St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-11-24

up a conversation. | was listening to
the voice of my new friend, who talked
well and wittily with her neighbOrs.
Occasionally she directed an odd SEN
tence to me across the flowers.
When the dessert was over my
neighbOr in black velvet, with. whom
Tom Phelan had unnecessarily warned
me not to flirt because of her having Il
husband in India, took up her fan and
commenced to wave it gently to and
fro.
"HOw hot it :" she said to me, in a
voice as subdued as if she spoke i'll a
church.
"Yes," replied, "the night is close,
but we should not complain. If we
had to bear the heat that your husband
is at present enduring"
Suddenly something went against
my new friends breath, then every
one at my end of the table became all
at once silent, and | saw that though
some of them seemed grave enough,
others strove to keep themselves from
laughing outright. Tom Phelan, after
moments keen struggle, strOve to
look as if nothing in particular had
happened. What was the cause of all
this | had not the slightest idea, but
that something wrong had occurred
there was no doubt.
Mrs. Phelan at this instant caught
Mrs. MacFum's eye, and rose from the
table the other ladies followed. My
neighbor, whom | had taken down,
was the last to rise, and as she did so
gave me a whitening look, which | long
remembered.
When the door was safely closed
Tom Phelan threw himself back i'll his
chair and laughed until the tears rolled
down his fat cheeks the other men
joined him, all looking at me the while.
"What is the joke 7" | asked 81
am out in the cold"
"My dear fellow, Mrs. Carey, who
sat next you, is "A widow"
In moment | saw the blunder |
had made. | had taken down the
wrong woman to dinner.
An hour afterward | had completely
| forgotten my little mistake for by
some chance | found myself by the
side of my new friend, who was seated
at the piano singing 'Oft i'll the Silly
| Night" | turned the leaves of the
music, bending over her until touched
her once or twice. Her voice was soft
and sweet it stirred me in way
had never before experienced, and
made me strangely happy and sad al
most in the same minute. When she
had finished singing, and whilst | was
yet bending over her on pretense of
closing the book, our eyes met for IL
second hers grew soft and liquid, and
seemed to melt into world of tender
|
and then knew far better than all
words could say that we two had fallen
in love.
When a man comes to make such Il
discovery Il sense of delicious happiness
fills him, and makes all the world seem
brighter than wOrds-which are poor
things at best-can tell. Three hours
ago and had never met this woman /;
then ate-accident-cha it
by what name you will, had flung us
together and nameless look i'll her
eyes, some stray tone in her voice, the
touch of heT hand, had woven charm
for me that at once Knocked at and set
to flight my ideas of happy bachelor
hood that revealed to me feelings and
hopes which | had never known be
fore, and which made me feel that,
come veal or woe, this was she who
must walk by my side all the days of
my life. Do the gods sport with men
as in the olden days asked myself.
An hour after she had sung that
song by some strange accident we
found ourselves in the long garden that
runs at the back of Toms house. 1t
was a glorious night i'll June the air
was cool and balmy, the smell of the
! flowers delightful IA young moon was
in the cloudless sky.
/, "Well, how do You like Miss Fay p
the girl who had taken my heart cap
tive asked, looking at me from under
her dark lashes.
every much but-but-may say
it ?"
My heart was terribly anxious to
speak.
"What ?" she asked, suddenly but
| noticed her eyes did not meet mine.
81 like some one else much better
> | could hardly get the words out.
, "Probably yOu do-some one in
London ?"
"No, some one in Ireland some on,
who is standing beside me now"
! There was silence in the garden af-
ter | had spoken. She did not reply
} or laugh, but raised her eyes and
looked at me once then | saw the
r color coming into her cheeks.
2 81 think must go in nOw," she said
l presently, "or they will miss me if they
, want me to sing"
''Give me IA flower before you CO."
, pleaded to her, not daring to say more
. She stopped down, plucked rec
, rose, Just touched her lips with it anC
= handed it to me. When | looked a
e her there was the merry light i'll he
= eyes that had seen there when SHE
]. first spoke to me that evening. In an
n other second she turned and ran to
| ward the house.
followed slowly. Just as | arrived
B, at the glass doors of the dining room
that communicated with the garden
n came suddenly face to face with Ton
d Phelan.
"Well, Fitz, what are you doing ou
= here ?" he said, with smile that
was ill-natured enough to set down al
a grin. He spoke as if he intended t,
II express surprise, but failed.
:. "Doing Looking at the mOon,"
= replied, staring up, as spoke, in tn
summer sky.
r. Don't you think pair of gray eye
7, better worth looking at ~ he asked
T. with merry twinkle in his own.
"Perhaps," | answered calmly.
: 81 say, old man, you have behaved
e capitally better than | expected"
There was a sudden change i'll hi
It voice that struck me.
+. Chow ?"
k ''You have fallen in lOve-don't de
=; ny it-with the girl who will make yo
III a happy man. You have done just as
le wished, old fellow"