The Disappointed Groom

      Walter Manning was a native of Ulster county.  At the age of twenty he fell heir to a property of several thousand dollars.  Disregarding the advice of his friends to let his inheritance remain in real estate, he converted most of it into cash, and started for the west to make a more colossal fortune.  In due time he arrived in California.  His talkativeness soon apprised the people of the town that he was a young man of property, which he proposed to invest when a desirable occasion offered.  It was not long before a speculator, who had landed property on his hands that was quite slow of dividends, by dint of much flattery and persuasion, convinced young Manning that his was just the property he required, and that it was certain to bring rich returns in the near future.  The result was that Walter paid a large portion of his patrimony for the estate, and set up his pretensions as a landed proprietor.  The next essential for house-keeping was a house-keeper, and Walter cast about him for a wife.  A young man of reputed wealth, with a large estate and money in bank, good looking and accomplished, ought to be in no lack of young ladies willing to share his fortunes.  And so it proved in the case of young Walter.  Mothers with marriageable daughters vied with each other in their attention to the young landholder; he was invited to teas, plied with calls, and in short was lionized by the female world generally.
     But Walter Manning, with all his wealth, his devotion to the sex, and the largeness of his philanthropic soul, could not marry them all.  He must needs single out one of the number of his admirers, and content himself with the love and adoration of her alone, so unreasonable and circumscribing are the marital regulations of modern society.  Among the most beautiful and accomplished of those damsels, he thought  Virginia Green the most to his liking.  She was a blonde, possessed a petite figure, bore the reputation of a superb dancer, and withal was an excellent conversationalist.  As soon as Walter's preference became known, he was no longer invited to afternoon tea-parties.  The mothers of marriageable daughters were fain to pass him unrecognized.  But if he had lost caste in the eyes of the feminine public, he was more than compensated by the smiles and caresses of Virginia Green.  Not a day passed but he was found in her society; and what his passion overabounded in intensity, her affection counterbalanced in devotion.  In short they became engaged.  And now that the matter was settled, why delay the day of nuptials?  When love was so fervent, the mansion in want of a mistress, and a bachelor heart so much distressed for lack of a ministering angel, procrastination was a loss to all concerned.  Walter pressed his suit for an early wedding, and the young lady, after a show of reluctance which amounted to nothing, appeared to bend to his desires.



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
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