5? p Mill! 11 IE 31 FRANK MORTIMEK, ) . -.. 4,, -vr-TrrtTrcrr a t-vttit (Terms t IX ADVANCE Editor and rroprietor. AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY NEWSPAPER. One Dollar per Year. Vol. V. Now Uloomileld, Io,., Tuesday, July 18, lSl. IVo. 29. Ja Published Weekly, At l?ew Bloomfleld, Tenn'a. BY FRANK MOB TIMER. BCDBCRIPTION TBHMB. ONE DOLL All FEll YE All I GO Cents forO Months 40 Cents for 3 Months, FRED LUDLOW'S MISTAKE. I DON'T think tlicro can be any mis take, Fred, old fellow. There is the lawyer's friendly letter, beginning 'My dear Ludlow ;' and here is his formal letter, beginning, ' Dear sir ;' and they both toll the same story." " Videlicet, that my beloved old uncle you needn't grin, Jack ; ho always was a dear old boy has peacefully departed to a better land, and has left mo his heir, Lud low Manor and the estates thereunto apper taining, worth about ono hundred thousand dollars per annum ; but it can't be true, Jack, how can it?" " Too much good luck to fall upon your undeserving shoulders ; is that what you mean? " Woll, it is rathor hard lines that an idle fellow like you, Fred, should turn up such a trump card suddenly. However, I congratulate you with all my heart." " But I tell you, it's alia delusion; I never could have a hundred thousand a year. Give mo those letters again." As he read thorn, the expression of his face suddenly changed, and he started up, ex claiming, " By Jovo, Jack, we forgot all about tho condition under which I inherit." " I don't remember any condition ; what is it?" "A settlor," answered Ludlow. "I would not do it for twice the money." " Hang you, what is it, man ? Thore is not anything I wouldn't do for a hundred thousand a year, except marry a woman with a squint. " Well, I've got to marry a woman. How is it you didn't take in all old Frank's letter properly? Look here?" and Fred be gan to read aloud, ' Dear Ludlow, I have much pleasure' hem hem whore is it ? I have it 4 has left you heir on condition that within twelve months you marry your cousin, Miss Magdalune Hcpburno (she is his sister's child). Should you refuse to do this, the property goes to Tier, house, plate, horses, and carriages, and you get a legacy of five thousand dollars.' That's generous Jack, isn't it?" " It might be worse," responded Jack, laconically. " Worso ? I tell you it's a pretty ending to a man's hopes. I know it couldn't be true." . " "But why not marry the girl? She won't say no, you may take your oath, and you don't care very much about any one else, I suppose." " My dear fellow, it's very easy to say, marry tho girl, but she's six fcot if she's an inch ; and as to her foot 'beotlo crush ers,' by Jove, as the fellow in Punch says." ' But think of the hundred thousand I Surely you won't be fool enough to let her have it without you, whilo you retire upon your modest incompetence I" " Well, even Ave thousand dollars will stop a gap or two," returned Ludlow, re lapsing into his usual indolent manner, as though the affair of the Inheritance were quite settled ; ' but he might have mado it ten : Miss Matilda Martha, or whatever her delightful name is, would never have missed it.'!.. V : V?.' ', " Do you know, Ludlow, you're enough to drive a man mad. Do you mean to say that you are going to lot that splendid fur- tune slip through your fingers, simplv be cause a woman happens to bo a good hoight ? I wish to heaven I had the chance 1 wouldn't care were she as high as St, Pauls." "If slio diUn t squint? Well, you boo, Jack, we all have our little prejudices. prefer that my wile uuould look up to me in every sense of the word." "Yes, you always were an as, I know," growled Jack. " Come, I've thought of a splendid plan. I won't marry my cousin that's settled but why shouldn't you? You have rathor a taking way with you wbon you liko ;' and I'll introduce you and praiso you up to the skies. Wou't that do ?" "As if a girl with suoh a pot of money would look at a poor devil like me t No, thank you, I don't like being Bnubbod. And now suppose you state your own objections to her more fully ( you know hor very woll, of course." " Never spoke to her in my life. Fotter- ton you know Potterton showed her to me one night at the opera, with her mother. I don't know how that fellow knows every one. There was a little angel in the box with them ; Indeed if she were the cousin you wouldn't hear much grumbling. I was greatly surprised whon Pottorton told mo that the oldorly fomale was my aunt, the gigantic female my cousin, and tho angol a young lady from the country, who was staying with thoni. Hoigh-ho 1 what stun ning eyes sho had ! I never called upon them. Cousins are expected to kiss, are't thoy ? and I could not have kissed the grenadier !" 