experience of mar
iners that while line Juice Is a pallia
tive of scurvy potatoes at* a spe> in
Nansen in hU voyage lu the Pram,
bad no occasion to resort to ihe medi
cine cheat The concentrated form of
| all ihe fruit* and vegetable* that his
meU were a- cu* noted to cat In No: way
I *as worth a shipload of «|iug* It t*
l the Aral tn»'an*e on re. ord of tb* **
■ cap* of Arvll. exporters conAne.l „a
1 shipboard from th* ravages of scurvy
I and It tat due entirely to the tout- ef
- feet of th* food supplied
X IsStsI XX tee- X* slkse.
There ta a vat lx At-mptx** whi h
: |ittr U it it I wire exhibition every
i evening It* *.»** h's perforates,e at
j rtiust th* mm tim* each evening and
he genernliy has null* x . rutl out to
MM h '■*> It*1 > ..I. ic .s.». t* t,
I Street every uveaia* e-out t in walk
lag «• k t« cyr4..k wire lie has d >ne
) the trdeh Afty times ut mure and seems
; p ffe- ! i Ut home oU the blgh Wire
TALM AGE'S SERMON.
THE QUEENS OF HOME. LAST
SUNDAY'S SUBJECT.
From I hr Ten. Sol. Song. 0: 8. a* Fol
low*: “There Are Three Score Queen*"
—Many Sympathies Stirred anti Mem
ories Recalled.
(Copyright 1S99 by Louis Klopsch.)
So Solomon, by one stroke, set forth
the imperial character of a true Chris
tian woman. She is not a slave, not a
hireling, not a subordinate, but a
queen. In a former sermon I showed
you that crown and courtly attendants,
and imperial wardrobe were not nec
essary to make a queen; but that
grates of the heart and life will give
coronation to any woman. I showed
you at some length that woman's posi
tion was higher In the world than
man’s, and that although she had often
been denied the right of suffrage, she
always did vote and always would vote
by her Influence, and that her chief
desire ought to be that she should
have grace rightly to rule In the do
minion which she has already won.
I began an enumeration of some of
her rights, and now 1 resume the sub
ject.
In the first place, woman has the
special and the superlative right of
blessing and comforting the sick.
What land, what street, what house,
has not felt the smitings of disease?
Tens of thousands of Bick-beds! What
shall we do with them? Shall man,
with his rough hand and clumsy foot,
go stumbling around the sick-room,
trying to soothe the distracted nerves
and alleviate the pains of the dls
tresaed patient? The young man at
college may scofT at the Idea of being
under maternal influences, but at the
first blast of typhoid fever on his cheek
he says, “Where Is mother?” Walter
Scott wrote partly in satire and partly
In compliment:
O woman, in our hours of ease.
Uncertain, coy and hard to please;
When pain and anguish wring the
brow,
A ministering angel thou.
I think the most pathetic passage in
all the Bible Is the description of the
lad who went out to the harvest field
of Shunem and got sunstruck—press
ing his hands on his temples and cry
ing out: “Oh, my head! my head!”
And they said: “Carry him to his
mother.” And then the record is:
“He sat on her knees till noon, and
then died.”
It Is an awful thing to be ill away
from home In a strange hotel, once in
a while men coming In to look at you,
holding their hand over their mouth
for fear they will catch the contagton.
How roughly they turn you in bed.
How loudly they talk. How you long
for the ministries of home. I know
one such who went away from one of
the brightest of homes, for several
weeks’ business absence at the West.
A telegram came at midnight that he
was on his death-bed far away from
home. By express train the wife and
daughters went westward; but they
went too late, lie feared not to die,
but he was in an agony to live until his
family got there. He tried to bribe the
doctor to make him live a little while
longer. He said: “I am willing to
die, but not alone!” But the pulses
fluttered, the eyes closed and the heart
stopped. The express trains met in
the midnight; wife and daughters go
ing westward—lifeless remains of hus
band and father coming eastward.
Oh, it was a sad, pitiful, overwhelming
spectacle! When we are sick, we want
to be sick at home. When the time
comes for us to die, we want to die
at nome.
