Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-07-17
NJ | S c Z L L A n Y.
TOO LATE.

''"'" D'SAens Household Words.
| am a punctual man nvr ,vusi,, nrtTulIy,
painfully punctual. If have an engagement
ON business or pleasure, prepare to keep it
some hours before the time appointed, and am
totally unable to think of anything or do any
thing, until it is over. have marvellous fac
ulty for believing that my watch must have
stopped, or that the clocks in the house are not
strictly regulated by the most approved stand
ard of time. | arrive at theatres, and places of
public entertainment about half-a-day before
the doors are ever opened | am always the
first stranger at a ball or dinner party al
though know in the one case | shall have to
dance in the first quadriile, and in the other, |
shall have to bear the awful weight of the early
attempts ut conversation. Fin the performance
of my social duties, go to funeral, my pain
fully punctual habit carries me there long be-
fore the necessary gloomy officials have taken
possession of the house, and sometimes before
the chief performers in the melancholy play
have made up their faces, and put on the regu-
lation garb of woe. If am staying at a coun-
try inn, and have given orders to the "boots'
to be called at an early hour to meet coach,
or a railway train, | get feverish snatches of
sleep during the short, restless night, and am
up and dressed long before the required knock
ing takes place at my chamber door. If am
waiting in the cotiee-room for the one omnibus
in the town appointed to convey passengers to
and from the railway, have paid my bill hours
before it was necessary, and am standing nerv-
ously at the window with my watch in one hand,
and my Bradshaw in the other, wondering at
the reckless stupidity Of the men in charge of
the vehicle, who allow, as it seems to me, about
two minutes to run distance of nearly two
miles from the hotel to the station
Ny morbidly punctual temperament leads me
ny, ,,rincinal m on ,ol in
ing in imagination upon pictures of being too
late under the most trying circumstances. |
love to suppose myself in all possible painful
positions arising from delay, carelessness, and
procrastnation. | fancy myself in cab, mis-
erably iammed up in long line of carts and
wagons in the midst ofthe great struggling city.
Ages seem to pass away, and yet the wedged
vehicles and howling drivers move not an inch
and hear an hour toling from the tower of a
neighboring church, every stroke of which goes
like nail into my brain. At that instant see
AN anxious, weeping face whirled away from a
distant railway, over the sea, to a remote land
never, perhaps, to greet me again in this world.
On go when it is too late, to find a dreadful
stiffness, where all was noise and excitement q
short half-hour before to find clear platform
closed gates, careless porters, and no one to
whom to unburden heavy, self-reproaching
heart
Sometimes | fancy myself arriving at a pic.
turesque spot i'll a country celebrated for its
beauty all over the world. | am not seeking
for mountains cascades, rocks, forests, nor ruin.
ed castles but for one whom have been strug-
Cling to reach for many weary days. How harsh
and cold sounds the precise voice of the hote
book keeper, when he tells me that the person
| am in search of started that morning for Eng.
land, and left no word or sign? wander about
the town from that moment, like a drunken man
hatless, aimless, and with eyes closed to all the
natural attractions of the place. The conscious
ness of few ill-spent hours in another spot
blackens the blue sky, and makes discordan
the music of the waterfalls.
imagine myself far from the busy clatter o
railways in some small country town in the very
heart of England, the requirements Of whos'
humble traffic are fully satisfied by a coach run
ming twice week to the borders of civilization
retire to rest early in order that | may rise il
time to catch this bi-weekly vehicle that passes
through the town or village at the eccentric hou
OF four in the morning l have taken the pre-
caution to lay whole train of instructions a
the feet OF the boots, chambermaid, and waiter
about calling me at three o'clock precisely. Th
waiter is considered to be very safe, and tn
chambermaid is looked upon as person il
whom dependence may be placed, and it is ar
ranged that each of these persons, or both a