Lord Pollypod.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8020, 5 January 1906, Page 4

Lord Pollypod.

"Well, mum, if I had boon hung for It I couldn't have helped laughing, Jliss Itopcr was so set up about that Lord. Ho wasn't much to look at; & slim little man, with towcoloured whiskers; but as soon as he came along she began to feel as if the world was turned topsyturvy. " My Lord Pollypod wasa-6ayin' so and so to Maria lost Sunday. My Lord Pollypod admires Jh&t flower of Maria's so much. My lord and my lord this, that t'other, until I was sick of it. Tou see, I waited at table and showed folks their rooms, and was always doing something or other upstairs, so I knew more of it than cook and Bridget and I took a dislike to him at once. "He was so prim and solemn and he took suoh airs, and then I did like to see Mr. Thomas Tallman go about with Miss Maria. He was a fine man if you wanted to see ono, and as good as he was handsome. "Butyou see, missus having come into property when her uncle, the great soap man, died, got stylish, and forgot all i jout the Tallmans\ and missus thought Maria ought to do better for herself; and when my Lord Pollypod was introduced she broke off ono match and made another. I don'tknow how the did it; by sheer scolding and nagging, I expect. Misi Maria was awfully afraid of her mother, and she thought Mr. Tallman took his defeat too easily, as perhaps he did, and she let pride get the better of her love. "Bicht Well, they said he was so tloh that he could buy up half the country If he wanted it. It couldn't be money he was after If that was so, and if he loved her, why that was all you could expect. And as the wedding day came on, why, his presents showed his generosity. " 'Really, you are too generous,' I heard missus say to my lord. " 'Madame, 1 said he, ' these few little things are not worth mentioning between people of our wealth,' and missus laughed. "Certainly I have a hundred thousand pounds,' said she, ' but you must think me poor with your millions.' " 'Oh, of course not 1' answered he, but, pray, never speak again of the few pounds I have spent; a trinket or two, a fan, some lace—bah 1' "But, really, there was a splendid brace let—all diamonds; rings, pins. The engage ment ring blazed t Such lace! Why, a queen couldn't have had finer, though poor Miss Maria hardly looked at anything. " Every now and then some present cams from a jeweller's, newer and finer than the lost, and Miss Jiaria got paler and thinner all the while. " At last she asked her mother if she could go down to O&kwood 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: ' Yes, if you don't go to the Tallmans,' and she answered; ' Mother, I should be ashamed to Ece them,' and I went with her to the station. " ' Take core of youreelf, miss,' said I as I left her in her seat in the train. " 'Nothing will happen to me, Sally,' said she. 1 Things happen to those that want to iive.' " After that I hadn't much heart in helping with the wedding preparations. "She wits to come home on the fourth of Wie month. December it was. On the eighth the wedding was to take place. Minirter was told and company invited. Cards w*re out for the ceremony in church and for ttw reception; but, on the fourth a message came from Miss Mar:n. It was snowing bard and I remember the boy shaking the snow off his hat and coat before he camo into the hall. The message was this: ' Trains stopped by the snow; cannot cbme to-day.' »'Provoking I' 6aid missus, as she read the words, and she looked worried all day. The neit, and the next—the fifth and the sixth—there was no news at all. On the seventh another message came: 1 Snowing still. Impossible to come till the storm is over.'

" And on the wedding morning another, with the so words: ' Storm over. Will coma on Friday.' " Now Wednesday was the wedding day, and how my lord went on. " 'Postpone the marriage?' he cried. That conld not be. Could he not go for her ? Was it impossible ? He went to the station and found that it was. He camo back in a far] bat that did po good. The church was closed. The minister went home. The guestt were notified in a'great hurry, and my lord was in a fearful fury. He looked uioro than angry. He looked frightened. And it is unlucky, we know, to postpone a wedding. " However, Friday came, and with it Miss Maria. She looked a little better than when she went away, and the first thing she asked was how Lord "Pollypod took the delay. " 'Yon may have lost him by said missus solemnly. ' Hejsifrltdreadful rage.' „ - -** "Mis-Mirria looked its if she didn't care Zttout his temper, and wouldn't mind his loss, but she said nothing. '"l've sent for him,' the missus said. ' He'll come, I suppose, but the nobility are not used to such conduct.' '"The weather behaves to suit them, I suppose,' said Miss Maria. "And just then back camo the footman: - My lord's compliments, and he'd drive over at once.' "And I looked at Miss Mavia and saw something in her face that made me feci like saying: ' Oh, what is it, Miss Maria? What is it?' " Lord Pollypod did come in less than no time; and Miss Maria took him away into the conservatory—to explain matters, she said; she that hated so to be alone with him always 0 And then there came a ringing of the bell, r.nd I went to see who it was, for though the man opened tho door, I always took the card to miss or missus. " 'A bill for missus,' said Peter. " 'I should like to see Mrs. Roper,' said a young man With an envelope in bis hand. " And I showed him into the reception ioom and callod missus. After that rinp, not one, but twenty; one young man after another, and then missus' voice, so loud that I could not help going to the door. . " 'Bills for me?' I heard her say. 'I owl nothing. What does this mean ? Is it a con spiracy? I've always paid cash for everj thing.' " 'The lady most be very forgetful,' said one of the young men. " 'Certainly we know that Mrs, Boper has always bought for caih,' said another. " "And we liked to have an account with so rich a lady, so responsible a lady,' ?aid a joung Jewish man. " 'Perhaps if I mention that Mrs. Rop;r'i future son-in-law, fiord Pollypod, ordered the things to he paid for to-day, Mis. Eoper will understand.' " 'Lord Pollypod I' cried missus, turning white. And she took the bills and read them aloud—bills for the rings and brooches he'd given Miss Maria, (or the bracelets, the fans, the lace, bills for clothes and jewellery for himself, lor everything yon can thitikof, $ bill for board at a great hotel, one for carriages and horses—all for Mrs. Boper to <*ttle. "'I see how it it,' said the man from the hotel, turning to the others, ' this is a swindle, and Mrs. Boper is swindled tvorßt of all il her daughter is his wife. He told ns, madam, that yon, like many rich Americans, were glad to pay (or a title in the family, and that we were to come to you the day aftei the wedding'

" 'Which ain't come oft, thnntf goodness I' wied I, jumping up and down with joy. "Just then came another ring n.t the boll —a gentleman, very fine and elegant, who bowed low to missus and slid: "'Can I speak to you alone?' and offered his card. " 'Lord Pollypod,' was on it. " Missus, bowing and walking into another room with him, said: "'Lord Pollypod 1 I don't understand.' And he answered: " 'Madam, I fear that you have been deceived by an imposter—a servant of mine—who robbed me and has travelled in this country under my-name. lam George, Lord Pollypod, 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 see a kind of struggle in the hall, and there is the man who has called himself Lord Pollypod in the hand) of the policemen. " He had expected to bo married, and off with everything three days before; and no wonder ho was frightened at the delay of the wedding. But to think of how it all came about I How poor Miss Ellen, Maria's invalid cousin, who hadn't been out of the house tor years, should have read in the papers at what hotel the real Lord Pollypod stopped, and that he was marriod, 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 cave home and had made it tip with her old sweetheart, as if there had never been a quarrel. It was like a play, and I say again, I laughed heartily. " Missus had to pay some of the bills, to be suro, but she had lots of mcney, and my Miss Maria is Happily married to Mr, Tallman." _________