Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-03-08

/ she seemed so very, very-funny word,
wasn't it 4? 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 ah she wasn't
! like the divine, the beautiful
"Mr. M'Govern, will you have
another cup sf tea ?"
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'f
room by some magic got into its right
place. Inanimate things may be totally
depraved, but somehow his showed al
evidence of reform that argued the ex.
istence of saving grace somewhere
Where on earth were the holes in his
stockings? He missed them. Certainly
a hole in ones stocking is more bonoreG
in the breach than in the observance
but what a peculiar experience for &
clerk, in clearinghouse
One day Mr.. M'Govern happened t
remember what his landlady had said tc
him about her daughters dedication.
poor womanl he didn't wonder some
big words bothered her; every now and
then he came across one that puzzled
him. 1t 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'GoverR begun to talk poll.
tics with Annie than he speedily made
up his mind that the administration ol
our Republican government was the one
thing ON earth that he knew nothing
about. How humiliating it was The
same thing over again. " If you amt q
rich man OF q 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 |" 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 well.
born, it was different; but to be extin-
guished by Mrs. Gibson daughter! he,
/ Clarence NJ 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 q
tailor's shop in the Bowery in such al
aggravating manner. But clearly names
sprung from something. Why should
his ancestors have been named NJ 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 cnp
of happiness was full. With Arabella
for sweetheart and Annie for con-
! tidante, what man could want more
The food-gates of his soul were opened.
He certainly lacked the eloquence of that
Hmuch-to- be-envied newspaper chap but
Annie was sympathetic, and she got a
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 line, I"
suggested Annie. "Get over it at once,
and have it out of the way"
"Capital p said Mr.. M'Govern.
"Could you, Miss Annie, give me an
idea, a suggestion, a line or two per-
haps ?"
"What style will you have it in ?"
" Well, something little like Tenny-
son, with dash of Shelley, just tri6e
Of Swinburne possibly" He had evi-
IDENTIFY been reading up.
"How would this do ?" suggested the
accommodating Annie, with twinkle in
her eye that somehow made Mr.. M'Gov-
em 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 lfeth
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 Claren ,e M Govern -
in that gentleman's best style, with O
| 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 he1
intention OF visiting o friend in the
country. She "needed a change" she
said.
Curiously now, the holes in Mr..
M'Govern's stocking began to re-appear
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..
MGovern she's only gone for q
month"
Then Clarence began to wonder where
his thoughts had been straging; and as
poetical effuslons were no longer pos.
sibility, he resolved to see Arabella al
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
moments, and in the meantime would he
wait in the library? Fancying himself