Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1877-08-04
AN IDYL OF ICE.CREAM.
How the Girl Absorbed Countless Saucers
and Baukrupted Her Beau.

anu AhtH
1t was the wild midnight. The tame
midnight was off watch and had gone to
bed three hours before. A storm
brooded over the eastern heavens. 1t
was thoroughbred brood storm. Hop
brewed, for it was coming from the
yeast. Hawkeye creek was rolling
tumultuously in its sandy bed. A 1.-THE
form covered at the garden gate. Many
manly form has been coward at just
such gates, ever since summer nights and
gnats and beauty and love and June bugs
were invented.
" He does not come,' she murmured,
softly, as she peered into the darkness.
81 cannot see him. will call him.
She was wrong. If she couldn't see
him, she certainly couldn't call him with
the same hand. A manly step came
scraping down the sidewalk. 1t was
Desmond.
She threw open the gate, and the next
instant he clasped in his great, strong
arms twenty-seven yards of foulard,
three yards of ruching, seven dozen
Breton buttons and pompadour panier
as big as doghouse. 1t was all his
own.
"All is lost" he exclaimed. econ
stance de BelvideIe, the Russians have
crossed the Balkans. We must fly"
Constance was noble girl. She only
said: Whittier shall we fy?"
He wanted to fly to some lone desert
isle, but she submitted an amendment
providing that they should fly to the ice
cream saloon.
They flew.
In the crowded saloon, where the soft
light fell upon fair women and brave
men, and the insects of a summer night
fell in the ice-cream freezer. They spoke
no word.
When two sentient human beings are
engulfng spoonfuls of cornstarch and
eggs and skim milk, language is g
mockery.
At length Desmond broke the tender
silence. He said:
"More, dearest ?"
She smiled and bowed her lovely head
but did not speak. She was too full fol
utterance.
Desmond gloomily ordered more. Ant
more when that was gone. And supple
ment to that. And an addenda to that
And an exhibit to that.
Gloom sat enthroned upon his brow
Constance saw it. She said:
"What is it, dearest ?"
A dreadful suspicion stabbed her hear
like knife.
Desmond" she said, "you are no
tired of me, darling ?"
"By Heaven, no, he said, and thel
he looked (and thought) unutterabl
/ things. -.-' .'''-
Her brow Ightened up with ray O
celestial intelligence.
81 see" size said, tapping the empt
plate with her spoon. "Too cold
Signed, @. Morbus."
He denied it bitterly, and bade her re
main where she was while he settled wit
the man.
She, guided by the unerring ms inc
of her sex, peeped through the curtain
of the saloon. She saw her Desmon
holding earnest discussion with the man
She saw the man shake his head resc
lutely in answer to Desmond's pleadin
looks and appealing gestures. She sa'
ullu LUCK tle uOUI, Gth0 Out tllo h6y, pu
it in his pocket and lean up against tn
door. She saw her own Desmond dra,
from his own pockets and pile up on th
counter pearl-handle pocket-knife, 81
nickels, four green postage e-stamps,
watch-key, two lead pencils, memorar
dum-book, theater ticket (of the variet
denomination). pocket comb, an ivor
toothpick, a shirt-stud, one sleeve-buttor
photograph of herself, package {
trix, two street-car checks, a card with
funny story on it,a silk handkerchief an
pair of gloves. And then she kne
, that Desmond was bankrupt, and whe
the man swept the assets of the concer
into drawer and opened the door sh
sobbed convrlsively: 8" And it wal
mine extravaganza which hath did tn
thing"
They did not talk much on their wa
home. Once she had asked him if he ws
rich, and he only said:
Enormously"
Such is fate. Harrington Haaokey