The Portland daily press., 1874-03-28
R0samOnd and her Lovers.
BY HARRIET PRESCOTT sPoFFoRD.

1t was a dreadful day and night We passed.
NY husband had been on the SPOT Rosamond
was helpless in Mysteries, and Trough the tel
egrams came every hour, there was no good
word in them and Rosamond only came out
of one attack long enough to ask and hear
that there was nothing certain ye. before sne
went off into another; and of course neither
her sister Emma, nor the house maids, nor
could at first spare time for hope or fear, so
busy were we about the poor child who TO
our Impractical senses, looked in as much
danger of death as anybody.
Rosamond and Emma were not relations OF
ours, but their parents had been our dear
friends, and when they died we had legged
that the children might come to us, and SO
they had spent all their long vacations under
our roof, and Buttons, our page, had waited
on them as a little heather would wait on
his idols if he could, and his face turned as
pink as though he were boiled, and all the
hair on his round baldish head bristled with
pleasure, whenever they looked at him or
spoke to him. Poor Buttons! he was a
standing joke among us, and we never conld
think of him, even when the school days were
over and The girls had come home perma-
nently, and there was no longer any Buttons
in the house, without laugh.
OF course we had no authority over the
girls but that of affection, but it was pleas
ure to have the dear things round us-only
when Rosamond, the brighter and prettier OF
the two, began to have her lovers, we saw
that it was little while we should be able
to keep her, and congratulated ourselves that
at any rate we should retain Emma.
Rosamond was nothing like a beauty, and
yet she had all the effect of one: she had
that rich skin which any color becomes, and
her eyes were always beaming, and her I'M
ruly hair was always turning up in little curls,
ami she had the sweetest mouth in the
world, and the prettiest curls in it; only ner
nose was anytt ing but what she wanted it.
l suppose she would have gone 10 extremes,
and have had as keen an aquiline as any
hawk -beaked Roman lady's, could she have
had her way, for, as it was, she had to make
the best of what she called a pug. As for
Emma, she was simply Rosamonds shadow
not quite so plump, not quite so fresh
colored or curly-headed, and not by any
means so charming. For Rosamond, with
her vivacity, her quick temper and her good
heart, her obligipg ways, her confiding air,
and her singing, certainly was charming, and
after she came home the number of boquets,
in compliment of her singing, that were
f.sown into our ground floor windows by
warn a r,sble-minded young lovers, with courage
with fI flowed by iniatuation, kept us sup
a;n Me''' Sne tro.> is that Rosamond was
chance, as Rosamond tsd ber once in an
swer 10 the accusation, lnsos~tIv kissing her
and crying over her, and beggins ali the par-
dons that there were, and faom thai, moment
making over to Emma, so formally as 70 rem
der 1T laughable to US, who saw it all, thu
best beau she had-a proceeding that the
beau took in such dudgeon that he ceased to
come to the house at ALL But, as was say
ing, Rosamond was pronounced fiirt; she
had firted with the serious head-master at
school, and with the frivolous music master,
and had given the dancing master to under
stand that she believed him one of the old
noblesse in disguise; she had tried her arts
on the minister; and when the doctor was
called to her diphtheria, of course, she tried
them on him. Not that they were arts at all
they were part Of the child's nature; it
was necessity with her that every one
should care for her. Ii they didn't love her
spontaneously, she had to vile them into it,
and generally they did it spontaneously
enough.
1t was not with equanimity that Emma
viewed these successes OF Rosamonds Il
wonder" she would bemoan herself, "why
mep' M 'oo'
"My dear" 1 exclaimed. tfdoes'nt Rosa
mond love you? doesn't your cousin Maui
rice !? don't 1 ?''
Oh, dare say,' Emma moaned again;
s'but want to be the very first to somebody.
You love cousin Maurice better than me, and
he loves you better than me, and Rosamond
is all ready to love ANYBODY better than me-
Oh, bother that sort of lovep' cried Emma,
between laughing and crying. 1T would be
SO delightful said the poor little simpleton,
Ito be loved the way people are when they
are engagedP p -
While Emma held forth in this way, DIR.
Randolph was looking down Rosamond's
throat with the handle of spoon-the only
thing that ever kept down that little tongue
OF hers, l thought. The doctor, who had
just taken our family physiciaa's place
Partisan education, talent, and every sort of
recommendation - pronounced Rosamond's
ilnesc not serious, but ordered confinement to
her room. and came twice day for some
time, and then he came once day. And l
began 10 beJbink myself as l saw the long
calls young DR.. Randolph made, and heard
the conversations, turning on anything but
symptoms, and looked at Rosamond, with
her returning color, her smiles and dimples,
her blue wrapper, and all the dainty appli-
ances of sick room toilet. that some instinct fp
taught her; and observed that this seclu-
sion kept other lovers off And perhaps the
latter clause struck Rosamond's perception
also, for one day, while the Doctor still con-
tinued his visits. and without having received
and permission from him, she descended to
the pariors, and there, when he come lin, he
found her, with young M'Creery turning her
music on one side, and young Waterman lis
tening on the other.
''Whatp' cried DR.. Randolph-s.in this
draught! And you are not attempting to
sing!' t.sf -
Slng?' she said, turning on him, as the
only thing to dol don't believe l ever shall
sing again. Your wicked diphtherias and pot
asnes and things have ruined my voicep'
AM she was so charming as she sat there on
.ne plano-stool, with her high color and her
l poaotus up that didn't wonder the Doctor
be- was onlv n fee, hands in his. He pretended
what is this" said he. ct bor ,o
don, Miss Rosamond; you must b ST"t par par,
young gentlemen good mornino. and .nese
your room directly, unless you want ~ 70
lapse, which will be worse than the orio;nel
illness and be half lifted her by the hands.
and led her to the foot of the stairs. she
hanging back like naughty chill J, and look
ing unuttefaple thlngs at the two lovers. and
still more unutterable things aft tbis NJ
pendent young doctor who had them at s,,oh
a disadvantage. But DR.. Randolpb ba6 his
way, and he staid a long hour to make snro
of keeping it; and by that time Rosamond
thanks to her contumacy, could sneak onIy
in a whisper, and was growing more and
more Ianguid, and he gave her some drons
worse than anything she had taken yet, be-
fere he went away.
We had to send for DR.. Randolph again at
nightfal, and he had bard work that evening
to keep the breath in her; but he pulled
through. The next morning she was safe,
put weak, and he gave her drops, and Sat
a 5a;.hlng about the new things in the origin of
c diseases, impersonating the little imps that
tins linen them, so that she had no idea how
again was passing till he handed her the drops
90 on taki now said he, rising, 'you are 10
again. ' Ynggr .ne drops every hour till come
you your life l h rsde wee has nearly cost
your wilfu!ness. to have h hent ashamed by
time from poor Mrs. Prout. T Wpo me all this
You needn't talk to me so so "e wh;s mer