'But you said you saw her fcot. ' So I did j I watched them into their carriage : tho angel hopped in so fast I could see nothing but white skirts ; the grenadier bungled upon the stop, and dis closed a pedestal finished off by a patent leather shoo, and sandalod, and hor dress was whito. I wont homo Jack, depressed in spirit ; no, it couldn't be dono at any price." " You take it deuced cool, I must say." "What is a fellow to do? I am quite worn out with the tremendous state of ex citement I was in when I first-hoard tho news. Too much of that kind of thing does not pay ; it wears a fellow to skin and bone. I can't think how I was stupid enough to forget all about tho conditions. I say, old fellow, you're not going I It's evor so early." " Long past ono." " Woll, good-night, and if you think bet ter about my offer of an introduction to the heiress, just let mo know. I suppose there is no fear that she'd insist upon marrying me, is there 1 She'd save five thousaud by it, you know. There, he's off; how selfish oven ono's best friends aro 1" But Jack's head was in at tho door again directly. " I say, Fred, you never told me what you'd do next." Next? Let me see Oh I I'll write to old Frank, and tell him that it's all up ; and thon I think it would be only civil to call upon my aunt, and toll her that I can not marry hor daughter. I must do the thing nicely ; hint at pre-engaged affections so thoy are, by the angel I must ask for a private interview ; I could not face the grenadier. You soe, ' I'm a good-looking fellow, Jack, and it's just possible gono again. Now, I'll just have one cigar, and thon to bed." About a wcok later, Jack courtesy title, John Ash ton, Esq. was sitting in his office, not studying a brief, but a novel bound in yellow, when his door was unceremoniously opened, and Fred Ludlow came in. lie nodded to Ja;k, helped himself to a cigar from a box upon the chimney-piece, and took up his position a la John Bull upon the hearth-rug ; his hat was still on, and tilted a little down over his eyes. Present ly he stretched out a long arm, and taking the book from Jack's hand, he flung it into tho furthest corner of the room. "Yery well," said Jack; "I hope you are prepared to be very agreeable, for my book was specially so ; the horoiue bad just got rid of husband No. 1 and was laying the plot for disposing of No. 2." " And keeping poor No. 8 in blissful ig. noranco at the same time," interrupted Fred. " I know all about it ; I dou't ex pect to make up for such charming intel lectual food as all that ; but still I am not wholly to be despised. Do you know, Jack," he added, thoughtfully, "that your cigars are deuced good, and that I think it's a jolly thing to live as you do here ? A fellow can go about with Ids hat on, anddl that. I think I'll out society. Ono's P's and Q's are such an awful bore." " Did you come here to toll me that ?" " No ; didn't you want to know about that money affair? It's all settled ; I have declined the honor of my cousin's hand J she has the property without tho encum brance of dear I, and dear I gots his1 five thousand : I'll just make them give mo a check ; it's not worth investing five thous and, and it's too little to pay my debts with, so I'll sport it at Paris : you'll come, too, old follow, and as long as it holds out we'll have a jolly lark !" " What an ass you are, Fred !" was Jack's grateful rejoindor. "But tell me what you did? Did you sue tho grenadier as you call her?" - . . " No, thank goodness ; but I saw roy aunt, and a deuced nice little woman she is ; I shouldn't mind marrying her,, not n bit, if sho was any ono ebte ; but even if I hud been inclined to relent about the gren adier, I mado such a mess of the wholo thing that I couldn't woll do it now. Fancy me telling the woman that her daughter was too big and ugly I Not exact ly in those words, you know, but it camo to tho same thing ; and then I got