A TRIP TO THE ISLE OF MAN .

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2510, 11 August 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

A TRIP TO THE ISLE OF MAN .

Were you ever at the Isle of Man ? I have been once ; and the occasion is to me a memorable one, as I had then attained the mature age of eighteen, and then fell in love (it was at least the fifth time) with a young lady about a year my junior, at the house of whose Pa and Ma, I was, for tho time being, lodging. Nothing, I believe, but my utter iinpecuniosity (I had been supplied with £8 for tho trip) prevented me from running away with tho object of my adoration there and then; for I should certainly never have ventured to ask the consent of the rather corpulent, and to my thinking, surly individual, whom I occasionally saw about the house, with a white linen cap and white apron on, and whom the object of my affection addressed as Pa. It was several days before I had the opportunity, and could muster courage enough to tell the dear girl herself how fondly I loved her; though I certainly think my looks must have disclosed the secret of my heart long before it was put into words.

I was aceempanied on this trip by an old schoolfellow named Walter C—. a youth slightly my senior ; who had left school about a year previously, and he had been, for that time, installed as junior clerk in a Joint Stock Bank. He bad been tall for his age even at school, and his height, mainly due to length of limb, had earned for liim'the expressive cognomen of "Legs." During his clerkship he had added to his stature by several inches, without however, undergoing a corresponding increase of girth ; so that at the age of a little over eighteen he was fully sft. llin. in height ; and might almost have been taken as an illustration of Euclid's definition of a line—•" length without breadth " ; his legs were preternaturally long, so that, although when seated he enjoyed no special advantage oviy myself, yet, when with pome litlle difficulty, from under the table or elsewhere, he had gathered in his stilt like supports, and stood erect, ho towered above mo by some four inches. He was a goodnatured fellow, and possessed a considerableamountof self confidence, or what many of those with whom he was brought into contact considered "cheek." He was moreover sadly abdicted to punning, though it was only on rare occasions that he gave utterance to anything like a good joke. Such is a short description of the companion I had with me on my visit to Douglas. We had made the passage in the Mo na Queen, and though the day had been fine and the strong breeze fair, we had both suffered sufficiently from sea sickness as to bo heedless of the dinner bell, which rang when we wore about half way across. Walter was the last to pay the toll demanded by the briny god, but this he contended only made his condition the more deplorable, since his breakfast having descended to lower depths necessitated mightier efforts and more prolonged agoiiy before relief was experienced.

However, we had squared accounts with Neptune before arriving at our destined port, and as we marched up the pier of Douglas wo found that our opinions coincided exactly in the advisability of filling as speedily as possible the vaccuni that nature is said so decidedly to abhor.

Now, there was uo lack of choice as to where and how this might be done ; for, even before we quitted the steamer, a crowd of people had rushed on board, thrusting cards into the hands of the passengers, extolling at the same time the peculiar eligibility and manifold advantages of the particular "Board and Residence" that each represented.

There were busses and jaunting cars also, 011 the pier, waiting to take people to the different hotels and boarding houses they might wish to patronize. But we had already made up our minds (notwithstanding the sharpset condition in which we found ourselves) to make our own selection of lodgings, deciding suitability by appearance , and so. regardless of all solicitations, we trudged 011, keeping a good look out for what we needed.