In our Civil War, men cast the can
non, men fashioned the musketry, men
cried to the hosts, ‘Forward, march!”
men hurled their battalions on the
sharp edges of the enemy, crying,
"Charge! charge!” but woman scraped
the lint, woman administered the cor
dials, woman watched by the dying
couch, woman wrote the last message
to the home circle, woman wept at the
solitary burial, attended by herself and
four men with a spade. We greeted
the generals home with brass bauds
and triumphal arches and wild huzzas;
but the story la too good to be written
anywhere, save in the chronicles of
heaven, of Mrs. Brady, who came down
among the sick in the swamps of the
Chlckahomiuy; of Annie Ituss, in the
cooper-shop hospital; of Margaret j
Breckinridge, who came to men who
had been for weeks with their wounds
undressed -some of them frozen to the
ground, and when she turned them
over, those that had an arm left, waved
it and filled the air with their “hur- i
rah!"—of Mrs. Ilodge. who tame from ,
Chicago, with blankets and with |>il- I
lows, until the men shouted, “Three ■
cheers for the Christian Commission'
* (loti bless the woman at home;” then
sitting down to take the last message.
I “Tell my wife not to fret alnmt me,
but to meet me In heaven; tell her to
train p the boys whom we have loved
so well; tell her we shall meet again
In the good laud, tell her to bear my
lo»« like the Christian wife of a Chris
tian soldier” and of Mrs. Hhsltog,
Into whose face the convalescent uil
tiler looked and said "Your grapes
and cologne cured me ' And «o It wavs
also through all of our war with Mpaln
| • wtittleu heroic on the Reid braving
death aad wound* to reach the fa*l*i.
• hing !• • ■ ii
West Indian hospitals or on the troop
ships, or in ear smitten how* tamp*
Men did their noth with shot and shell
shd carbine and u«wtt»*r, wu»,*n i'i4
their work with nocks and altppevs and
bandage* and warns drinks and Me rip
lure teats and gentle stroking* uf the
hot temple* and durtN of tail land
where they never nave any pain Men
hnelt down over the wounded and said,
"tin which side did yon hghi*'' Wom
en hnelt down over the wounded and
said Where are you hurt* What ike
I thing tii I make fur you to eg! * W kat
makes you cry?” Tonight while wo
men are sound asleep In our bed3,
there will be a light In yonder loft;
there will be groaning down the dark
alley; there will be cries of distress
in that eeilar. Men will sleep, and
women will watch.
Again: woman has a special right
to take care of the poor. There are
hundreds and thousands of them all
over the land. There is a kind of
work that men cannot do for the poor.
Here comes a group of little barefoot
children to the door of the Dorcas So
ciety. They need to be clothed and
provided for. Which of these directors
of banks would know how many yards
it would take to make that little girl
a dress? Which of these masculine
hands could tit a hat to that little girl's
head? Which of the wise men would
know how to tie on that new pair of
shoes? Man sometimes gives his char
ity in a rough way, and It falls like
the fruit of a tree in the Hast, which
fruit comes down so heavily that It
breaks the skull of the man who is
trying to gather it. Hut woman glides
so softly into the house of destitution,
and finds out all the sorrows of the
place, and puts so quietly the donation
on the table, that all the family come
out on the front steps as she departs,
expecting that from under her shawl
she will thrust out two wings and go
right up toward heaven, from whence
she seems to have come down.
O, Christian young woman! If you
would make yourself happy, and win
the blessing of Christ, go out among
the destitute. A loaf of bread or a
bundle of socks may make a homely
load to carry, but the angels of God
will come out to watch, and the Lord
Almighty will give his messenger hosts
a cnarge, saying, “Lopk after that
woman; canopy ber with your wings,
and shelter her from ail harm;” and
while you are seated in the house of
destitution and suffering, the little
ones around the room will whisper,
"Who Is she?” “Ain't she beautiful!”
and if you will listen right sharply, you
will hear dripping down through the
leaky roof, and rolling over the rotten
stairs, the angel chant that shook
Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the
highest, und on earth peace, good-will
to men.”
