Connecticut western news., 1874-11-27
Did He Propose? :?
"I couldn't do it," said Martyr FL lerslie, with little shudder.
 OPo0h 1" said Gnv Barnes

It was just the seductive hour before gas-jets are lighted and window-blinds pulled down-the delicious twilight, when grate fires shine like burning masses of ruby, and people sitting there beside grow mildly confidential. It was showing a little outside; all the better, for the click of the crystalized pearl against the plate glass filled up the silences, and made the cozy warmth of the room luxuriously delightful And Martyr Ellerslie's pleasant brown eyes, fixed full on the fire, saw, no one can tell what, or how much they saw
 Suppose she should say no P" he burst out, seemingly apropos to nothing at all.
 Suppose she shouldn't" observed Guy, dryly.
 like having tooth out. Your friends stand by and say: Be @ man it's nothingr It isn't they who are under the doctors forceps p
 Complimentary to Miss Clen."
 "Nonsense. You know not what I mean. But really and truly, I've tried, and can't do it.
 "Very we'll, said Barnes, indifferent ly, "then it is an understood thing that you are to live and die an old bachelor ?"
 "I didn't say that" "Oh, beg your pardon. You ex- pect Fanny is going to propose to you that is it P
 "You are heartless miscreant," FL lerslie cried out, half laughing, half impatient, as he sprang to his feet and tossed the remnant of his cigar into the fire, "and shall not waste any more time upon you-unless, indeed, you'll go round to the fair with me-"
 "Where Fanny Glen has stand Not if I know it The money-market is rather tight with me just at present, and these fancy-falrs are no better than den of robbers, where 8 defenseless young man is concerned"
 And Myrtyn EllersIie went on his way alone.
 The hall was all a-glitter with gas lights and fragrant with flowers when he got there the pretty feminine spi- ders lurked each behind her well-laden tables, all smiles and dimples, while the throng of victims ebbed and flowed around them.
 MT. Ellerslie found himself greeted with acclamations.
 "You will take share, MT. Eller- slie."
 "Do. please, put your name down here, MT. Ellerslie there are only ten blanks left"
 "Oh Mir. Ellerslie, you are the very one we are waiting for. I've kept seven for you-seven is always lucky num- ber."
 "Mr. Ellerslie MT. Ellerslie don't, pray, spend all your money until you've taken a share in this mammoth doll, with trunk full of clothes"
 And thus our hero was flung hither and yon, on the waves of the fair, draw ing nearer, however, with every sub- scription, to the table over which shone the blue stars of Fanny Clen's eyes.
 But when he got there, he was smit- ten with sudden silence.
 Fanny looked wonderingly up.
 "It's fine evening"" he hazarded.
 els it ?" asked Fanny. "Why l thought it was snowingp
 "So 1t is," said our hero, growing very red and overturning with his elbow crimson Venetian flask (for which he immediately had to pay a sovereign(. "I-I mean it isn't very fine evening"
 "Oh P said Fanny.
 "Yes," said Mir. Ellerslie, feeling acutely that he had made a donkey of himself.
 And then he went away, and didn't see Fanny Glen again the whole even- ing-probably because she was the only person 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 place, in a very dispirited and de- jected frame of mind, there was rush and autter, and he heard his own name called in all the notes of the hu- man gamut.
 "What is it ?" he demanded, vague ly staring around him.
 "You've drawn the big doll l" cried little Sibyl Percy, dancing up to him, and laying in his arms the huge waxen abomination with it's fossy yellow complexion while somebody else brought the big trunk and little band box.
 "It's just like travelling with wife," said Sibyl, mischievously. l "But what the-ahem what am l to do with it ?" asked our bewildered hero.
 "Give it to somebody" said Sibyl, inwardly hoping he would act promptly on the suggestion and bestow his prize on her. "Any one would be delighted to receive such 8 present"
 "Do you think they would ?" asked Mir. Ellerslie, vacantly. And then-he went away.
 "Great stupid fellow p cried Sibyl, spitefully, and she tripped back to her table.
 "I never saw such goose," said Laura Harrington, who had carried the trunk, and who had three little sisters of her own at home.
 "But what am I to do with it ?" said MT. Ellerslie to himself as he traversed the wintry gloom of the midnight streets. "O6, I have it I'll give it to Fanny Clen-and she can make a Christmas present of it to her little black eyed cousin p
 And he laid the doll, rejoicing, on his sofa, and went to bed. sinking into dreamland just about the time that Fanny Glen was taking the hair-pins out of her magnificent golden hair be- fore the dressing bureau in her own apartment.
 "Why, Fanny, what ails you ?" cried Dora, her elder sister. "You're cry ing"
 "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 EllersLe didn't care a straw about her. Why should he? " MT. Ellerslie rose the next morning full of his momentous resolve, and made such toilet that the very land lady's little boy, seeing him go out with the big don-neatly encased in her pasteboard box-under his arm, eiacu- lated, profanely:
 "Oh, my eye, what a swell l" The black-eyed little cousin admitted