Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1874-05-29

A LITTLE FOOL.

Florence Reed was the little fool, and
Julia Willis. her cousin, it WAS who called
( her SO. You can judge between them if
you like: it is a story that will not take
long in telling.
Florence-or Florry, for nobody ever
dreamed of calling her anything else
Florry Reed was not in the least what one
would call a beauty; but then she had the
softest eyes and the sweetest lips in the
world. Something at least to that effect
Charley Dennis had been heard to declare,
and it is very much to be believed that he
spoke as one who Should know on this
subject.
The two had been lovers for quite a
while: lovers in the bud, as one may say,
and everybody knows that the bud is the
son. The practical, commonplace stage
of declaration had not yet been reached :;
it was the time of broken hints and secret
hand pressures, of stolen kisses and gene
raj felicity. Florry walked on air, and
forgot it was not her native element, till
one unlucky day the clouds melted from
under her feet, and let her down to earth
again with rude thump.
1t was the day of celebration given in
Blackville to commemorate some event
perfectly uninteresting to The world at
large, but of the very least Importance i'll
the eyes Of the Blackvillians. For, though
Blackville was a little place, it's inhabi-
tants were men and women very much
like other people, and measured the uni
verse On The Blackville yardstick after the
orthodox and proper fashion.
The festivity, beginning with an ora
ton, ended with a pic-nic in q grove just
outside the town, a magnificent maple
grove, whose volet-scented soitudes it
was almost a sin to profane with the clat
ter of hardware and the popping of ginger
beer corks. Charley Dennis and FIorry
were there together, as they were together
everywhere. But unfortunately for Flor
ny, Miss Adela Brent WAS there also.
This young lady was not Blackviile-
born. She came from Il much larger town,
a town which would have turned up its
Blackville, had it happened to be aware Of
it's existence at all. For which reason the
Blackvillians naturally looked with adj
(miring awe upon it and all that pertained
to it. Miss Adela, then, being a visitor
just arrived among them, her debut was
an event second only to the great event
commemorated by the day. She was not
prettier than half of their own girls there
present, but she was wholly unlike them
in dress and style in a word, she was
something new; and if novelty is one Of
the greatest of all charms everywhere, it
certainly is not the least so in Il small
country town where a wholesome fear of
his neighbor holds each in decent restraint
So all eyes were fastened upon the stran-
ger, when, at a rather late hour, she made
her appearance on the ground, which in
noWise discomposed her. She settled her
self and her tlounces, gave a final toss to
the friZZy wilderness surrounding her lit
tie head, and, turning back her fan para
sol, looked around her with much the air
with which a traveller, stranded among
savages, might observe their barbarops
customs.
The first of the natives on whom her
glances CHANGED to rest were Florry and
Charley, and she vouchsafed them pro-
longed examination, under which FIorry's
eyes fell and her color rose whereupon
Adela, who had already mentally invent
DRIED her us pretty, but deplorably with
out style, regarded her anew, with amused
compassion, as a girl who could actually
blush for being looked at
Charley did not blush though. On the
contrary he returned the gaze with one
which might have abashed some girls
But Miss Brent was u young lady moi
easily abashed, and if the very evident adj
miration in the handsome savage's black
eyes affected her in any way, it was GER
tainly neither to embarrass nor offend
, her. That was plain from the manner il
which she received his advances later
else the two would not have made so IA
pid an acquaintance, nor have been miss
: ing, when, by-and-by, a stroll through thu
grove was proposed, so that Florry wa
obliged to put up with the escort of he
d cousin, Fred Willis, a necessity consider
ably more agreeable to him than to her.
Oh, what a cloudy ending for a day tina
had begun all sunshine! FlorIy wondered
piteously, when, the festival at All end
they drove back through the evening to
gether, could this be the same Charley
who, on that very road, only few hour
before, had said-well, it was not so niue
what he had said as the way and especla
ly the look with which he had said it
: could this be tie same, this distracted IL
dividual who had to keep rousing himse
out of some reyery over-what IN
charms of Miss Adela Brent ? Flor
greatly feared it,.
le Yes, that was it. New brooms sWee
It clean, and Miss Adela's flounces and fri
yes had swept Charley quite away fro1
his moorings. In a week, she could tur
a. him round her little finger; in another, |
is had as completely deserted "the softe
or eyes and sweetest lips,' as IT that an
many like speech had been empty air
If Norry had been heroine, she won