The Portland daily press., 1875-06-21

something I must.
january 17.-Nothing yet, and dear, dear
Alice has been ill for three weeks. She is a
little better, or 1 don't know what Ishould
do.
March Ill have heard of place in a
shop"
Here the writing broke off abruptly. John
hastily turned oyer the remaining pages
Not another word, except in pencil near the
end, ''Back ribbon, 81 cents; boy at cross
ing, cents; oranges for Alice, 6 cents"
and underneath single line: patience
isn't always pleasant, but she leads to pleas
ant things.'
"Here's a pretty business!' he soilo-
quized, slowing the little book in his breast
pocket. ''As well search for needle in
hay-stack as for this girl out of all New York
city. Why can't women write their names
and addresses in full while they are about it,"
He took up newspaper, but the letters
danced before his eyes, and before long he
had pulled the green book out again and was
re-reading the journal. An odd excitement
stirred his pulse. For good many years
in fact, since the age of nineteen, when his
first love Tilted him-he had counted him
self a determined old bachelor, and having no
mother or sister, had drifted out of the way
of womankind and their interests. "Flossy's"
simple record seemed to bring him back to
this forgotten world. 1t was as if a girl had
sat down by his side and whispered her Sc
crets in his ear. Visions of sweet tired face
behind a counter, of appealing blue eyes Che
was certain they must be blue), of a veil of
soft light hair chair to match the eyes,,
swept over him, and all his knighth0od was
reused Find her he must and help her;
hut how? Never did search seem more I'M
promisingly devoid of clew.
To advertise was, of course, his t1rst
thought. 'Found'' a small green pocket
book" appeared next day among the Per
sonals'' in the Herald, and was reiterated so
many times thereafter as to become, as it
were, permanent feature of the paper.
singular rage for shopping seized upon John.
Every afternoon, leaving his office early, he
betook himself TO this amusement, choosing
always those shops where women were en-
pioyed. No bride elect, with trousSeau to
buy, ever went into the business more deter
minedly. Long stairs daunted him not; he
penetrated to third stories, to fourth, even to
those mysterious topmost regions where ia
dies Quitting" is attended to. Everywhere
he questioned, ''have you among your en-
ployes young lady named Florence? have
accidentally come into possession OF an article
belonging to her which l am anxious to re-
turn.
But no one answered the advertisement;
and, though more than one Florence turned
up in the shops, they were not the one; they
had no connection with the little green
pocket-book.
So May passed, and June and July, and
when August drew on, and the city became
great focus OF baking walls and evil savors,
our friend, tough and active as he was, began
to feel need of change. "Flossy's" words
haunted him. 'sThe long, cool roll and the
s,cash, the gulls diving and plunging in the
spray;" they filled him with longing for the
sea. BE resolved Oh vacation; and one sui
try evening, after an hours humping on the
railway, and further jolt in country wagon
he found himself at "Oriental Point" on
the Long Island shore; spot which had re-
joiced in the name of Clam Cove until re-
cent notwithstanding at the hands of local spec
ulators, whose imaginations, fired by the
completion of the branch railroad, had jumped
forward to anticipated hotels and crowd of
metropolitan ''boarders." Both hotels and
crowd were happily non-existent so far, and
the sylvan quiet of Clam Cove still brooded
over Oriental Point. The led farm houses
scattered along the beach just suficed for the
few strangers who had found out the place,
and in one of these Mr.. Singleton and his
knapsack were received and welcomed with a
hearty country hospitality which it was to be
feared would disappear with the nearer APP
proach of the ubiquitous steam whistle.
Two days of basking in sun and salt, two
nights of cool freshness, made him new
man. Utterly content and utterly lazy, he
felt indisposed for everything but to lie under
the shade of rocks, watch the water come
and 60, and nap and dream.
1t was on the fourth day of this oyster-like
existence that he reused from doing reverie
at the sound of voices speaking near. Some
| ladies had seated themselves jlst below him.
| One, dressed in mourning and wrapped in a
shawl, seemed an invalid. The other had
dark red-brown hair streaming down over a
| coo-looking white and black dress. She was
| reading aloud LowelPs little poem, 'Sea-
| Weed.'' John caught the words distinctly.
II wonder what that means exactly?" she
| said as she finished.
sit is very graceful"
eyes, but IFS puzzling, too-a fascinating
| puzzle. I'm always wondering if Mr.. Lowell,
when he wrote it, meant the same thing
which fancy he meant. 1t quite leases me-"
"And yet you like it so much!'
ooh, that's the very reason. like to be
leased and set to thinking. Alice, are you
warm enough?"
John pricked up his ears. But this girl
| has dark hair.
"Thanks! yes. I'm almost warm enough
Still, you might fetch the gray shawl, Marion,
if you don't mind.
John caught glimpse of the girls face as
she came back with the shawl; fresh, pleas
ant face, with eyes of the same red-brown as
the hair. She saw him, too, and the sisters
lowered their voices. He did not hear another
word after that.
Two days later his landlady met him with
a troubled conscience.
''Tm so sorry!' she began. SITS just as
sudden ON mes on you but my daughter she's
written that she and the children must come
home for spell cause the youngest's had
cholera infantcide and the doctor he says they
| must get away's fast's they can and it's too
bad to turn you out but don't see no other
way to fix it and if YOU don't mind Elkins
next door has a room free every bit like the
one you're in now and Almiry shall carry over
your things and you'll be every whit as COM
Portable and l hope you'll have no hard feel
ing about It," Ali this in breath, and with
out audible punctuation.
John comtorted the good dame whose face
was full of trouble. After all, what did it
matter? 'Almiry" lent hand, and in two
hours he was seated in Mrs. Elkins' 'front.'
room, "every whit as comfortable" as he had
been in his old quarters.
Going down to dinner, the red-hrown eyes
which he had noticed on the beach confronted
him.
'It's the Miss Whittemores, Mr. don't
recall your name," remarked Mrs. Elkins,
spooning out her steaming chowder. An d in
this unceremonious way the introduction was
effected.
Intimacies ripen fast under such circum-
stances. Reading, sailing, and walking to
gether, spending whole days and day after
day in company, it was no wonder that be-
fore long the three so lately strangers should
become as old friends. 1t was easy to know
the Misses Whittemore, they were so frank
and simple, SO pleasantly well-bred. Alice,
the eldest, a gentle, womanly creature, quiet
in speech and manner, and full OF certain
sweet common-sense, was evidently the OBJ
ject OF fondest care to the brOWn.eyed Mari
on. John had never known any girls like
them. 1t was revelation of the pleasant
possibilities of life to be in such contact. Still
his shyness and old habit of distrust ham,
pered and held him back. ''What man ever
understood a woman?" he asked himself.
81 don't pretend to. .Flossy,' indeed! L did
have real glimpse of her in that blessed lit
tie book! Now if some fairy would just open
the door and let me see the inside of Marion's
heart in the same way, then 1 should know
where was"
Marion Yes, the imaginary Flossy was de-
throned; the real Marion reigned in her stead
John, however, was still unconscious of his
subjugation, and how long the affair might
have halted no one can tell, had not Fate, as
she often does, taken the matter into her own