Christmas Telegrams [pp. 18-32]

Ch]Yristmas Telegrams.
into a glass-roofed marble court, from
which stone steps led up to what was
practically the first story. At one side
was a large, handsomely decorated hall,
which was the vestibule of the dining
salon. \Vindowvs on the left looked
into the marble court, and on the right
were great glass doors through which
could be seen the dining salon with its
elegantly frescoed ceiling and long mirrors extending down both sides. In
the middle of the vestibule was a table
covered with reviews and newspapers
for the temporary amusement of persons arriving too soon for dinner and
needing some solace for delay.
Sometimes this room was well filled;
at other times there would be scarcely
anybody in it,- merely the janitor, a
fine looking old gentleman, with high
forehead and side bunches of white
hair after the established pictures of St.
Peter, and wearing around his neck a
badge of office in the shape of a glittering steel chain, with links two or three
inches long.
Being thrown upon my resources a
great deal, it is natural that I came into
this room very often, even long before
dinner, for the purpose of reading up
the new literature of the day. Generally, whether the room happened to be
full or not, I saw no one whom I knew.
It was therefore a little to my surprise
as well as gratification that one day
after I had been in Naples about a fortnight, a very pretty young lady, who
had been lounging in a corner of the
reception room, came forward with
both hands extended and called me by
name.
" You do not remember me then?"
she said, apparently for the moment a
little disappointed. " You do not recollect your old friend, Tillie Colton, to
whom you used to give caramels?"
Certainly it took me a little while to
recognize her, in fact I could scarcely
have done so at all if she had not aided
me. How, indeed, was I to connect
this pretty, graceful young lady with the
somewhat awkward, hobbledehoy, halfgrown girl of thirteen, whom I had occasionally seen skipping a rope upon
the sidewalk in our native village five
years before! To herself the difference
was evidently not thought of; she saw
no such change in myself, and only now
recognized the friend who had once
been kind to her, according to her immature and girlish tastes.
But it took only a moment for me,
after she had mentioned her name, to
sit down beside her and listen to the
gossip from home, brought over by her
fresh within three months; and it
seemed to me the most pleasant half
hour I had ever passed, thus throwing
aside all impressions of European politics and progress, and listening to petty
trivialities about the plain country people at home.
"And I saw your Uncle Nicholas,"
she said, "almost the last person in
America, for he came down to the
steamer to bid us goodby. He has
always been so kind to us."
"I knew -that is, it always seemed
to me that he was very much interested
in your family."
"As long as I can remember," she
said. " I did not know why at first.
Afterwards it began to dawn upon me,
particularly as a great many people
helped my knowledge with hints and
inferences, as I grew up. I do not
suppose it is any secret. It is said that
your uncle when a young man was very
much interested in my mother,- my
own, real mother, I mean. They were
even engaged,- and after a while it
came to nothing, as such things sometimes will."
" A quarrel?"
"No, nothing of the kind,- simply a
discontinuance of the engagement for
some reason that nobody ever seemed
to find out. Perhaps there was good
reason for it,-we cannot tell all the
circumstances that will often prevent a
marriage; but at least there could have
been no quarrel. I cannot help believ
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