Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-02-12
THE NICK OF TIME.
THE STORY OF A FLIRT.

VA etlA uhkO Nl1oLLu l1lIboJ hllCo
bore the palm; and of all desperate lov-
ers, DR.. Fowle. OF course there were
other lovers at the young lady's COM
maud, or she could not have firted; bat
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 know
whether he were a lover or not, and
drove her first to some action that al
most betrayed her own feelings, and
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
as most people, but not jot better; she
was not pretty-at least not till she
laughed and showed her white teeth,
and dirnple 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 its sphere. She sang
little, she danced a little; whatever she
did she did well; and 50, of course, she
fiirted to perfection, and played off one
lover against another as prettily, the
lookers-on might think, as a iuggler
to5sas his golden balls. But what did
the lovers think of it9
One Of them thought very poorly of
it. and was determined to bring Miss
Alice to close quarters in small time,
not in the least aware that all the others
had made exactly the same determina-
tion, and had found that to determine
was one thing and to do was another.
Man mighb propose, but Miss Alice
must dispose; and Miss Alice-as, in
deed, they each and all fondly hoped
was match for any one of them. If she
danced with Gregory, just as Gregory
felt encouraged and began to whisper
the burning words, she dropped her fan
with glauce at Mallory, who darted to
restore it, and was detained with thanks
and gay words aud replies just long
enough to make it impossible for Greg
ory to take up the thread where she had
broken it. If she walked with DIR.
Fowle, it was only after she had allowed
Mr.. Bolles to know that she would be
strclling in that direction, where she
was always so pleased to meet him when
he camo up breathlessly, and found the
doctor muttering anathemas between
his teeth--;nvocations to Esculapius,
she called them. , ~..
But DR., Fowle was not a man you
could put of forever when he once made
up his nind to thing, and so Miss
Alice began to learn. And when, one
nightas he bade her goodbye, Mallory
and the rest being there, he told her, il
agrave butauthoritative undertone, quite
unlike that of the usual lover, that ht
wished to see her next morning a
eleven O'Clock, if she had wanted t.
deny him, she could not. But, to tel
the truth, she did not exactly want to
The young men had seemed so inconse
quent and so stupid that evening; the,
had, each in turn, come in and inter
rupted the doctor when he was telling
her such fairy like tales of recent dis
coveries in science; she had shrugged
her shoulders at them till the situation
struck her ridiculously, and then she hat
laughed with the merriest Of them, an,
pouted at the doctor. But now, as h
was going, she slipped her hand in hi
arm and sauntered down the lawn wit
him. The night was a night in June
when, if ever, nights are perfect th
air was laden with the breath of honey
suckle and mock orange; the winds tha
curled round them seemed to com
from distant lands of everlasting bloom
so sweet they were and the stars hun
their lamps through the clear dark clos
above the thick tree tops. She fancie
that night that life was too delicious
thing to be indulged in freely, and sk
muEmured something Of the fancy Wit