The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-03-14

OF that awful pOllySyilAbie ArAbeila-
"Don't put it in at the end of line, y
| suggested Annie. " Get over it at once,
and have it out of the way
| "Capitalr' said Mr.. M'Govern.
" Could you, Miss Annie, give me an
idea, a suggestion, line or two per
hapsg'
What style will you have it imp
"Wen, something little like Tenny-
son, with a dash Of Shelley, Just trifle
of Swinburne possibly" He had evil
IDENTIFY been reading up.
accommodating Annie, with twinkle
in her eye that somehow made Mr..
M'Goyern blush to the roots of his hair.
A.abella 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 trupic ocean,
| And seem as one who lieth
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" in that gentleman's best
style, with flourish underneath at
least four inches long.
But somehow this partnership in po-
etry did not seem to agree with Annie,
and before long she announced her in
tention of visiting friend in the coun-
try. She "needed change" she
said.
Curiously now, the holes in Mr..
M''Govern's stocking began to reap
pear; the dust resumed its 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..
M'Govefn; 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 pos
sibility, he resolved to see Arabella 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.. MGoyern left the station
and approached the Lockwood man.
sion. Miss Afabella would see him in
few moments, and in the meantime
would he wait in the libraryp Fancy
ing himself in solitude, he selected the
easiest chair, and was just composing
his address to the fair object of his af-
fections, when a small voice appealed
to him pathetically:
Pleathe, thir, thith it'll too thick, it
won't twitht.''
What is it, my childP" inquired
Clarence, affectionately, seating the
small petitioner on his knee.
eth maxim lamp-lghterth. Thith-
ter Bella gave me all thith white paper.
l wanted new, but she said it wath
good enough for me; there wath moth
ing on it but some thilly vertheth that
big fool-she thaid hith name, but l
forget-had written to her. Don't
pinch me tho; I'll thcream.''
Oh, agonies of unrequieted affection!
There. curling gracefully around a
lamp-lighter, destined perhaps to light
one of his rivals cigars, were the ten
der lines,
"Arabella gaze upon me
With thy soft and gentle eyes,"
The rest were gone, unless they might
be discovered on the vicious morsef of
paper that wouldn't twitht."
In less than two minutes Mr.. Meow
ern was in the street. Oh, the dismal,
dreary sleeting iniquity of that night!
Where was the station? It had disap-
peared. Down in torrents came the
rain, freezing as it fell; slippery and
more slippery grew the pavement;
only cat, or some animal with claws,
could have maintained systematic
perpendicular. Suddenly down went
Mr. M'Govern. Perhaps it was bless
ing. for the sudden application of cold
ice to the back of his head restored his
consciousness of where he was, and he
turned toward the railway station,
having in his excitement wandered
half mile in the opposite direction.
Had that partial bath suddenly
cooled his. passion? Clarence could
not have told, but somehow he did not
feel as miserable Us he had expected,
only very wet, and the ride home
seemed unfortunately long.
Two or three days passed by, and
even yet Mr.. MGovern was in a re-
markably serene frame of mind for
disappointed lover. A week passed
away, when suddenly he began TO feel
serious distress in his left ankle. This
struck him at once as peculiar, as, ac-
cording to all precedent, the anguish
should have proceeded direct from his |
heart.
But pretty soon the invisible tweezers
of most malignant imp began to
wrench him in the knee; before long |
the grip was upon his arm; thence Il |
struck to his hip; and, utterly in the |
power of the enemy, Mr.. M'Govern
awoke one morning and found himself,
not like the Philistines dead, but unable |
to move limb, and helpless before the
eyes Of Kitty: the waiteress. who. late
the room and inquired II nc "Ss n1 5 5i1ep
going to get up.
SECT up?" no! Not for weeks upon
weeks did Mr.. M'Govern rise from his
bed. They blistered him, they poul-
ticed him, they dosed him, they drugged
him; but all tolno effect. The fever
would have its way in spite of the whole
medical pharnacopgia. First of all,
they placed him in the charge of mon
strous MALI nurse, whom Clarence,
in his impotent fury, mentally de- i
q 'great hulking brute, =
but without whose assistance the un-
fortunate victim of his attentions could
not even turn in bed. How he grew to
hate the horrible creature who stood
over him day and nights Even Mrs. +,
Gibson's creaking boots and high
pitched voice became blessing when.
in the intervals Of her domestis labors.
she looked in upon the suherel. But
'Annie-f he could have had Annie!
i fsally, in his semi delirium be teean
VIII aloud for her; and Mrs. Gi6Aon.
nwn h out of the motherliness Of kr
, ideas Ak or because she had her oM
Young dry Annie and this thrlvingl
cannot be exls salesman-too much !,
|, | marriageable did Of landladies wita {
/ | that Annie shnpld ters-pr0mised bin
Al LIST he o6tnes~t for.
! trenrth u The enemy whether the
4 vhet6er be did not dare ~ spent, or
! inc. buruinx implements 0Ss freez-
: Innie's srentle presence, - eqre in
4 rheuma}3sm was exorctscd and p ofl
u WGoScrn began q fancy tia
4 he had lapsed into perad1A each ~
Y "a c3orv 81 c6ny11e losncel Ard Anri'
!. - evsrywhere. 0ncs 40 IL dua
I ss..nnesred. and Clasehte lseh VII
; nssssd the naeicsl ga1Es< througl