The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-02-03
A SMALL ROY.

ANtNt tH Nv plpthNN tiiC uopl tDlt y
gone to the dressmaker's but she'll be
back soon, cause she's goin' to friz her
hair for dinner. Come in and wait"
accepted the invitation, and installed
myself in the easiest chair in the parlor,
after rolling it to the bay window, so as
to command a view of the street, while
Ned "histed' himself, as he called it, on
a marble top table beside me, and sat
there, with the crispy cheekincss of
early bOyhood, whistling and swinging
his feet.
Ned was chap of ten years, with n
remarkable memory-as | was fated to
discover-the youngest brother of Miss
Victoria Conrad; and Miss Victoria
Conrad was handome, dashing, clever
girl whom | had met :sat a picnic the
preceding summer, and with whom
had Immediately fallen desperately i'm
love.
use the word desperately" advis-
edly, for it was my first really serious
ENHANCEMENT, and my charmer, being
a thorough mistress of the arts by which
young and susceptible male hearts are
subjugated, had inthralled me most COM
pletely.
True, before cast myself at her feet,
| had felt q great tenderness for sweet
little third or fourth cousin of mine, q
slight pale young girl, with hair of the
faintest gold and eyes ofthe softest blue
and an innocent, trusting, childlikc look
in her pretty face.
But beside Miss Conrad, with her
magnificent form, glorious auburn
tresses, and wonderful big black ewes,
May Newton faded into insignificance.
1t was as though one placed delicate,
cream colored lily in the same vase with
gorgeous, fiame-dashed-with-
leaved, brown throated gladiole.
And so / found, on becoming ac-
quainted with Miss Conrad, that my
feeling for May, which had existed since
our earliest childhood, was only ten
derness, while my feeling for Victoria,
although but three months old, already
amounted to n passion.
But, in spite of my infatuation for the
latter, was not blind to the fact that
she was finished coquette, and I didn't
half like the way, after the very decided
encouragement she had given me, she
flirted with my intimate friend Charley
Thornton. Sometimes, indeed, il flashed
upon me that there had been love af-
fair between them which had moi entire
ly ended even now, and ii was after one
of these flashes had sought her house,
determined to discover what her real
feelings toward me were, and resolved
that when left her il should be either
as an accepted or rejected suitor.
10 speak frankly, / had every reason
TO believe, in spite of the flashes, il
would be as an accepted one. For as
much as Thornton was distinguished by
Miss Conrad above her other admirers,
just so much had been of late distin.
guished above Thornton. Andswe two
were equal in age, looks, family, educa-
ton and (Our lady-love thought) for
tune. say our lady-love thought, for
the truth was, compared to me, Charley
was poor. How rich | was had taken
care should not be known; for though
only three-and-twenty, | had already
grown tired of a single life, with its at.
tendant boarding houses, and was look.
ing for wife, with view TO a comfort.
able home of my own. And like Lord
Burleigh and other romantic, poetical
fellows, wanted to he loved for mysel
alone.
Only Charley Thornton knew of my
recently inherited wealth, and him
had bound by all that is sacred in friend
ship not TO disclose it.
$50 in singing me out for favor"
argued, Victoria leads me TO suppose
she loves me. And if she consents to
become my wife, that supposition will
turn into a happy certainty, for she Ger
tainly, with her beauty and talents
might make much finer match thar
the one | offer her. And what delight
it will be when the words are said tia
seal my happiness and make her all m,
own, to see her resplendent eyes grow
larger and brighter as she learns that II
accepting few thousands, she has be
come the mistress of half million!'
But to go back to the small boy
swinging his feet and evidently anxious
TO enter into conversation.
81 say" he blurts out at last, edo vol
like to look at photographs? Charlie,
Thornton does. He and Vic looked a
this book"-taking one from the tabl,
on which he sat-"for more'n an houl
the other day. like him. He give m,
two white mice and guinea pig; tn,
cat ate the white mice, and the guine,
pigs dead. But they wasn't looking a
II all the time either. They was talking
Your pictures there, yon know. TIL
used TO be on the other page, but h,
coaxed Vic TO put Il somewhere else"
"WhyY asked, ceasing TO watcI
for the coming of my divinity, and turn
ing toward the small boy with awakened
curiosity.
! "Cause," said Ned, evidently tryins