The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-04-30

mischief flashing in her dark eyes,
Really, Mr.. Weber, your conceit ex-
ceeds your good sense in the ratio of
about thousand to one; one would think
you considered it quite an honor to be a
Weberi"
''And so do" returned Allan haught-
lily. ''Valerie, this is the last time I
shall ask you-will you be my wife?"
"No;" said Valerie, in a cool, but
trenchant tone, ssI must decline that
honor, great as it is!'
And gathering up her trailing, white
dress in one hand, she sauntered out of
the room, singing softly to herself:
81 wonder why it is that men never
know lat least very seldon) how to ask a
girl to marry them. They generally
commence all right, but the slightest
hesitation or coquettishness On the fair
ones part, arouses their slumbering con-
ceit land they have an immense amount
of that quality in their compositionJ and
they generally lose the victory
No matter how much girl love man,
if she has any pride, she does not like
him to take it for granted that she is
ready to ''fa1 into his arms at a
moments warning.
And SO Allan, having fallen into this
common error, and so lost the victory,
threw himself on the lounge, angrily
consigning all the women-Valerie in
particular-to far more tropical region
THAI this.
And Valerie, going slowly down the
stairs, said to herself, with the color
fading swiftly out of her face,
'sHe will never ask me again, and II
love him!'
The summer dragged slowly by. The
days had never seemed so long and
She grew weary of all her old admirers,
and discarded them one by one until
only three or four remained in her train.
Once she met Allan on the street, but
he only lifted his hat coldly and
courteously, and passed on.
The next time she saw him he was
walking with young lady who was visit
ing his sister-a very beautiful young
lady, Valerie thought, as she watched
them, with jealous eyes; and then she
wished, oh! how earnestly she wished
that she had not thrown away that true,
noble heart when it was offered her.
But it was too. late now-he had said
he would never ask her again, and she
knew he never would. She was suffer-
ing now, as few months before she had
caused poor Allan to suffer.
One evening she was at party, and
was standing near a table, talking to
some friends, when some one came up
and said hurriedly,
s'Have you heard the news ?"
ssNo; what is it ?" some one asked, and
Valerie turned her head, and waited for
ing her heart cold.
s'Allan Weber has the smallpox
Valerie's head whirled, and, for mo-
Then she forced herself to look up; it
seemed that every one was looking at
her, and she wondered, even in the midst
of her pain, if they could see the anguish
and misery in her eyes!
For an hour she danced and firted, and
her laugh rang out as clearly and gaily
as ever. She was not the sort of girl to
wear her heart on her sleeve, and the
world should not know what she was suf
fering.
But as soon as she could excuse her.
self, she entered her carriage and went,
not home, but to the Weber mansion.
Winnie met her at the door, and looked
in surprise at her flushed face and
dishevelled hair
ssTake me to Allan p cried Valerie,
bursting into tears. ''Take me to him at
once p
.'Wny, Valerie, are you crazy?"
stake me to him, I say y commanded
Valerie passionately; and Winnie 81
lently opened the library door and closed
it again, as Valerie passed in.
Allan Weber was lounging in large
chair before the fire, but he arose in sur
prise, as his visitor entered.
Il
are you not ill?-have you not the small
pox?"
ssNo," said Allan, smiling, sit was all
joke. But, Valerie, why did You
Gomez?
ssI came to take care of you! I came
Oh, Allan, T came to tell you that love
you, and to ask you to forgive me r
And then poor Valerie became as
frightened over her proposal as Allan
had, few months before, been over his:
and throwing herself on the same identi-
cal sofa, sobbed as if her heart would
break but I think that sweet, brown
mustache knew how to kiss away tears, as
well as bushes.
And now, ,when'Al s. children puzzle
him with questions concerning Leap
Year, he always answers, with glance at
Valerie
My dears, you must ask your mother;
she knows all about it. -
An old lady from the Virginia side
was in Washington, the other day, and,
having heard much of Brady photo
graphs, concluded she would go in
there and get her s1likeness TUX, as she
expressed it. She was accompanied by
her daughter, tall, gaunt young
woman. Mr.. Brady, who is always very
polite to all his customers, took the old
lady himself into the operating room
and seated her in chair. He stepped
away a moment and when he returned
he found the old lady carefully tucking
her clothes tight in and about her feet.
"What in the world are you doing that
for ?' said Mr.. Brady. "Well," an
swered the old lady, ST know when You
look through that thing there, pointing
to the camera, 'sI shall be standing on
my head and am getting ready for it. .
Mr. Brady, after much trouble, sue
ceeded in convincing the old lady that,
though she might appear upside down
in the camera, her clothes would remain
in the proper position, and that tucking
them in and about her feet in that man
ner might interfere with the artistic
beauties of the photograph.
Why is the letter d like sailor-Be-
cause it follows the G.