The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-03-03
THE NICK OF TIME.

Of all arrant flirts, Alice Truesdell
bore the palm; and of all desperate low
ers, Dr. Fowle. OF course there were
other lovers at the young lady's COM
mand, or she could not have hirted; but
all her Irritation seemed to be directed
solely to the end of vexing this single
lover, whose grave, quiet, repressed de-
meanor never let her exactly Eaow
whether he were lover or not, and
drove her first to some action that
almost betrayed her own feelings. ana
then to one that should give the lie TO
that betrayal, and set everything at loose
ends again.
You could hardly say why Miss Trues-
dell had so many suitors. She was not
so very good-that is, she was as good
rs most people, but not jot better; she
was not pretty-at least, not till she
laughed and showed her white teeth,
and dimple deep as love ever nestled
in, or till she lifted her great gray eyes
and let you see how lustrous they were
under that trick of dropping lids. No,
it could not have been her beauty that
was the charm; it was voice, smile, face,
figure, all together; her personality, gay
spirits, teasing moods, sweet ways; her
infinite variety, that attracted everybody
coming within it's sphere. She sang
little, she danced little whatever she
did she did well: and SO, of course, she
fiirted to perfection, and played off one
lover against another az prettily, the
lockers on might think, as juggler
tosses his golden balls. But what did
the lovers think of it
One of them thought very poorly of
it, and was determined TO bring Miss
Alice to close quarters i'll small time, not
in the least aware that all the others had
made exactly the same determination,
and had found that to determine was one
thing and to do was another. Man might
propose, but Miss Alice must dispose;
and Miss Alice-as, indeed, they each
and all fondly hoped-was match for
any of them. If she danced with Greg
ory, just as Gregory felt encouraged and
began to whisper the burning words, she
dropped her ian with glance at Nal
lory, who darted to restore it, and was
detained with thanks and gay words and
replies just long enough to make it i'm
possible for Gregory to take up the
thread where she had broken it. If she
walked with DR.. Fowle, it was only after
she had allowed Mr.. Bolles to know that
she would be strolling in that direction,
where she was always so pleased to meet
him when he came up breathlessly, and
found the doctor muttering anathemas
between his teeth-invocatlons to Escu-
lapius, she called them.
But DR.. Fowle was not man you
could put of forever when he once made
up his mind to a thing, and so Miss
Alice began to learn. And when, one
night as he bade her good. by, Mallory
and the rest being there, he told her, in a
grave but authoritative under-tone, quite
unlike that of the usual lover, that he
wished to see her, next morning, at ii
o'clock, if she had wanted to deny him,
she could not. But, to tell the truth,
she did not exactly want to. The young
man had seemed SO incompetent, and SO
stupid, that evening ; Netty Armitage
had seemed SO frivolous, they had, each
in turn, came in and Interrupted the
doctor when he was telling her such
fairy-liSe tales of recent discoveries in
science she mad shrugged her shoulders
at them till the situation struck her
ridiculously, and then she had laughed
with the merriest of them, and pouted
at the doctor. But now, as he was GO
ing, she slipped her hand in his arm
and sauntered down the lawn with him.
The night was night in June, when, if
ever, nights are perfect the air was
laden with the breath of honeysuckle
and mock orange the winds that curled
round them seemed to come from dis.
tant lands of everlasting bloom, so
sweet they were and the stars hung
their lamps through the clear dark close
above the thick tree-tops. So fancied,
that night, that life was too delicious
thing to be indulged in freely, and she
murmured something of the fancy with
half a laugh. "There are times when
we all feel that life is more that we de-
serve" he answered. To-morrow--it
may be Shall feel the same myself,
Tomorrow, or will fate"
She laughed uneasily. " You mustn't
me riddles" she cried.
"At IL, tomorrow, then, he said,
lifting his hat.
"At II, to morrow" And she went
back TO the house, wishing it were IL,
tomorrow, now; and then, in gay
freak. as she heard the hall clock strike,
she ran down the hall and set the hands
forward an hour. bring him the
quicker" she whispered" bring him
the quicker" and went back to the
others.