LITERATURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7743, 20 February 1905, Page 4

LITERATURE.

LOKU POLLYPOD.

••Well, mum, if I had been hung for it I couldn't have helpe laughing, Miss Koper was so set up atout than l°m. He wasn t much .« look at • a s.'im little mar|. w, th JoWoured whiskers ; but as; soon M hj« came along she began to feel as If the world was tumid topsyturvy, , , "My Lord Po3ypod was a-saym M and so to Maria last Sanday. Mj Lord Pollypod admires that flowcr of Maria's so much. My lord and my k>id this, that, and t'other, until I was sick of it. You see, I waited at table, and showed. foIRS their rooms-, and was always doing, something or other upstairs', so 1 knew more of it than cook and Bridget, and I took a dislike to him at once. a Hja if as so prim and solemn—and ha taok such airs, and then I did lik» to see Mr Thomas Tallman go about with Miss Maria. He was a tino man if you wanted to see one and as good as ho was handsome. >" But you see, missus having cotne kito property when her uncle, the giaat soap man died, got stylish, and forgot aU about the Tallmans ; the missus thought Maria ought to do (better for herself ; and when my Lord Pollypod was introduced she broke off one match and made another. I don't know how she did it; by sheer scolding and nagging, 1 expect. Miss Maria was awfully airaid M her mother, and she- thought Mr ' Tallanm took his defeat too easily, *a perhaps he had, and she let pride get the better of her love. - Rich ! Well, they say he was so .rich that he could buy up half the country if be wanted it- It couldn't Be money he was after if that was so, and il he loved her, why, that .was all you could expect. And as ' the wedding-day came on, why, h.s presents showed his generosity. ■••' Really, you are too gene'cus,' % beam missus say to my lord. - •'.'Madam,' said hj« ' vhise Itw little things are not worth mentioning between people of our wealth,' and missus laughed. •■ ' Certainly 1 have a hundred thousand pounds,' said she, ' but you must think mc poor with your millioas.' •' " Oh, of course not ! answered he. 'but, pray, never speak again of tho few pounds I have spent; a u-n----ket or two, a fan, somo laco—bah ! - But, really there was a splendid bracelet—all diamonds ; rings, pins, tbe engagement ring blazed ! Such lace! Why, a queen couldn't have had liner, though poor. Miss Maria hardly looked at anything. *■' Kvery. now and then some present came from a jeweller's, newer and finer than the last, and Miss Maria got paler and thinner all the while.

" At last she asked her mother if She could go down to Oakwood to see her cousin Ellen, who had a deformity in her back, poor thing, and couldn't, or wouldn't, go out much, and her mother Said : - • Yts, if you don't go to the Tailmans,' and she answered : ■•" ' Hotter, I should be ashamed to seo them,' and I went with her to the station. •' f Tak* care of yourself, miss,' I said, as 1 left her in her seat in the train. " ' Nothing will happen lome, Sally,' said she. ' Things happen to those that want to live.' " After that I hadn't much heart in helping with the wedding preparations. " Sn« was to come home on the fourth of the month.. December it was. On the eighth the wedding was to take place. Minister was told and company invited. Cards were out for the ceremony in church and for the reception ; but, on the fourth a message came from Miss Maria. It was snowing hard, and I remember the boy shaking the snow off his hat and coat before he came into the hall. Tlie message was this ' " - Trains; stopped by snow ; cannot come to-day.'- " ' Provoking ! ' said missus, ' as she read the words, aud she looked worried all day. The next, and the next—the fifth and the sixth—there was no nows at all. On the seventh another message came : " ' Smowing still.- Impossible to come tiil the storm is over.' '

" And on the wedding-morning another, with these words. ■'-' Storm over. Will come on Friday.'_ " Now Wednesday was the wedding: day, and how. my lord went on. " ' Postpone the marriage ? ' he cried. That could not be. Could he not go to her ? Was it impossible ? He went to the station, and found that it was. He came baek in a fury, but that did no good." The church was closed. The minister went home. The guests were notified te a, great hurry that my lord was in a'fearful fury. He looted more than angry. He looked frightened. And it is unlucky we know to post- " ■•' Homier; I'riday came, and with" it Miss Maria. She looked a little better lhan when she went away, and the first thing 1 she asked was now Lord Pollypod took tt-e iltl.iy. ■'" ' You may have lost -him by Maria.' said*missus solemnly. 'He is in a dreodfiU rage.' " Miss Maria looked as if she did not care about his temper, and wouldn't mind his loss, but she said nothing. "•'•l've sent for Mm,' said missus. 'He'll come, X suppose, but the.nobility are not used to such cond'upt. "•' The weather" 'jehaves to suit them, 1 suppose/ said Miss Maria. - And just then back came the footman. " ' My lord's complements, and he'd drive over at once.' " And I looked at Miss Maiia and bow something in her face that made me feel like saying : •■'•' Oh, what is- it. Miss Maria ? What ia it ? " Lord Pollypod did come in less than no time ; and Miss Maria took him away Into the conservatory— to expiate matters, she said ; and that ■he hated so to be alone with, him always. And then there camo a, ringing of the bell and I went- to sec who It was. for though the man opened the door, I always took the card to miss or missuns. " ' A bill for missus,' said Peter. '■'' I should like to see Mrs R„per,' said a young man wiith an envelop in bis hand. " And I showed him into the reception room, and called missus. After that ring, not one but twenty ; ' ono young man after another, one j after another, and then missus' .voice, , so loud that I could not help going I .to the door.

