The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-03-07

she seemed SO very, very--funny word,
wasn't it well, there was no harm In
thinking it--clean, that was it. Perhaps
it was the awful CRIME of Mrs. Gibson's
front basement did it. Contrast is every
thing, you know. But all she wasn't
like the divine, the beautiful
"Mr. M'Govern, will you have
another cup of teaf"
My what sweet voice
Now what was it made the old board
ing-house day by day so much less in
tolerable than it used to be? Perhaps
it was the dust; Somehow the universal
dust had ceased to assert itself as for
merly, and became conspicuous by its
absence. Every thing in Mr.. M'Govern's
room by some magic got into its right
place. Inanimate things may be totally
depraved, but somehow his showed an
evidence of reform that argued the ex-
lstence of saving grace somewhere.
| Where on earth were the holes in his
| stockings? He missed them. Certainly
hole in ones stocking is more honored
in the breach than in the observance !;
but what a peculiar experience for q
clerk, in boarding-house
One day Mr.. M'Govern happened to
remember what his landlady had said to
him about her daughters dedication. +"
Poor woman! he didn't wonder some
big words bothered her; every now and
then he came across one that puzzled
him. It might be that Annie would be
nice to talk to. But he must get safe
subject. How would politics do ?-here
he was tolerably strong himself.
1t is humiliating confession to make
regarding ones hero, but no sooner had
Clarence M'Govern begun to talk poll
tics with Annie than he speedily made
up his mind that the administration of
our Republican government was the one
thing on earth that he knew nothing
about. How humiliating it was! The
same thing over again. eff you amt
! rich man or newspaper chap, what can
you do with girl? They get their
heads packed full of things at school
that fellow who's got his living to earn
can't know anything about, and if you
haven't got any money This worlds
beastly hole p concluded Clarence
M'Govern; and in that statement he en-
bodied the sentiments of many wiser
man.
But in this case it WAS too bad. Now
with Arabella, rich, beautiful and we'll
born, it was different; but to be extin-
guished by Mrs. Gibson's daughter! he,
Clarence M M'Govern-abominable Was
| he not rising man, and were there not
indications Of good birth in his every
feature and in his very name? To be
sure, he hated to attempt tracing his
| lineage; it would bolt up against a
tailor's shop in the Bowery in such an
aggravating manner. But clearly names
| I
his ancestors have been named NJ M'Govern
if they had never had anything to gov
ern?-impossible But such plebeian
name as Gibson-bah
But there was something very delight
full in Annie's society when he kept out
OF deep waters and when one day she
asked him, very sweetly "Who is Ara
bella ?" Mr.. M'Govern felt that his cup
of happiness was full. With Arabella
for sweetheart and Annie for a con-
fidante, what man could want more :?
The hood-gates of his soul were opened.
He certainly lacked the eloquence of that
much-to- be-envied newspaper chap but
Annie was sympathetic, and she got
notion of his longings, his doubts, his
aspirations, quite as correct as if they
had been more elegantly expressed.
Then came the story of the sonnet that
wouldn't allow itself to be written, and
the stupid, uncomfortable, contumacious
behavior of that awful pollysyllable
Arabella.
"Don't put it in at the end of n line,"
suggested Annie. "Get over it at once,
and have it out of the way"
Capital !'' said Mr.. M'Govern.
"Could you, Miss Annie, give me an
idea, suggestion, line or two per-
haps 2"
"What style will you have it in 2"
Well, something little like Tenny-
son, with dash of Shelley, just tri6e
of Swinburne possibly" He had evil
IDENTIFY been reading up.
"How would this do?" suggested the
accommodating Annie, with twinkle in
her eye that somehow made Mr.. M'Gov-
ern blush to the roots of his hair:
"Arabella, gaze upon me
With thy soft and gentle eyes,
See the wrong that thou hast done me;
All my troubled spirit lies
Painting with its deep emotion.
Pulseless as tropic ocean.
And seem as one who leth
Low upon his couch and dieth'
Beautiful Go on
Now the result of all this was that
within the next three weeks Miss Ara
bella received no less than nineteen love
poems, all signed "Clarence M Govern E"
in that gentleman's pest style, with a
flourish underneath at least four inches
long.
But somehow this partnership in
poetry did not seem to agree with An
ME, and before long she announced her
intention of visiting a friend in the
country. She "needed change" she
said.
Curiously now, the holes in Mr..
M'Govern's stocking began to re-appear;
the dust resumed it's normal sway, and
the only line of poetry the young man
could remember was
"Thou wilt come no more gentle Annie"
which he whistled SO lugubriously that
one morning, out of pure sympathy,
Mrs. Gibson put her head inside his
door and whispered, consolingly:
"Lor' bless you, yes, she will. Mr..
MGovern she's only gone for a
month.
Then Clarence began to wonder where
his thoughts had been straying and as
poetical illusions were no longer IA pos
sibility, he resolved to see Arabela at
once, and put his fate to the touch, and
win or lose it all.
1t was night of wind and rain and
sleet as Mr.. M'Govern left the station
and approached the Lockwood mansion.
Miss Arabella would see him in few