The Placer herald., 1873-02-08
HELEN GORHANI;
NOw THE ICICLE MELTED.
By ENIAIEFF.

absent way.
Beautiful! Why man she is magnificent,
superb! Alpne.!
"Why not beautiful, and what do YOU
mean by alpine ? Tom never heard that
adjective applied to lady before, particularly
one who comes from quiet New England"
Tom looked at me moment in a discon-
solate way, and signing profoundly, said: 81
see you are not struck or you would COM
prehend me at once. | should as soon speak
of Niagara Falls as a pretty feature in the
landscape, as call Miss Gorham beautiful
She reminds me of glorious mountain cap
ped with snow. with that white bair of hers
DO you know they say it turned white in
one week, through some trouble she had, |
don't know what. think Alpine applies
to her very well, for she is as difficult of APP
proach as mountain lark. | can't prevail
upon her to bend that lovely head of hers
and listen TO my feeble attempts at conver-
sation. No, grand as she is, she is like that
cicle hanging in front of this window-spark-
ling, brillan,, but so cold and hard"
He referred to long, perfectly formed ice
pendent, whose growth had watched three
or four days. 1t hung from the stone cap OF
my window, and as the thawing of each day
had added to its length and breadth | had
curiousy watched it and woven my fancies
n retrom. Toms remark, Tor some reason
or other, hurt me, and opened the window
carefully disengaged the brilliant from its
hold upon the stone and brought it into my
comfortable room. "Now Tom," | said
''see what warm hand will do?
"Melt the ice, of course, he said laugh
ing; "but it will take more than that to melt
Miss Gorham, my dear fellow. will advise
you not to try it, for you will be frozen in the
attempt just as your hand will be frozen by
your icicle. Look how blue your fingers are
already. Better give it up, Aleck, ana
throw the beautiful thing out into the snow
its natural element--ligurativcly and literal
". m an. Goodbye. | shall watch you,
and the moment you grow blue and frozen
shall fguratively apply snow to the CONCEAL
ed part, ell p
He left me in fresh, CHEEKY kind of
whir. He was like gentle breeze, tins
friend Tom. and always made me feel bright
er, but to dav he had touched upon tender
spot in my heart and lelt it little sore.
had met Helen Gorham at two or three
parties and in that short time had become
what Tom called "struck' III spite of his
thinking the contrary.
He was right in ealing her superb, glorl-
ous and all his extravagant names Tor they
all belonged to her, and her fine form and
beautiful face were crowned with wealth OF
hair almost white 1t was that silvery gray
that has enough of the original darkness to
tinge and soften the whteness. 1t was a
strange combnation-the youthful figure and
face with the crown of age-but there was
something very attractive in it. well un-
derstand the general impression that she
made of codness, for she carried her head in
lofty way and there was dignity and re-
serve in the manner that casual observer
would designate coldness.
called her beautiful, for had narrowly
watched the play of expression upon her face,
and had discovered depth of tenderness
there. | had purposely spoken to her upon
subjects that usually draw forth a woman's
softness of heart, and looking into her clear,
dark eyes had seen that suffused look just
around the lids which mellows the brilliancy
Oh yes, had seen all this and it had its ef
feet upon me. | never thought woman
would have so affected the calmness of my
life as Helen o,ham had. My icicle grad
ualv melted in the warmth of my hand J,
chilling it to be sure, but as it turned to wa
ter in my palm it grew to be of the same
temperature with my hand. | had come to
look upon it as symbolic, and as my hand
filled | could not throw it away. That would
have been throwing away the beautiful Hell
en-. No, drank it Not one drop was lost
When the icice was entirely melted and alb
sorbed, | woke up from the dream | had
been in and smiled at my phantasy.
The Winter wore away as it usually does
in town; parties, sleigh rides and frolics OF
all kinds. Tom laughed at me for suddenly
becoming society man, and questioned me
now and then as to the progress of the
"thaw." ! could not and indeed would not
answer him satisfactorily, for it had grown
to be serious matter with me, matter OF
life or death In all the opportunities had
of seeing Miss Gorham my first opinion OF
her had received confirmation. Always af-
f,be and chatty with me, she however pre-
served the same distance, never for one mo-
ment forgetting herself or giving me the
smallest straw to clutch IN my drowning con-
diion. was drowning, sinking every day
deeper in the ocean of my love-"
No doubt mary will smile at my mode of
expression, but those who really and truly
loved glorious woman will synpathize. II
was the last day of her stay in town, and !
had made up my mind to try the effect OF my
warmth upon her icy surface. She had prom,
ised to 60 with me to the opera. ! called
for her at the appointed time, and she mel
me with her usual easy grace, little knowing
the perturbation of my spirit. tried my
best to bring our conversation to point at
which could introduce the snbject, but It
was all in vain. Easily she turned it OFT,
each time, and was in despair,