Why She Was Offended.

Otago Witness, Issue 2008, 18 August 1892, Page 46

Why She Was Offended.

The young man was very fond of his fiancee. His own education had been none too liberal, and it was a source of gratulation to him that his future wife had graduated from one of the best female seminaries in the country that money could afford. And when he came to her home that evening it filled him with inexpressible delight to gaze upon her intellectual beauty, her queenly carriage, her finished manners. As the hours wore away, however, there came upon him the disagreeable impression that her bearing was less cordial than usual. In time the impression grew to be a settled conviction. There was no mistake about it. She was cold and haughty. Tortured to desperation, ho Bpoke at last. " Tell me," he passionately exclaimed, " why this sudden change ? " Her lip curled with scorn. "If you wore a gentleman," she icily declared, "you would not need to inquire ; " and gliding across the room she parted the window curtains and gazed gloomily forth into the darkness. " The moment you came in," she proceeded, with a perfect calmness that betrayed the deepest feeling, " I detected at once the odour of tobacco about your clothes." In an instnut he was on his knees at her feet. "Forgive me, dearest," ho pleaded. She waved her hand grandly, and she never seemed more beautiful than in this moment of his' agony. "Even now," she exclaimed, "I am certain that you have cigarettes about your person. Is it not so?" The suppliant groaned. "It is true," and the stately girl laughed ironically. "I wisli to say that I have no use for a man who will sit in a lady's company all the evening, and never offer her a cigarette, although he has a pocket full of them."