bogged again whon I began about the littlo girl I had soon with them at the opera. I think I ended my saying that I was overhead and ears in love with her." " But you mado it plain that you gave up the property, I suppose" " Oh ! thore was no doubt about that part ; my aunt spoke very nicely, and said sho wished for my sake that I could have liked Magdalone, but that she could not help admiring my noble and disinterested conduct. By Jovo 1 1 felt quite a hero, Jack ! And sho hoped, now that wo had met, that wo would all be good friends, and she half-promised mo an introduction to tho angol. Her name is oh I not a pretty name Cherry Micklethwaito; sho would bo Mrs. Ludlow, of course, if Imarried her; but Cherry is a desperate narno. I'd rather she was a flower than a fruit." "A vegotablo would have been worse than cither. But what do you mean to marry on?" "My fifteen hundred a year, of course. I think I must keep a few tenners out of the five thousand for the honeymoon trip. And yet it would be a torrible thing to marry on fifteen hundred a year, although some one has written a little book tolling how it's to be done. No, I'm afraid single blcssodness is my fate ; and it's all Potter ton's fault, Isn't it Jack?" " I nover saw such a fellow as you are, Fred ; always laying tho blame upon some one or otner. ilow is it rottorton's fault " " Why, don't you see if he hadn't point ed out my cousin to me that night at tho opera, I'd never havo known what she was liko ; and then, whon I got this money, I could have proposed to her, and never havo soon hor, perhaps, until it was all settled ; a fellow can do a lot of things if ho doesn't know ho's doing thorn. Don't you see?" " Most lucidly explained, certainly ; but I think I can follow you. But no matter who is to blame, you havo been and gone and made a confounded fool of yourself ; so you must mako tho best of it." "But about Paris? you'll come, won't you, Jack ?" " Yes, if you haven't changed your mind or spent that unfortunate five thousand be fore June, which will be about tho right time to see tho city in full blow, I suppose I shouldn't wonder if you married tho heiress after all ; you seem to be relenting very fast since you heard your angel's name was Cherry. You might make tho grena dier wear white boots, you know, or a black dress." "Yes, but I couldn't take a yard from her height. I say, what are you going to do to-night? It's quite early still. Come along and soe Rose Eytinge ; she's splon did." "All right," said Jack, and thoy were presently whirling toward Wallack's in a carriage. The following afternoon Fred Ludlow was just turning into a shop to spend some of his small patrimony upon " Jokey Club,' when a 110.1t little brougham drove up to tho door, and he hoard his name called. "My dear aunt," ho said, shaking hands cordially with Mrs. Ilepburno, and looking beyond her to soe if his cousin was in the carriage ; but the second place was empty. "I was just going to write you a little note," Mrs. Hcpburne said. " I want you to come and see me ; I am going back to Staten Island to-night, and you can come down the day after to-morrow, if you have no engagement." "I shall be delighted," said Fred, uu- blushingly; "but " " I know what you are going to say ; but don't be afraid ; I would not have been unkind enough to ask you to moot your aversion." "O i" stammered Fred. " Nover mind ; I'm not offeudod, neither is Magdalone. She thinks your conduct as noble as I do ; she is a dear, good, amiable girl as evor lived ; still I cannot expect you to see with a mother's eyos ; but perhaps I might be able to introduce you to some one whom you do admire," sho added, laugh inc. "To Miss Mlcklothwaite? Oh ! if you do, you will be the best woman in the world I'm too poor to marry, but I'd like to know her." " Yes, you needn't fall lu lovo with hor ; that is very easily managod ; and now, good- by ; you'll come down on Friday, and stay as long as you find us pleasant," .,, . "I'll auk fur a fortnight's leave ; that will give you enough of me," answered Fred, and thon aunt and nephew shook hands and parted. When, on the following Friday, Fred Ludlow, dressed for dinner, camo into the drawing-room of his aunt's pretty little cot tago on Staten Island, he found there be fore him the young lady of whom his thoughts had boon