Won by a Fluke.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 9, Issue 642, 11 February 1887, Page 2

Won by a Fluke.

Sine people have a. peculiar faculty for getting mto a wkard positions. I, alas*! am one of those awkward ones. As Belinda says, I never open my moutli but I put my foot in it. In fact, the way I came to curry Bslinda at all was by a fluke, for I never should have aspired to her baud, she U so majestic and imposing, . , i% ■ You see, it was like this. Old Boodle, over the \vayj is very proud of his horses. Well, one day I mat him out in tha little paddocii. (lie calls it a park) ; his groom was walking up and down his latest purchase, a magnificent bay mare. In the distance Belinda was standing on the veraudah, feeding her canary. I am a great lover of horseflesh, Old Boodle pretends to be a j'idge too, only he isn't. However, that's neither here nor there. Well, Highflyer was showing off some of her little playful tricky, whilo old Boodle looked on with a complacent grin on Ilia jolly face. " What a magnificent creature !" I exclaimed, ecstatically. A gratified smile playod over his expressive features. "Yes," he said, proudly; "does me credit, eh ?" "You are a lucky fellow 1 How I wish she were mine." At this old Boodle appeared nearly convnlaed with laughter, greatly to my surprise. II Ha !hal ha ! Sly dog— sly dog I" he chuckled, giving me a playful dig in the ribs. " Came into dinner to-night, and we'll talk it over." , , I felt, awfully dumbfounded, you may be sure, for who ever heard of a feJlow giving smother fellow a bay mare just because he admired her points ? But no suspicion of the horrible truth presented itself to my mind. However, i went to dinner — cela va sans dire. And a, capital spread it was, too. Old Boodle knows how to give dinners. Ah soon as the ladies had retired, old Boodle, affcor a Jew preliminary chuckles — he dearly Wesa joke, doeu ßoodle — launched a thunderbolt at my unfortunate head. 41 Well, my boy, I have spoken to Belinda about you, and she is v/illiug to hear what you have to say for yourselt. You can go on the verandah and have it out with her. Never mind me, my boy. 1 was young myself once, and as great a fool as anybody. Wish you joy. Ha, ha 1" This, then, was the cause of his unbounded and (tome) incomprehensible fit of generosity. He v thought I aumired hia daughter, and was too bashful to ask for her openly ! The awful old man, who is very romantic in spite of his superfloua fat (by-the-bye, have you ever noticed, as a curious fact, that it; generally is the stout people who have the most romance ?) thought he was doing me a good turn, and was m a continuous state of chuckling, going off like an animated gingerbeor bottle at intervals all the evening at his own cleverness and forethought. Too stupefied to speak, I rosa from the table and followed my fate — in the shape of Belinda- on to the verandah. She was standing in an aeslhetic attitude, gazing up at the moon. In a sort of dream 1 went forward to meet her, I had prepared nothing to say — indeed, what was there to be sjtid ? Ie had all been taken out of my hands. On hearing my atep, she turned xotmd slowly. I felt inclined to turn tail and fly, but it was too late. She sailed majestically towards me. There was no escape. How could I undeceive her? Suffice it to say, that I met my fate like, a man and a Briton, and 1 must admit thai I might have gone a great deal further and fared a great deal worse.