shall be able to do a good deed at, lat dinner party to one person at on my way rejoicing. why" bridegrooms and brides had never popped such 9 question to the good Dean. Most careless people, forsooth!
Still, that was their business, and my business was mine.
in due course {turned up in' Whangpoo Road, the scene of the festivities being one of those comfortable roomy, airy and excellent houses that people no longer seem to appreciate, andthe guests were all Dalred off, and we sat down to dinner.
My partner on the left was the charming young lady whose sweetie Wwas coming from a southern port, Dut I forget who the one on the right was, equally as charming, one has ho doubt, but I had been specially tipped off by our hostess to try and keep the former. interested during the process of taking nourishment.
At a suitable moment, after the soup and the sh had "disappeared and the weather disposed of, broached the subject of her approach ing. wedding, saying that 1, too, was purposing pulling on a show at the Cathedral.
'So then 1 commenced to do. my' dally good deed, and related to her tthe gist of my recent interview with the Dean,—omitting of course, the closing cantos of same.
She was all attention, taking the greatest Interest in the tariff for the Fed baize, carpet, bamboo foliage, the flowers, the choir boys, the anthems, the organs and Wedding Marches, the homilies and. all the trimmings. 1 was getting along famously, and was} vain enough to think that, the excellent young lady thought me a most. informative companion for a dinner party. T told her all, nearly' li, of what she should tip off her Eweetle to do when he went to me terview the Dean and x the ceremonial.. She thanked me very much, and said it was most informative and, Valuable to have it straight from the horse's mouth, s0 to speak, And 1, overcome with the consciousness of virtue and the gratitude that my good deed had evoked that gentle breast, suddenly thought to myself, fon to another the dinner dozenth, and sixth, and do another one, this young lady and her bridegroom to conserve the family exchequer, even as you have done, my boy!
So, in an off-hand and nonchalant manner, I resumed my discourse, saying, "Oh, by the way, be sure and felt your fane when he goos to see the Dean to fix about your wedding. hat afler arranging things he must lat forget to ask the Dean to throw. in a christening or two with a reasonable time limit, of course. I did, and although Mr. Walker told me it was most unusual, he agreed to do T'm sure he'd' do the same for the most That young lady's face turned tomato colour, and her head. turned right "round the other way, and all T could see was the back of her neck. I wasn't on the earth any more, so far as she was concerned! "Something had gone most frightfully wrong with—'that second or super-good deed of mine at that dinner party. It was most marked. She didn't take the slightest notice of me for the remainder of the repast, und seemed violently interested in her partner on the other side.
However, all things come to an end it you wait long enough, and when we rose from our places to go into the drawing room, my hostess drew j me aside and asked what had hapig along so well together, and Then suddenly that girl turned ted and turned her ack on your as if she had been stung!"
So I hastily recounted the ehlet points of my converse, telling. my kind old friend how T had laboured the cause of doing my super-good deed for the future family exchequer of that young lady. In short, T recounted the intelligence about the make-weight of the christening—in case of need, of course, and definitety, only!
"Oh, my dear boy, is that what you fold her. I'm not surprised! Don't you know that you mustn't say these things to young ladies, They aren't supposed to know anything about them, Of course, you can tell such stories to me, and 1 enjoy mensely, but," er, well, er... never mind, come and talk to mel 'So, for the rest of that evening I did my best to atone for my sins of super-good deeds gone wrong, by telling' my Kind hostess some of the latest gossip from never mind where, but as she had to look' after her guests, and smooth down the very Fulled "feathers of that charming young lady. She asked me (o come {o tea the next afternoon and Anish the tally of my gossip in a more intimate atmosphere.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.