full since the night he had soon her at tho opera nearly twelve months before. He felt wonderfully shy and awkward as sho rose upon his entrance, gathering up tho bright-colored wools which lay scattered over hor white dress. Sho was a vory pretty pitjuanle little crea ture, and hor eyes were littorally dancing with suppressed mirth. "Micklethwaito," said Fred, bowing and hating himself for tho blush which he folt rising to the very roots of his hair. Tho young lady bowed in return, and then put out her hand, saying, frankly and pleasantly, " We should not bo strangers, Mr. Ludlow. I have hoard so much about you lately." There was a slight emphasis upon the last word, which was not lost upon Fred. In what terms had sho heard him discussed ? he wondered. Miss Micklethwaito sat down to her wool-work again ; and Fred sat opposite to her, thinking that evon the name of Cherry was bearablo when homo by her ; wishing that his uncle had not attached such im possible conditions to this will wishing that ho had more than fifteen hundred a year, and that ho could win that charm ing littlo creature for his wife ; and whilo ho was thus thinking, and wishing, he was talking commonplaces with Miss Micklo- thwaite in tho most approved style, and, and, by the time Mrs. Hopburne appeared, all shynoss had vanished, and the young lady and gentleman wore rapidly becoming excellent frionds. Fred's fortnight in Staten Island passed but too quickly, at least to him, and indeed the impression he made upon his aunt and the fair Cherry was far from disagreeable. He was a clever young follow enough, and had plenty to say when he chose to exert himself and shake off his indolent manner. His habits were of a domestic ordor at loast apparently so ; for he was nover tired of helping the two ladies, or tho young, lady rathor, for Mm. Hopburno's part was limi ted to looking on at intervals, to work among the flower-beds. Indeed it was a study to see Fred porchod upon a garden ladder, training roses and honey-suckles under tho direction of Miss Mickletwalte, whilo she stood under him with the shreds aud nails iu her hand. And, again, he would read aloud while his companions worked, and he and Cherry would quarrel and argue over the respective merits of Tennyson and Owen Meredith. But the last day came, as lost days always do come, long before they are wolcome, and poor Fred was unmistakably miserable. He had during his toilot upon that last morning acknowledged to himself the pleasant and yet melancholy truth that he was in love no ldlo passing fancy, but the real thing which comes, I suppose, not ofiener than half-a-dozen times in a man's life ; and moreover, that he would bo obliged to go away without the happiness of knowing that his affection was returned. Onco or twice he had fancied that if things had been different he might have hoped, she had always boon so nice and kind ; and just at that Interesting point the breakfast-bell rang, and he went down-stairs to find hor looking more bewitching than he had ever seen hor. Aftor breakfast thoy wont out to take their last walk round tho garden and shrubbery, Fred determining to keep a tight curb upon bis footings, for foar in a weak moment his secret would betray itself. Considering those good resolutions it was rathor hard upon him that his pretty cousin should chooso that special morning to rally him upon his dislike to his cousin. . I think It very cowardly to run away the very day Magdalono is expected,' she said. " If she really coming this evening ?" "Really and truly ; you should stay to soe hor, Mr. Ludlow; you cannot tell what might happen ; porhaps you might find hor very lovable in spite of your prejudice, ' and it might all end happily, like a book." ' They wore going at tho momout vory slowly along a walk socludod by high yew hedges on either side ; and as tho young lady finished speaking, thoy both suddenly Btoppcd, aud Fred had taken his compan ion's hand and wag holding it fast in his own ; he was looking eager aud excited. "And do you think," he said, "that aftor having known you, I could care for any one in tho world? I know it s hopeless, and that I ought to have gone away without telling you I lovo you, but I oouldnotdo it. Will you toll me that you forgive me that you do not hate me ?" " Forgive you? Hate you ? Oh ! Fred," she