Ethelyn's Mistake

"Isn't he handsome?" Ethelyn had asked, and Frank had answered, "Looks

well enough, though anybody with half an eye would know he was a codger

from the West. His pants are a great deal too short; and look at his

coat--at least three years behind the fashion; and such a hat, with that

rusty old band of crape around it. Wonder if he is in mourning for his

grandmother. Oh, my! we boys would hoot him in Boston. He's what I

call a gawky."

That settled it with Ethelyn. If fourteen-year-old Frank Van Buren,

whose pants and coats and neckties and hats were always the latest make,

said that Richard Markham was a gawky, he was one, and henceforth during

his stay in Chicopee, the Western young man was regarded by Ethelyn with

a feeling akin to pity for his benighted condition. Aunt Barbara's pew

was very near to Captain Markham's, and Richard, who was not much of a

churchman, and as often as any way lounged upon the faded damask

curtains, instead of standing up, often met Ethelyn's brown eyes fixed

curiously upon him, but never dreamed that she regarded him as a species

of heathen, whom it would be a pious act to Christianize. Richard rarely

thought of himself at all, or if he did, it was with a feeling that he

"was well enough "; that if his mother and "the neighbors" were

satisfied with him, as he knew they were, he ought to be satisfied with

himself. So he had no suspicion of the severe criticism passed upon him

by the little girl who read the service so womanly, he thought, eating

caraway and lozenges between times, and whose face he carried in memory

back to his prairie home, associating her always with the graceful

dark-brown heifer bearing so strong a resemblance to the cow which had

so frightened Ethelyn on the day of his first introduction to her.

But he forgot her in the excitement which followed, when he began to

grow rapidly, as only Western men can grow, and we doubt if she had been

in his mind for years until her name was mentioned by Mrs. Dr. Van

Buren, who saw in him a most eligible match for her niece. He was well

connected--own nephew to Captain Markham, and first cousin to Mrs.

Senator Woodhull, of New York, who kept a suite of servants for herself

and husband, and had the finest turn-out in the Park. Yes, he would do

nicely for Ethelyn and by way of quieting her conscience, which kept

whispering that she had not been altogether just to her niece, Mrs. Dr.

Van Buren packed her trunk and took the train for Chicopee the very day

of Mrs. Captain Markham's tea party.