The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-11-21

Congress. Let us nave done now Win
this troublesome verb altogether, and conju-
gate our return to Oxford instead. See
what punches of fritillaries again! 1 never
saw anything prettier except the orange
lilies in New Hampshire. If you like, you
may come to America next season. You
.'Where shall find you?"
CAT Saratoga"
''When?"
'Any day from July first"
"Good," | said, after a moments refiec-
ton. eff stick to my fancy for flying into
the candle, you will see me there. If l
change my mind, it won't matter much to
either of u.s."
So we padded back to Oxford, talking
all the way of Indifferent subjects, of En-
gland and our English villages and en-
joying the peaceful greatness OF the trees
and banks. It was half-past six when we
got to Salter's barge, and I walked with
Ida as far as the Randolph. Then
Ireturned to college, feeling very much like
an undetected sheep-stealer, and had fur
tive sort of dinner served up in my own
room. Next morning l confess it was with
a sigh of relief that Annie and l saw Ida
Van Rensselaer, start from the station en-
route for Liverpool. 1t was quite fort
night before could face my own bulldogs
unabashed, and bowed with wan and
guilty smile upon my face whenever one OF
those twelve undergraduates capped me In
the High till the end of term. believe
they never missed an opportunity of meeting
me if they saw g chance open. l was glad,
indeed, when long vacation came to ease me
of my office and my troubles.
Congress Hall in Saratoga is really one of
the most comfortable hotels at which | ever
stopped OF course it holds thousand
guests, aud covers an unknown extent of
area; it measures it passages By the mile and
it's carpets by the acre. All that goes unsaid,
for it is big American hotel; but 1t is also
a very pleasant and luxurious one even for
America. I was not sorry, on the second
day of July to find myself comfortably quar-
tered Thy elevator) in room No. 547 on the
fifth floor. with gay lookout on Broadway
and Columbia Spring. After ten days of
dismal rolling on the mid-Atlantic. and a
week of hurry and hustle in New YoIk,
found it extremely delightful to sit down at
my ease in summer quarters, on a broad
balcony overlooking the leafy prom anade to
sip nv iced cobbler like a prince, and to
watch that strange, new and wonderful holt
day life which was unfolding itself before
my eyes. Such phantasmagoria of bright
ly dressed women in light but costly silks,
of lounging young men in tweed suits and
panama hats, of sulkies, carriages, trotting
horses, string bands, ice-creams, effervescing
drinks, cool fruits, green trees, waving bunt-
ing, lilac blossoms, roses and golden sun
shine | had never seen till then, and shall
never see again, doubt me, until can pay
a second visit to Saratoga. 1t was mid
summer saturnalia of strawberries and aca-
cha flowers. gone mad with excessive mint
julip.
9sAfter al,' said to myself, "even if
don't happen to run up against Ida Van
Rensselaer,, shall have taken as pleasant a
holiday as Icould easily have found in old
Europe. Everybody is tired of Switzer-
land and Italy, so, happy thought, try Sara
toga. On the other hand, if Ida keeps her
tryst, I shall have one more shot at her in
the shape of proposal; and then if she
really means no, shall be none the worse
off than if I had stayed in England In
which happy go-luck and philosophic frame
of mind sat watching the crowd in the
Broadway after dinner, in untrun1que para
tus, ready either to marry Ida if she would
have me, or to go home again in the autumn
a Joyous bachelor, If she did not turn up ac-
cording to her promise. very cold-blood-
ed attitude that to assume toward the tender
passion, no doubt; but after all, why should
a sensible man of thirty-five think it neces-
bledehoy, and convert himself into peram-
bulating statuse of melancholy, simply be-
cause one particular young woman out of
the nine hundred million estimated to in
habit this insignificant planet has refused to
print his individual name upon her visiting
card? Ida would make as good a Mrs. Cyril
PAYNE as any other girl of my acquaintance
mo doubt; indeed, am inclined to say, a
vast deal better one; but there are more
women than five IN the world, and if you
strike an average dare say most of them
are very much alike.
AS [ sat and looked could not help MOTTO
ing the extraordinary magnifcence of all the
toilettes in the promenade. Nowhere in Eu-
rope can you behold such a republican dead
level of reckless extravaganza. Every WON
an was dressed like princess, nothing
more and nothing less. began to wonder
how poor little Ida, with her simple and
tasteful travelling gowns, would feel when
she found herself cast in the midst of these
gorgeous silks and these costly grenadines.
Look, for example. at that pair now stroll
ing along from Spring ayenue,-a New York
exquisite in the very coolest of American
summer suits, and a New York 6t6gdnte
their own word, assure you) in splendid
but graceful gray silk dress, gold bracelet,
diamond earrings, and every other item in
her costume of the finest and costliest. What
would Ida do in crowd of such women as
that? ..... Why -. gracious heavens !!
can it be :. no it can't. Yes,
it must :. Well, to be sure, it positively
is--Ida herself!
NV first impulse was to lean over the bal
cony and call out to her, as | would have
called out to friend whom | CHANGED to see
passing in Magdalen quad. Not an unnatu-
al impulse either, seeing that lin spite of my
own prevarications to myself | had after
all really come across the Atlantic to see her
But on second thought it struck me that
even Ida might perhaps find such a proceed
ing trifle unconventional, especially now
she was habited in such passing splendor.
Besides, what did it all mean? The only ra
tional answer I could give myself, when [
fairly squared the question, was that Ida
must have suddenly got marriedItoa wealthy
fellow countryman, and that the exquisite
in the cool suit was in fact none other than
her newly acquired husband. l had thought
my philosophy proof against any such small
defeats to my calculations; but when it ac-
tually came to the point, began to perceive
that was very unphilosophically in love
with Ida Van Rensselaer,. The merest UNI
der graduate could not have felt sillier
futter than that which agitated both auri-
Giles and ventricles of my central vascular
organ-as a senior proctor / must really
draw the line at speaking outright of my
heart / seized my hat, rushed down the
broad staircase, and walked rapidly along
Broadway in the direction the pair had TAX
en-. But could see nothing of them, and |
returned to Congress Hall in despair.
That night thought about many things,
and slept very little. 1t came home to me
somewhat wildly that if Ida was really mar
ried should probably be more grieved and
disappointed than good pessimist philoso-
pher ought ever to feel at the ordinary vexa-
tiousness of the universe. Next morning.,
however, rose early and breakfasted, not
without most unpoetical appetite, on white
fish, buckwheat pancakes, and excellent
watermelon. After breakfast, refreshed by
the meal, sailed forth, like a true knight
Grant, under the shade of white cotton
umbrella, instead of shield, to search for
the lady of my choice. Naturally l turned
my steps first towards the Springs; and at
the very second of them all, luckily came
upon Ida and the man in tweed suit,
louL ging as before and drinking the water
lazily.
Ida stepped up as if she had fully expect
ed to meet me, extended her daintily gloved
hand with the gold bracelet. and said as I'M
concernedly as possible, "You have come
two days late, Mr.. Payne"
$50 it seems" I answered. "Cest mon
sieur Uotre mdri?" And waved my hand
interrogatively toward the stranger, for