Guy was exceedingly particular, and developed a wonderful proclivity to

find fault with everything I admired. Nothing was quite the thing for

Daisy until at last a manufacturer offered to get one up which should

suit, and so the carpet question was happily ended for the time being.

Then came the furniture, and unlimited orders were given to the

upholsterer to do his best, and matters were progressing finely when

order number two came from the little lady, who was sorry to seem so

fickle, but mamma, whose taste was perfect, had decided against all

blue, and would Guy please furnish the room with drab trimmed with blue.

"It must be a very delicate shade of drab," she wrote, and lest he

Advertisement..

should get too intense an idea, she would call it a _tint_ of a _shade_

of drab, or, better yet, a _hint_ of a tint of a shade of drab would

describe exactly what she meant, and be so entirely unique, and lovely,

and recherché.

Guy never swears, and seldom uses slang of any kind, but this was a

little too much, and with a most rueful expression of countenance he

asked me "what in thunder I supposed a hint of a tint of a shade of drab

could be."

I could not enlighten him, and we finally concluded to leave it to the

upholsterer, to whom Guy telegraphed in hot haste, bidding him hunt New

York over for the desired shade. Where he found it I never knew, but

find it he did, or something approximating to it, a faded, washed-out

color, which seemed a cross between wood-ashes and pale skim milk. A

sample was sent up for Guy's approval, and then the work commenced

again, when order number three came in one of those dainty little

billets which used to make Guy's face radiant with happiness. Daisy had

changed her mind again and gone back to the blue, which she always

preferred as most becoming to her complexion.

Guy did not say a single word, but he took the next train for New York

and stayed there till the furniture was done and packed for Cuylerville.

As I did not know where he was stopping, I could not forward him two

little missives which came during his absence, and which bore the

Indianapolis post-mark. I suspect he had a design in keeping his hotel

from me, and whether Daisy changed her mind again or not I never knew.

The furniture reached Elmwood the day but one before Guy started for his

bride, and Julia Hamilton, who was then at the Towers, helped me arrange

the room, which is a perfect little gem and cannot fail to please, I am

sure. I wonder Guy never fancied Julia Hamilton. Oh, if he only had done

so I should not have as many misgivings as I now have nor dread the

future so much. Julia is sensible and twenty years old, and lives in

Boston, and comes of a good family, and is every way suitable; but when

did a man ever choose the woman whom his sister thought suitable for

him? And Guy is like other men, and this is his wedding day; and after a

trip to Montreal, and Quebec, and Boston, and New York, and Saratoga,

they are coming home, and I am to give a grand reception and then

subside, I suppose, into the position of the "old maid sister who will

be dreadfully in the way."




Most Popular