LITERATURE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 1106, 12 February 1891, Page 4

LITERATURE.

WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK. " The vorv thing," exclaimed Christina, as sue hastily jumped up from her easy chair in I rout of the giowiug fire and fl' unshed a newspaper before the two p:;.- w ho s-at dreamily watching the flickering iianes "Here is our chance to cultivate an idiomatic and elegant style in letter-writing, whv-h Miss Scrumpkins is contiiiuitiiy rciriijidiug us every Wellesley girl should possess. Read this, girls." . The two girls thus rudely aroused from their reverie took the proffered paper and read the following:— "\X7" ANTED-BY A YOUNG GENTLEMEN OF T T means and cultivation, a younpr lady to correspond with a view to hetter acquaintance; the young lady must be refined and of some beauty. Address JC.Y., box 957, Buffalo, N.Y. " You don't really mean, Christina," exclaimed Louise Mowker hurriedly, " that ■we, or rather one of us, should reply to such an advertisement as that, a sort of public protestation of love which sells itself to the highest bidder ? " " Why not ?" retnrned Christina, her brown eyes with merriment, " Buffalo is 500 miles away, the ' better acquaintance' will not thus imply a personal acquaintance, no one else shall know of it, for we will give him an assumed name, and just picture to yourself, girls, how this excitement will charm away the tediousness of winter life at Wellesley !" " But suppose," said Edith Morton, the second of the two listeners, " that this ' young gentleman of meaus,' etc., should prove to be some middle-aged married man who is trying to indulge his love of romance at the expense of his wife—some ugly old wretch who may become too ardent in his false protestations? Ugh ! The very idea makes me shudder." "No danger of that," replied Christina Lockwood, as she cut the advertisement out of the paper and placed it in her pocketbook. " Whoever heard of a middle-aged married man putting himself to the personal inconvenience of writing fruitless love letters to gratify a quasi love of romance ? He would be much more apt to dwell on the fascinating qualities of the club. No, my dear, I would be willing to wager five pounds of candy that this is a bona fide youug gentleman of means and cultivation who wishes to carry on a romantic correspondence, and who would be as ready to cease writing at the end of six months as we would." " But whicn of us three is to be the young lady of refinement and of some beauty, and what nnm de plume shall she use ?" said Louise, convinced now of the feasibility of the plan and of the fun which could be had from the correspondence. " Who indee'i," retorted Christina, "but the wit and the beauty of our class, Miss Louise Mowker? Yes, Louise, you, are a much better writer than Edith or myself, and then the letters will be written under the supervision of us all, so that the responsibility will be equal. As for a vom de plum.-, why not take Miss I. A. Smith (Infidel™ Amorata Smith) —you know I have a private box in the post office. Let him know frorii the name that he need expect very little lasting affection." " We'll be a sort of modern triumvirate." chimed in Edith. " You, Christina, a ethe Crassus who furnishes the wealth of wisdom and planning ; lam the Pompey who contributes an aristocratic assent; wliile Louise is the Cißsar who with her beautv and power is to conquer—'X.Y., box 987, Butfaloe, N.Ti."' And Edith laughed merrily. "Well, I agree," said Louise, "and although I have no; had very much experience in letter writing in which the scale of affection gradually ascends, 1 think that with the aid of yon two I may be able to write to this Buffalo romancer the ' wordsthatburn.'"

During the afternoon, the three girls put their heads together, and the western train that eveni- g bo e to' Buffalo the result of their conference and work in the form of the following letter:— Wellesley, January 11, 1890. Mr. X Y. : Dear Sir, —A spirit of curiosity, which current belief asserts always dominates the feraiue mind, has led me to you. I wonder why a "young gentleman of means " is_put to the necessity of advertising for affection. X have no iuteubion.of pandering to your love of romance, but if you wish to write to me I am perfectly willing that you should, for I consider it a psychological experiment. My own mirror tells me lam a beauty; my.friends call me a wit, and my weakness in writing to you shows that I am a fool, a conclusion which you will doubtless confirm when yon receive this letter from An unknown woman, Infidelia Amorata Smith, Address Miss L. A. .Smith, Wellesley, Mass. Whatever X.Y. may have thought of this Strange note, his letter in answer to it (reaching Wellesley at the end of the week) coutained only praise for his fair correspou dent's style and an ardent wish that the correspondence might be continued. The name he gave was Richard Grayton. The three girls w ere delighted with the charming style of the letter, which evidenced a high cultivation on the part of the writer. He -was manifestly a gentleman, for none but a gentleman could have wiitten such graceful sentences. He was probably some you lawer or an artist with an innocent love for romance and fun. If an artist perhaps he was at this very moment trying to picture to himself the face of the unknown Miss Smith; perhaps he gave substance to his thoughts in the form of a delicately-traced head on snowy canvas and gazed as rapturously at it as did Michael Angelo at his half-completed Madonna, a hese fancies and thoughts aroused all the latent lomance in the three girls, and quickly a reply was sent to Mr. Richard Grayton, asking for his photograph. In d:e time came Mr. Grayton ssecond letter more affectionate tt-an before, and inclosing the photograph of a handsome young man'with n dreamy, far-away look in his eyes. At I the close of the letter, Mr. Grayton said • " I j have sent you my photograph as you asked, ! and shall, of course, expect yours in renin. I J shall eagerly await i& coming/for I know I your face must be as beautiful as your letters are witty." lh.ere girls, what are you going to do about that ? " exclaimed Louise as she gave the letter to her two companions to read ' and gazed earnestly at the portrait of i Richard Grayton. "We cannot honourably ! keep his picture—and he is a handsome fellow without sending him one, and whose shall it be ? If we were to send him one of our own photographs, this little .affair would be sure to be found out by some one who knows us. I, for one, don't wish to send him mine." «' Nor I mine," said Edith. " But on the other hand, we don't want this correspondence. " " I have it," exclaimed Christina. "Wo will send him u composite photograph of our class, the separate graces and beauties of seventy-nine girls blended into one." " fhe very thing," exclaimed Edith and Louise together, » for the girl in the composite picture is pretty and has a romantic appearance which I am sure Mr. Grayton will greatly admire. By all means let us sent! him the composite photograph." So the. composite photograph was sent, and in his very next letter Mr. Grayton went into raptures over it. •• It i 8 the face of my dreams, he wrote, •• „„d the face Lhut lhuve long pictured to myself as the ideal. and now 1 f,„d it a reality. How much I than-, yon for sending it. and how l thank I'ate for giving me so fair a cone: spondent.

