Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-01-15

; ! lOOhCO
It's fine evening, he hazarded.
Is it? asked Fanny. Why,
thought it was showing.
So it is, said our hero, growing
very red, and overturning with bi
elbow crimson Venetian flask, fo
which he Immediately had to pay
sovereign. II mean it isn't yer.
T fine evening.
Oh! said Fanny.
Yes, said Mr.. Ellerslie, feeling
acutely that he had made donkel
of himself.
And then he went away, and diC
not see Fanny Glen again the Who'll,
evening-probably because she wa
the only person in the whole room
that he cared a fig about seeing a
all. But so unkind is fate to low
and lovers.
Just as he was edging his wal
out of the place, in very dispirit
ed and detected frame of mind
there was a rush and futter, anC
he heard his own name called in al
the notes of the human gamut.
What is it? he demanded, vaguely
staring around him.
You've drawn the big doll! crieC
little Sibyl Percy, dancing up t.
him and laying in his arms the large
waxen abomination with its GLOSSY
yellow curls and impossible pink
and-white complexion, while someone
else brought the big trunk and little
bandbox.
It's just like travelling with wife
said Sibyl, mischievously.
But what the-ahem! what am
to do with it? asked our bewildered
hero.
Give it to somebody, said Sibyl
inwardly hoping he would act
promptly on the suggestion and be.
stow his prize on her. Anyone
would be delighted to receive such
a present.
Do you think they would, asked
Mr.. Ellerslie, vacantly. And then
| uC WCAO away
| Great stupid fellow! cried Sibyl,
spitefully, and she tripped back to
her table.
| l never saw such a goose, said
Laura Darlington, 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 trav-
ersed the wlntry gloom of the mid
night streets. Oh, I have it! I'll
give it to Fanny Clen-and she can
make Christmas present of it to
her little black-eYed cousin.
And he laid the doll, rejoicing, on
his sofa and went to bed, sinking in
to dreamland just about the time
that Fanny Glen was taking the
hair pins out of her beautiful gold
en- hair before the dressing bureau
in her own apartment.
Why, Fanny, what ails you? cried
Dora, her elder sister. You are cry
ing!
Pm SO tired, guiltily confessed
poor Fanny.
And she wept herself to sleep
thinking how foolish she had been,
and that of course Martin Ellerslie
didn't care a straw about. her. Why
should he?
Mr., Ellerslie rose the next morn
ing full of his momentous resolve,
and made such toilet that the very
landlady's little boy, seeing him go
out with the big doll-neatly en-
cased in her pasteboard box-under
his arm, calculated profanely:
Oh, my eye, what a swell!
The black-eyed little cousin admit
ted him. Yes, cousin Fanny was at
home-wouldn't he walk into the
parlor?
And our hero, before he had fairly
made up his mind in what terms to
bestow his gift, found himself bow
ing to fair-haired vision, IN sun
ny little room, surrounded by heaps
of cut flowers.
How do you do, Mr.. Ellerslie? said
Fanny, coloring and smiling. l am.
making bouquets, you see, for to-
night. .ao ts
Exactly so, said Martyr, and then
he reflected how much appropriate
remark he might have made, and
turned very red.
Pray sit down, said FANNY.
1.-the fact is, Miss Glen, said
Ellerslie, plunging in sheer despera-
ton into the midst of his subject, I
have. called-I hope you won't be
vexed-you have only to say so if
you don't like it.
r amy dropped her sprig of hell
otrdpe, and looked up IN surprise.
I, know it isn't of much conse-
quebec, went on Mr.. Ellerslie, turn
ing the pasteboard box round and
round in confusion, but if you'll ac-
cept it-Pve known and esteemed
you so long, and
The damask rose deepened on
Fanhy's fair face. 1t had come at
last then, the proposal she had an
ticipated so long and anxiously.
Not of much consequence Oh,
Mr.. Ellerslie! she repeated reproach-
fully.
Would you care for itP he de-
manded, quite oblivious in the en-
barassment of the moment that be
hadn't even named the gift.
Care for it! The tears sparkled
into Fanny's eyes. When-when you
know that / love you, Martyr.
And she ran into the arms of our
astonished hero.
When he went down the door,
steps he was an engaged young man,
how and when, he scarcely knew
himself. And as fate would have it,
the first parsonage against whom he
STUN bled was Guy Barnes.
Hellol said Guy. What's up?
Don't speak so loud, said Ellerslie,
passing his arm through that of his
friend, She's engaged to be my wife.
Who is? the divinest Fanny, the
fGirest of her sex?
Of course, whom else should it be?
But / thought you couldn't screw
your courage up to the proposing
mark?
! didn't propose.