From Duke-street, the principal thoroughfare of Douglas is not very far from the pier, and it was whilst walking up this street that my eyes, directed doubtless by my appetite, turned to feast on the tempting articles in a pastrycook's shop, there; exposed to view, were all the sweets and delicacies that the heart or appetite of youth, emerging from boyhood, still craves. I have little doubt, I say, that the stomach was the immediate cause of my becoming acquainted with the fair being who presided over this palace of youthful delight.". My eyes wandered over fruit pies, tarts, and custards, until their gaze fell upon a being before whom all other attractions paled. I had been, I believe, about to call my companion's attention to some appetising compound in the shop, when my vision became transfixed by the fair apparition behind the counter. I say apparition, because the muslin dress that enveloped her sylphlike and slightly attenuated form, gave to it a rather unsubstantial and etherial appearance. I had already pulled Walter by the arm, and exclaimed, " look " ; when becoming entranced by the boauteous vision, I faintly added, "there." " Oh ! I sec," he said, " lodaings ; yes, it looks like a jolly sort of place to live at." " What do you mean," I exclaimed, without taking my gaze from the divinity iu muslin. " Mean," he replied, " why I mean to stop here," and with his finger he pointed to a card with an embossed silver border, on which ' Lodgings' was engraved in rose-coloured and very ornamental letters. I had just time to notice that the card was held in position by a split stick, something like a clothes peg, stuck in the centre of some sort of fruit pie, when he seized me by the arm, and, notwithstanding a faint resistance on my part, dragged me into the shop, and abruptly (brutaly as I thought) said—" I see you let lodgings; what do you charge a week ?" Now, although thin was a very necessary question, seeing that the shop and card had both a rather grand appearance, and that bis pockets wore as slenderly provided with the needful as my own, yet the bold and abrupt way in which he put the question (intimating plainly that our entertaining the notion of taking the lodgings depended entiroly upon the price to bo paid for the accommodation), _ positively made 1110 shudder, and directing a look full of scorn at liim, and another towards where the muslin endod, and the divinity begun, iu which I strove to exhibit dignity blended with profound respect and admiration. I said, " Oh ! that's of no consequence, we'll tako 'em." The fair girl smiled, blushed slightly - or was it but tho reflection of my own f aee —and tripped lightly from the shop, Haying she would call her ma. I was just beginnirg to remonstrate with Walter on his beastly abruptness and parsimony when the rustling of dresses, and a rather heavy footstep, warned me of the return of the enchantross, accompanied by a short, stout, and very unpoetical, though not unpleasant-looking woman, with a pale complexion, and a cap with very large pleated horder. She entered at once upon business by informing us that the lodgings, with board, would be 303 a week each. Without waiting to consult my corn-

panion I at once said " that would suit us rery well." She then begged us to walk up stairs, and look at the apartments, which we at once did, leaving my enslaver in the shop to attend to customers ; or, in their absence, to speculate on the merits or demerits of the new lodgers. We followed our guide through a door at the back of the shop, and up a flight of stairs with several bends in it, until we arrived at a landing, and our future landlady, opening a door, ushered lis into a room that was situated just over the shop we had left.

I noticod, as wo ascended tho stairs, that tho smell of pastry and sweets was even more strongly pronounced there than in tho shop itself; owinjr, as wo afterwards fund out, to tho bakehouse being situated at the back, and tho door which led to it being more frequently open than shut; in faet, the whole houie, (if I may use the term), was strongly flavoured with tlie same sweet, sickly smell.

The room itself was not large, but furnished in a very genteel, or perhaps I should any, florid style. The wall paper was chiefly remarkable for large splashes of roses, or perhaps tliey were peonies ; as nature's laboratory never certainly produces roses of such dimensions as those which decorated tho walls of our sittingroom. There was a round table In the centre, covered with a cloth, on which were more roses, to match, I suppose the paper; and on this, at exactly equal distances apart, were little dabs of network, wrought (I at once concluded) by the fair fingers of the bewitching creature below ; and on each dab or mat was lying a book, gilt lettered and gilt edged. The floor was covered with a carpet with more roses on it. and before the fireplace was a rug, on which was lying a large dog or small lion —I am not sure which. Of course the animal was not real, only a representation of one or other of these quadrupeds in wool. Walter said he thought "it must be the lion who had been so long fighting with the unicorn, and now was worsted."

There were three or four stained back chairs with linen covers to hide the seats, and two others with arms to them, and of the kind that double up. These latter had red cut-hions on the seats and antimacassars at the back. On one side of tho room was a sideboard, on which was a pl'.ite of wax fruit in front, and glasses, cups and saucers and a cruet frame at the back. The last had once been silvered, but, as Walter remarked, "it had been so frequently clcaned that the silver was clean gone. Of course, these observations of my companion were not made in tho landlady's presence, but when, having dined, we had, as it were, taken more formal possession of the apartments. [To bo Coiifiniicif.)