• • •
Again, I have to tell you that It Is a
woman's specific right to comfort un
der the stress of dire disaster. She is
called the weaker vessel; but all pro
fane as well as sacred history attests
that when the crisis comes she Is bet
ter prepared than man to meet the
emergency. How often have you seen
a woman who seemed to be a disciple
of frivolity and indolence, who, un
der one stroke of calamity, changed to
a heroine? Oh, what a great mistake
those business men make who never
tell their business troubles to their
wives! There comes some great loss
to their store, or their companions in
business play them a sad trick, and
they carry the burden all alone. He Is
asked in the household again and
again: "What is the matter?” But
he believes it a sort of Christian duty
to keep all that trouble within his
own soul. Oh. sir! your first duty was
to tell your wife all about it. She, per
haps,might not have disentangled your
finances, or extended your credit, but
she would have helped you to bear
misfortune. You have no right to
carry on one shoulder that which is
Intended for two. Business men
know what I mean. There came a
crisis in your affairs. You struggled
bravely and long; but after a while
there came a day when you said:
"Here I shall have to stop,” and you
called in your partners, and you called
in the most prominent men in your
employ, and you said: “We have got
to stop.” You left the store suddenly.
You could hardly make up your mind
to pass through the street and over
on the ferry-boat. You felt everybody
would be looking at you, and blaming
you, and denouncing you. You hast
ened home. You toid your wife all
about the affair. What did she say?
Hid she play tho butterfly? Did she
talk about the silks and the ribbons
and the fashions? No. She came up
to the emergency. She quailed not
under the stroke. She ofTered to go
out of the comfortable house into a
smaller one. and wear the old cloak
another winter. She was the one who
understood your affairs without blam
ing you. You looked upon what you
thought was a thin, weak wom-tu'-s
arm holding you up; but while you
looked at that arm there tame into
the feeble muscles of it the strength
of the eternal God. No chiding; no
fretting; no telling you about the
beautiful house of her father, from
which you brought her ten. twenty,
or thirty years ago. You said; "Well,
this Is the happiest day of my life. I
am glad I have got from under my
burden. My wife don't care I don't
care." At the moment you were ex
hausted God sent yt»u a Ib-borah to
meet the host of Auialekltea and scat
ter them like chaff over the plain
There are sometimes women who alt
reading sentimental novela, and who
wish that they had some grand held
tn whtih to display their Christian
powers What grand and glorious
thing* they could do If they oniy had
an opportunity! My sister, you need
not wait for any such tint# A crisis
will rotate In your affairs. There will
be a Thermopylae in your own house
hold where tlal will tell you to stand
There are e ores and hundred# of
ho>weholda today where as much brav
ery and courage are demanded of wom
en as was exhibited hy (trace thirling
or Marie Antoinette, or Joan ad Are.
A«atn, I remark It la womaa'e right
bring to a* the kingdom of heaven
It ta easier fc»r a •-•man to he a Chris
tian than for a ntaa Why? Y«s nay
the Is weaker No tier heart t« mure
leepotMlve to the pleadings of divine
hive She ha la <a«r majority The
fast that aha can more neatly htfnmr
a Christ lea I prove hy the a141 rmtn t
that three-fourths of the members of
churches in ail Christendom are wom
en, So God appoints them to be the
chief agents for bringing this world
back to God. I may stand here and
say the soul is immortal. There is a
man who will deny It. I may stand
here and say we are lost and undone
without Christ. There is a man who
will contradict it. 1 may stand here
and say there will he a judgment day
after a while. Yonder Is some one
who will dispute It. Hut a Christian
woman in a Christian household, liv
ing In the faith and the consistency of
Christ’s gospel—nobody can refute
that. The greatest sermons are not
preached on celebrated platforms; they
are preached with an audience of two
or three, and in private home life. A'
consistent, consecrated Christian serv
ice is an unanswerable demonstratioi
of God's truth.
• • •
Lastly, I wish to say that one of the
specific rights of woman Is, through
the grace of Christ, finally to reach
heaven. Oh, what a multitude of wom
en In heaven! Mary, Christ’s mother.
In heaven! Elizabeth Fry In heaven!
