American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-08-10
POPPING THE QUESTION.
BY HARRY DANEoRrH.

We have dear little cousin-half rosebud,
i If lily!-who leases us, whenever we meet,
tell her how the question is popped She is
fourteen, but in these days, between board
9 schools md balls, girls of that age are as
owing as their grandmothers were at twen-
We suppose she wishes to learn in time, so
to be ready for the first chance that offers.
ear girl! she little imagines that the question
'ually pops itself. Young folks require no aid
such pleasant emergencies give two
vers fair play, and send your matchmaking
lnts and the children to Coventry-and our
ord for it, some evening, when least expected,
pc question will pop out like a cork from
lampagne bottle. We would give our fair
ousin some instructions if we could; but she
ould probably forget them all, and find her
cart in her throat besides, when the question
anne to be popped to herself. So wewill con-
mt ourselves with a story which she may
1ink true or not, as she likes.
Kate Spencer was one Of your delicious little
ixens that steal away the heart with merry
hugh, pair Of bright eyes, or an hour Of play
| raillery. She was bit of flrt, as indeed,
What girl named Kate is not? There's fatali-
about that cOgnomen. Every Kate have
nown has taken to coquetting, as naturally as
cat to canary birds.
Kate Spencer was a witChing creature. IF
you could have seen her bounding across the
lawn, or gathering wild flowers 10 adorn her
pair, or heard her warbling some merry lay in
The morning, you should have worshipped her
bs you would worship Rosalnd, or an Ariel,
for she seemed a compound of both. At love
|she laughed: lit was trap for FOOLS she said
but people who make traps, sometimes are the
first to ia II into them,
Kate was IN her eighteenth summer, when
her bosom friend, Lucy Wharton, was married;
and Kate was bridesmaid. Her partner, Harry
Neville, was fine, dashng fellow, with pref
ty estate, and commission in the army. He
and Kate were we'll matched. He cared no
more for her raillery than for Mexican Bate
ry; and, in fact, her wit was to his, like the
trumpet to the War-horse. 1t does one good TO
see passage of arms between them! But be-
ing bridesmaid and groomsman is dangerous
recreation. Marrying, like the yellow fever,
is an infectious disease, and one never catches
ii so quickly as at another's wedding. If was
young bachelor, and wished to remain one,
would run to the worlds end, rather than wait
on pretty girl. You may picnic with Sc
raph, or sleigh with hour, but be no grooms-
man with sensible girl like Kate Spencer
was. Harry Neville, however, was bomb
proof, TO such things; at least, he considered
himself so, and had been hitherto. Besides he
had been told Kate was flirt, and he was on
his guard.
And how was it with Kate? Dear COZ! have
you ever seen filtration begun in fun, and
ended in earnest! Kate was hGttered by lIay-
ing partner like Harry Neville, and put forth
all her powers of pleasing, resolute TO bring the
filtration 10 a close before there was danger; but
hirtations, like thorough breds, sometimes run
away with you; and so, at a week IS end, what
between the customary attentions ola grooms-
man, and something peculiar TO Harry, Kate
began TO be interested in her companion more
than she chose to confess.
The wedding was held in the country, in the
midst of a rich district, and for several weeks
the young couple were involved in round of
entertainments. Give me a country wedding
after all! There are long rides, teie-a-tete by
moonight-the spending dull hours in f1rta-
ton with your partner--thc boating parties,
the rambles through the woods, the summer
evenings beneath the arbor in the garden, and a
hundred other things, which townfolks who get
married at day-break, and then race over half
the States tor month, have no more idea OF
than lap-dog has of moonlight.
And SO, insensbly, love stole upon Kate.
Neville was not mere wit, any more than
herself, and often, laying aside his raillery, he
would indulge the natural enthusiasm of his
character, until he paused finally at his own
imprisoned words. At such times Kate would
sit, long after going to her chamber, uncon-
sciously gazing up at the calm, still sky: but