j The letter excited much merriment on the r part of the girls. " Poor fellow !" ChrisItina would say, "what a misfortune is his to love a dream. I believe lam beginning to feel sorry for him—for he is such a handsome man." As the weeks sped by, the letters from Mr. Gray ton became more and more ardent, ' and, if truth must be told, the interest of - the three girls in him became greater and ! greater. They all admired his face, for there was a dreamy, romantic something / about it which attracted them. They even regretted sending him the composite photograph and allowing him to fall in love with a shadow, as it were. Thus time went on until one day in the early part of June, a bombshell was cast into the camp of the girls—Mr. Richard Grayton wrote them that he could no louger live without seeing his adore.d jVlis3 Smith, and announced his intention of coming to Wellesley the following Friday. This was indeed startling news.. What was to be done? if Mr. Grayton were to call and ask for Miss Smith, he would be ushered into the presence of the professor of English, who was the only Miss Smith in the College. Surprise and explanations would naturally ensue, then an investigation—and woe to the three conspirators if they should be found out! They all secretly wished to see this Richard Grayton, for his picture showed him to be handsome, his letters proved him cultivated, and his determination to come to Wellesley bespoke his earnestness. It might be possible to bribe the maid so that when Mr. Grayton should call one of the three should represent Miss Smith. But then, which should it be? They all wished to see him but it was ob- . vions that only one . could. Each one, in ■ the mere wishing to meet Mr: Grayton, was conscious of transcending the laws of etiquette and propriety—yet what girl had not at some period of her life broken one of Mrs. Grundy's iron-clad rules. " Well," said Chiistina at last, " the only possible plan that I can think of is this : You know my brother Bert comes out from Cambridge Friday morning to see me. Now, as Mr. Grayton would not be apt to call before Hie afternoon, the best way is for I me to tell Bert the whole story—how we wrote Mr. Grayton for a lark without the slighest idea that be would ever come here, and also show him Mr. Grayton's picture that he may be able to recognise him. Then Bert can go down to the station, find Mr. Grayton, and if he discovers him to be what his picture and letters have led us to believe him, a gentleman, he can explain the whole matter to him and bring him up to call oa us as a college friend. If he finds that he is not a gentleman, is old, hideous, etc., then by the use of a little diplomacy he can prevent his coming up to the college. Now, what do you think of the plan ?' Edith and Louise assented to the propo- ; sition, and the two intervening days (it was then Tuesday) were passed by the girls in restless anticipation. A note was despatched by Christina to her brother Bert bidding him be sure to come over to Wellesley Friday morning, as she had something very important to tell him. Edith and Louise pictured to themselves the surprise which Mr. Grayton would manifest when told that it was three girls, not one, to whom he had been writing, and that the pictu e he had so rapturously adored was a composite photograph. At last the eventful Friday came, and at 10 o'clock Bert Lockwood appeared. After Bert had chatted for a few minutes with all three girls, his sister took him into the adjoining room to unfold the story to him. Breathlessly did Edith and Louise await the result. They could distinguish Christina's voice telling the story, then came sounds as of hurried exclamations on Bert's part, then i a loud burst of laughter from Bert, and soon Christina came back to the room with a most crestfallen expression on her face. " Will he do it ? Is it all right ?" ea -erly questioned both girls in a breath. "What did he say?" " Oh, girls !" groaned Christina, " that a Wellesley girl should live to see this day ! " " Why, what do you mean ? " exclaimed j Edith. I "I mean," respond ed Christina disgusted Iy, | " that is one of Bert's provoking jokss. He j and his chum of last year, Harry Pelton, ' inserted the advertisement in the newspaper, j and replies were to be sent to Buffalo, where | Mr. Pelton now is. Mr. Pelton took the ' nom de plume of Richard Grayton, and when j he had received an answer from Wellesley, Bert's suspicions were aroused, and he found out by careful enquiries who the girls were who took the mail addressed to 'Miss I. A. Smith.' The rest of the correspondence and announcement of Mr. Grayton's comiug to see us was undertaken to cure me of my love for romance. While Mr. Grayton is a perfect gentleman, he is, Bert says, one of the homeliest men in his class." " But the phonograph ? " gasped Louise. "Those handsome features, chose dreamy eyes which we admired so—" " And that far-away expression," interrupted Edith, "in which we thought there ' was a tinge of sadness. Pon't you rei member how we pitied him for being | compelled to Morship only a composite | photograph, the shadow of a dream ? " " Don't pity him any more," returned Christina grimly, "for that photograph over | which we all went into raptures, that Apollo- | like profile—alas that a Wellesley girl should |be thus humiliated—was also a composite, a j compositeof Mr. Grayton'sclassatHarvard?'