Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-10-29
NO. A..

with q dramatic gesture. cor is it dream
that he asked me to marry him, and that
too said 'yesY"
81 seldom visit the clouds" said Lily with
"A short but bitter laugh "And l certainly
know he mndo me a noble offer OF his hand
and heart both which treasures declined"
Where Z" demanded the other three, a.
though with one mouth.
"In the laurel avenuel"
AT this they all groaned aloud.
"Perfdious monster !" said Hetty from her
heart.
"Am to understand," began Mr.. Brown
rig, with suppressed but evident fury, that
this this-unmitigated scoundrel asked you
all to marry him last night7'
''If we speak the truth, yes" replied the
girls dismally.
"He was drunk, said papa savAgely.
II can't believe it," said Katie, who was
dissolved in tears-in fact, like Niobe, all
tears by this time. Nothing could be
nicer than tho way he did it, His language
was perfect, and so thoroughly from the
| heart"
"He addressed me in a most honorable,
upright and Christian fashion" said Hetty.
Il am sure he meant every word he said
She was thinking uneasiy Of that kiss Ia
the moonlight Could any one have seen
her? Was old Major Sterno anywhere about
at the moment?
II certainly considered his manner strange,
not bit like what one reads, said George
! honestly, "but thought of the title and the
property, and 1 said yes directly"
Il thought him the very greatest muf
ever spoke to-" broke in Miss Lily with de-
csion. 81 refused him without a moments
! hesitation, and told him to go homo. I'm
sure it's well did. daresay II he had stayed
here much longer, he would have proposed
to mamma next, and afterward TO the upper
housemaid 1 agree with you, papa, the
| champagne was too much for him."
Il think he is fond OF me, said Katie
in q low and trembling tone. Her fingers are
not playing with the cherry -coored bow
now. but her eyelids have borrowed largely
| of its tint
Don't be a goose, Katie" said the young
est Miss Browning, kindly but scornfully
''you don't suppose any Of US would marry
him now after the way he has behaved. Do
have some little pride"
Perhaps he is mad, " said Hetty vaguely
Just at this moment as a salve TO her wound
! ed vanity, she would have been glad to be-
lieve him 30.
mo, my dear, declared Lily calmly "ho
has not brains worth turning"
He said something papa, about calling to-
| day at o'clock, said Katie, very family.
''Then I shall sit hore till A." returned Mr..
| Brownrig in awful tone. 81 shall sit here
until . and then shall get up and go out
and find that young man, and give him such
a horse whipping as warrant you he never
got before in all his life."
Don't be too hard on him, papa entreat-
ed Katie weakly.
81 shan't, my dear, but my whip will,7
said papa grimly.
So he waited until . he waited till half
past > and then he took up a certain heavy
| gold knobbed whip that lay stretched on the
table as though in readiness, and sailed forth
in search of Snooks's rooms. And he found
| them, and Snooks too--in bed, suffering
from severe catarrh, caught presume, in
the laurel avenue.
Aud no man knows what he did to Snooks
But at least he gave him an increased desire
for his bed, because for a fortnight afterward
he never stirred out of it.
When Mr.. Wilding heard of all this, re-
gret to say he gave way TO noisy mirth in the
privacy OF his chambers and was actually
caught by his washerwoman-who peeped
through the keyhole-performing a wild
dance in the middle of tho floor. London
| iSOciety