answored, softly. That was enough ; her hand was released, but only that she might be drawn within Fred's caressing arm, while he took his first kiss from her sweet lips. About two hours later, Mrs. Uopbume's voice was heard calling through the garden, " Fred I Fred ! where aro you ? I thought you were determined to go by the twelve train, and it's past one now. Eh 1 what has happenod? sho added, as the culprit is sued from the yew walk, with his arm round his pretty companion's waist, and his face beaming with happiness. " Something that will keep me hero for another day," he answered ; something that has mado me the happiest man in the world." He quite forgot, the foolish fellow, that he had only fifteen hundred a year, and five thousand dollars." " Now," said Mrs. Hcpburno, that same evening, as they all sat together in the ve randa, upon which tho drawing-room win dows opened, "in five minutes she will be here." " And remember," added the owner of tho little hand which Fred held clasped in his own, "that if you repent, you aro at liberty " His answer was in a whispor ; but he presently addod aloud : " When wo see her coming I shall retire until the greetings aro over ; she does not know I am hore,you tell me." As he spoke a carriage appeared at tho bend of the avenue, the two ladies wont in doors to meet the new arrival. From whore he sat, Fred saw stepping out of the broughman a tall, large woman, who justi fied in every particular his nickname of grenadior. Her dress soemcd somewhat scanty, too, for her size, and her bonnet was a perfect wilderness of flowers. " How upon earth did my aunt contrive to have suoh a daughter?" was Ludlow's comment as he saw, first the slight figure of his aunt, and then that of his beloved, swallowed in the embrace of his alarm ing relative. Presently he heard voices in the room behind him, and getting up, he went forward to undergo the ordeal ot in troduction. Ho walked rather slowly into the room,his handsome face a little flushed, and his eyes scanning curiously the figure before him. " By Jove, spectacles, too !" he muttered, as ho saw the new arrival looking at him, from hoad to foot. ' "Who is ho?" she asked, turning to Mrs. Uepburne. " You did not tell me you had oompany." " Allow me to introduce myself," said Frod, coming forward, emboldened by tho sight of the lovely face at tho grenadier's shoulder. "I am your cousin, Fred Lud low. IIo held out his hand, and would have bestowed a cousinly salute, had not the la dy started back in amazement, crying : "Your cousin, sir? I am not your cous in. What do you moan? There is your cousin, and you can kiss her, if her moth er has no objeotion. I am Miss Cherry Mickletwaite, and I am not accustomed to have liberties taken with mo, allow me to tell you." Fred retreated quite speechless with sur prise. Could it be possible? Had he been undor a ridiculous delusion all along? and had ho, all unknown to himself, fallen in love with his cousin, being thereby ena bled to fulfil the conditions of his uncle's will ? But it was for more difficult to mako the aggrieved Miss Cherry who had been a governess, and was still a valued friend of Mrs. Hepburue's understand the drift of the little comedy, the last sceno of which had just been played before her, than it was to make Fred see how he hod fallen in to such an absurd mistake. " It was all Potterton's fault," be said to the real Magdalene ; the follow told mo distinctly that night at the opera that yon were wore a friend of Mrs. Uepburne' s and that the other creature yes. I havo no doubt she is a very good creature when you say so, darling was my cousin." " And now would you caro to know what mado roe first begin to like you?" said Magdalono, softly. "It was your deter mination not to marry a woman you did not love, just to enablo you to keep our uncle's property. How mother and I did laugh when she told mo all you had said about me, aud thon we laid tho ( littlo trap Into which you foil so nicely." ,' ," If all traps were ho nicely finished," was tho beginning of Fred's answer ; what tho middle was, history salth not, but ho ended by agaiu declaring emphatically, " that It was all Potterton's fault I" ; Mr. and Mrs. Ludlow visited Paris, and Jack Ashton met them thore by invitation.
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