Charlotte Elizabeth In heaven! The
mother of Augustine In heaven! The
Countess of Huntington—who sold her
splendid jewels to build chapels—in
heaven! While a great many others,
who have never been heard of on
earth, or known but little, have gone
Into the rest and peace of heaven.
What a rest! What a ehange It was
from the small room, with no Are and
one window (the glass broken out),
and the aching side, and worn-out
eyes, to the “house of many man
sions"! No more stitching until twelve
o'clock at night; no more thrusting
of the thumb by the employer through
the work, to show It was not done
quite right. Plenty of bread at last!
Heaven for aching heads! Heaven for
broken hearts! Heaven for anguish
bitten frames! No more sitting until
midnight for the coming of staggering
steps! No more rough blowd across
the temples! No more sharp, keen,
bitter curses!
Some of you will have no rest In
this world. It will be toil and strug
gle and suffering all the way up. You
will have to stand at your door, fight
ing bank the wolf with your own hand,
red with carnage. But God has a crown
for you, I want you to realize this
morning that he is now making it,
and whenever you weep a tear he sets
another gem in that crown; whenever
you have a pang of body or soul he
puts another gem in that crown, until,
after a while in all the tiara there will
be no room for another splendor, and
God will say to his angel; "The
crown is done; let her up, that she
may wear it." And as the Lord of
Righteousness puts the crown upon
your brow, angel will cry to angel,
"Who Is she?" and Christ will say, "I
will tell you who she Is. She is the
one that came up out of great tribula
tion, and had her robe washed and
made white In the blood of the Lamb."
And then God will spread a banquet
and he will invite all the principali
ties of heaven to sit at the feast, and
the tables will blush with the best
clusters from the vineyards of God
and crimson with the twelve manner
of fruits from the Tree of Life, and wa
ters from the fountains of the rock
will flash from the golden tankards,
and the old harpers of heaven will sit
there, making music with their harps,
and Christ will point you out, amid
the celebrities of heaven, saying, "She
suffered with me on earth; now we
are going to be glorified together.’*
And the banqueters, no longer able toi
hold their peace, will break forth with,
congratulation, "Hail, hail!” And
there will be handwritings on the wall!
— not such as struck the Babylonlaa
noblemen with horror—but fire-tipped1
fingers, writing In blazing capitals of
light and love, "God hath wiped away
all tears from all faces!"
DIFFERENCES IN WOMEN.
An Odd Illustration of the Caitumi of
Different Generat Ions.
It was a very hot afternoon on the
Southeastern railway, says the Acad
emy. In the carriage were two ladles
who were young and happy, a lady
who wna elderly and apparently single,
and a little girl. At Orpington there
entered a tall, fresh, loose-limbed boy,
of 19 or so, carrying surveying poles
and a large banket, who took the neat
opposite the two ladies, who were
young. As the train panted along and
the carriage became more and more
stifling, the buy was noticed to bo
growing restless and uervotM. Twlco
or thrice he made as if to speak and
each time thought better of It, and
then, suddenly reaching out the bas
ket and displaying Its contents to the
two friends, he gasped. Indicating one
of them with a timid eye "Would
you mind taking some of these?
They've just been given me. but I
ton 1 <1 u t eat them all. you kuow, and
• ••».» very M • * • ,
realiy. If you wouid be so kind
• • •?" The basket was loaded with
strawberttee and he was quickly as
sured that his request was not an
impertinence lie then turned to the
little girl, who no sooner observed hie
intention that she rruaead over to the
iiOfi • le. an t. seating herself within
tange of the fruit, saved him further
trouble, To the elderly lady, how
ever, ha had to repeat hla lev i tat ten
Frigidly accepting It. she ineh two
sitae berries from the basket with
mu. h ferstn»ny At New I'tso the
hov gathered together hla proparly
and lumped owl. ** What « deer boy?'*
•aid one of the lew frlaeds The tli
Ite girl leaked wistfully after him
I have never," said the elderly lady.
Il*r i * Au I iiniifcg lit Id*
| ultMMT Itu "1 |#Vf Nftf 94# sm
barreased in my Ills."