" t Bills (or me 1' I heard her say. f I owe nothing. What does wis wean ? Is it a conspiracy ? I have always paid cash for everything.' ■

" ' Tho lady must be very forgetful,' said one of the young men.

" ' Certainly we know that Mrs Roper has ajways bought for cash,' said another. "'And we liked to have an account with so rich a lady, so responsible a lady,' said a young Jewish man.

" ■'• Perhaps if I mention that Mrs Boper's future son-in-law. Lord Pollypod, ordered the things to be paid for to-daM- Mrs Roper will understand.' " ' Lord Pollypod !' cried missus, turning white. And she took the billa and read them ailoud—bills for the rings and brooches he had given Miss Maria; for the bracelets, the fans, the lace ;bills for clothes and lewellery for himself-for everything you can think of; a bill for board at a great hotel, another for carriages and horses-all to be settled by Mrs Hoper. '.mi sea how it is,' said the man from the hotel, turning to the where, ' this is a swindle, and Mrs ltoper is swindled worst of ail, if her daughter is his wife. He told us, madam, that you, dike many rich Americans, were glad to pay for a tlWe in the family, and that we were to come to you the day after the .wedding.' "-<■ Which' ain't come off, thank goodness !.' cried 1, jumping up and down for joy. '•' Just then came another ring at the bell—a gentleman, very line and elegant, who bowed low to itissus, and said : "'Can I speak to you alono? 1 - and offered* his card, " ' Lord Pollypod,' was on it. ■" Missus, boning and waiving into another room with him, said : '■'J-Lord Pollyjiod ! I don't undu- .'- stand.' and he answered : ,f ■"• Madam, I fear r.'iat you hV ve been deceived by an impostor—a srr- ■'■"' **■* of mine who robb<-l me ami has travelled in this country under my name. I am George, Lord roilypod, and the only living person who has a right to the name.' " And then missus, with such a , look, goes off into hysterics, and I -,,aee a kind of struggle in the hall, i;.flpd. there is the man who call!) him-

self Lord Pollypod in the hnnds of the police officers. " Ho had expected to <ae married, and off with everything three days before ; and Bo wonder he was frightened at the delay of the wedding. But to think of how it all came about ! How poor Miss Ellen, Maria's invalid cousin, who hadn't been out of the house for years, should have read in the papers at what hotel the real Lord PoMypod stopped, and that he was married, and had guessed this one was a swindler, and had got Thomas Tallman to investigate. And how Miss Maria had known it all when she came home, and had made it up with her old sweetheart, as if there had never, own a quarrell. It was like a play ; and I say again, I laughed heartily. ■' Missus had to pay some of the Mils, to be sure, but she had lots of money ; and my Miss Maria is j happily married to Mr Tallman.

YES OR NO 7 NEW I'LYMOUTH PEOPLE ARE RESPECTFULLY ASKED TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS. Is there anything in the evidence of one's senses ? Is there anything in the testimony oi one's friends ? Can reliance be placed on state-' ments from people we knuw. Are the opinions of local citizens of greater moment than those of strangers ? Wojuld you sooner believe people living in some far-away place Hat citizens of your own town ? We think not, for home proof can easily be investigated. Miss Jordan, Junction Roaid, near this town, says :—"For somo years I wa« troubled with backache, and also giddy headaches. The p ' my back were very severe, < could not stoop without pain and whan I did the egpny in getting straight again was even worse. Then giddiness would come on suddenly, and I would nearly fall. Medicines seemed to do me no goad until I took Doan's Backache Kidney Pills, which 1 prooured at the Co-opera-tive Store some months ago. The relief this remedy has given me is splendid ; if is really marvellous how completely all pains have been lanishdd." It is imjwrtant that you get the genuine remedy—that which Miss erore ask for Doan's Backache Kidney Pills, and see that the word "Backache" is in the name. Doom's Backache Kidney Pills are sold by all chemists and storekeepers at 3s per box (six boxes 16s 6d) or will be posted an receipt of price by Foster, McClellan & Co., 76 Pitt st-eet, Sydney, N.S.W. But be sure tr-«y are DOAN'S.