Fanny’s Flirtation

by Judge Clark

Our troth—I speak of Fanny Blake and me—had been plighted years before, and was most solemnly renewed when I left my native village to come and practice law in the city.

But rumors at length reached me that Fanny was receiving attentions, not quite consistent with our relations, from a dashing young stranger—one Mortimer Fitz Flare, a social star of the first magnitude, whose sudden appearance had greatly dimmed, by comparison, the lesser lights of the village firmament.

I wrote to Fanny, expostulating with some warmth. She replied with spirit. I rejoined with temper. She retorted with more, adding an offer to cancel our engagement, which, in some angry lines, I accepted. And so matters stood at the time at which I begin my story.

I was sitting in my office one morning, reading a letter from home filled with village gossip, and recounting, with needless particularity, I thought, the details of a report that Fanny Blake’s becoming Mrs. Mortimer Fitz Flare, was only a question of time.

The chagrin I felt was quite disproportioned to any right I had to take an interest in the subject. But I did take an interest in it none the less.

The train of my reflections was far from agreeable, and I was by no means displeased at its interruption by the entrance of a messenger with a note.

“Come to meet me at once,” it read; “I am in trouble, and need your assistance.”

It was signed “Thomas Blake,” and came from one of the station-houses.

Tom Blake, Fanny’s brother and I, had been schoolmates and fast friends. Though not over-bright at his books, none excelled Tom in boyish prowess… Read More