Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1874-10-09
"Isit?" asked Fanny. Why,

red, and overturning with his elbow
crimson Venetian flask, (for which he
Immediately had to pay five dollars.) 81
i mean it IS MT very fine evening"
"Oh !" said Fanny.
EYES," said Mr.. Ellerslie, feeling very
acutely that he had made fool of him
self.
And then he went away, and didn't
see Fanny Glen again the whole evening
probably because she was the only per-
son in the whole room that he cared
fig about seeing at all. But so unkind
is Fate to love and lovers!
Just as he was edging his way out of
the ball, in very dispirited and defect
ed frame of mind, there was rush and
futter, and he heard his own name
called in all the notes OF the human
gamut.
What is it?" he demanded, vague
y staring around him.
You've drawn the big doll !" cried
little Sybil Percy, dancing up to him
and laying in his arms the huge, wa&en
abomination with its fossy yellow curls
and impossible pink and white complex.
ion; while somebody else brought the big
trunk and little band box.
"It's just like travelling with wife"
SAID Sybil, mischievously.
But what the-ahem what am | to
do with it ?" asked our bewildered hero.
"Give it to somebody" said Sybil, in
wardly hoping he would act promptly
on the suggestion and bestow his prize
on her. Any one would be delighted
to receive such present"
"Do you think they would 2" said
Mr.. Eilerslie, vacantly. And then-he
went away.
Great stupid fellow" cried Sybil,
spitefully, and she tripped back to her
table.
never saw such goose" said Lau-
ra harrington, who had carried the
trunk, and who had three little sisters of
her own at home.
But what am l to do with it," said
Mr.. Ellerslie, to himself, as he traversed
the midnight gloom of the wintry
streets. 90, l have it ] I'll give it to
Fanny Glen and she can make Christ
mas present of it to her little black-eyed
cousin 3"
Andhe laid the doll, rejoicing, on his
sofa, and went to bed, sinking into
dreamland about the time that Fanny
Glen was taking the hair pins out of her
magnificent golden hair before the dress
ing bureau in her own apartment.
"Why, Fanny, what alls your" cried
Dora, her elder sister. " You're crying.
I'm so tired !" guiltily confessed
poor Fanny.
And she wept herself to sleep, think
ing how foolish she had been, and that,
of course, Martyr Ellerslie didn't care a
straw about her.
Mr.. Ellersiie rose the next morning
full of his momentous resolve, and made
such toilet that the very landlady' g
little boy, seeing him go out with the big
doll neatly encased in her pasteboard
box under his arm, calculated profanely :
"Oh, my eye, what swell
The black eyed little cousin admitted
him. Yes, Cousin Fanny was at home
would he walk into the parlor
And our hero, before he had fairly
made ap his mind in what terms to be.
stow his gift, found himself bowing to a
fair. haired vision, in sunny little room,
surrounded by heaps of cut flowers.
"How do you do, Mr.. Ellerslie I? "
said Fanny, coloring and smiling. 81
am making boquets, you see, for tonight"
Exactly SO, said Martyr and then
he reflected how much more appropriate
a remark he might have made, and
turned very red.
Pray sit down" said Fanny.
"I-I-the fact is, Miss Clen," said
Mr.. Ellerslie, plunging in sheer despera-
ton into the midst of his subject, "
have called-I hope you won't be vexed
you had only to say SO if you don't
like it"
Fanny dropped her sprig of heliotrope
and looked up in surprise.
81 know it.isn't of much consequence,
went on Mr.. Ellerslie, turning the paste
board box round and round in confusion
+" but if you'll accept tive known
and esteemed you SO long, and"
The damask roses deepened on Fan
ny's fair cheek. 1t had come at last
then, the proposal sho had anticipated
so long and anxiously.
"Not of much consequence. Oh, Mr.
Ellerslie she repeated, reproachfully
"Would you care for it?" he de
manded, quite oblivious, in the embar
! rassment of the moment, that he hadn'
even named his gift.