National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1882-04-29
A GREASY ROMANCE.
nuelSwheat Cakes AND LOYe-The Hal.
cyon Days OF Hnppincss.


"Pnss the butter, dear"
Ethelbert Mcintyre looked up suddenly from
buckwhcat cake, his soft brown eyes gazing ten
derly at Viola MahafIy, whom, two short montha
ago. he had vowed at the altar 70 love- and cherish,
and protect until the icy kiss of death should turn
the velvety damask Of her cheek 10 whited mar
bic, and the pulsing warmth OF her dewy lips that
now bestowed their sweets so freely whenever
Viola wanted matinee tickets be gone forever.
Ethelbert had loved Viola with Wild, passionate
affection that swayed his whole nature with its
intensity, and when his whispered VOWS had been
answered by coy smiles and rosy bushes and he
had placed his strong third.bas arm around q
taper waist and edged up closer 10 hand-painted
satin Dress the bill for which would have made
his head swim, Ethelbert had said TO himself that
And later in the evening, when the clock had
tolled the knell Of passing car and her fathers
boots fell with dull, sickening thud on the floor
Of the room overhead, like the minute guns atsea,
telling the young man palmer than could any
spoken words that the quicker he started the better
he would stand with the head Of the family, he
had fingered with Viola neat the lful glimmer
OF the front hall gas Jet, and said again IN his
earnest way the words that were so sweet to her.
had told her that the love she bore for him should
be ever beacon. light to guide him DER the storm
swept sea Of life in Bladensburg, ennobling his
whole existence, tniing the corridors Of his fancy
with the dazzling light of a high ambition, mel.
lowed aud soflened by tinge Of charity that
looked with tear dimmcd eyes upon the faults ana
OlliCs of others, and blessed the wntery vel that
made the sight less plain. And then she had
placed her shapely arms around his neck, and as
he stood there, willing captive In dimpled chains
Of soft, white flesh, kissed him so earnestly, so
ing would be too much for her sensitive, Navy
Yard nature.
say to himsefa as he sat in the front end of street.
car on his way down town, and she Will make
| mo II true, loving, stocking mendlng wife," Aud
then his face illumined with the tender radiance
grace into u bug g.juico emporium, quoi beaker
Of sour mash hair curgT, and soon be wrapped
III the sweet slumber OF Treasury clerk innocence.
And so in the winter when the wind was sigh
ing with weird cadence through the dead
branches Of the sturdy oaks and the snowaglKies ali
the air and noscessy covering the graves of those
who had died from drinking Potomac water the
previous summer, Ethelbert and Viola stood to.
Pether In the chancel of st. Peters Church, and
amid n solemn hush, broken only by the low notes
of the organ, hthelbert had handed the cAs'ocked
man of God n so bill and told him in tremulous
tones to cut her as short as you cam As the
bridal party passed from the sacred odifice Ehel-
bert could soc, as he glanced around In nervous,
two yearod colt way, the faces of friends in the
| seats, and as he passed one pew which was hlled
with those who had been his companions in the
bSS uys IN now ggOos gOnG and sa in
| tones of bitter earnestness: 1--WE are all chumps
some time in our lives
| The words fell on Ethelberts off ear with terri
| BILE dislinctness but lie needed them not They
came to him again this bright morning in April
as Viola for the eigh time asked him 10 pass the
| butter. lie had seen the buckwheat cakes disnp-
pear forever between her ruby lips, drawn thithel
with the same fatal certainly that the doomed
| vessel, once within the current of the Norwegian
| maelstrom, Is hurried swiftly and surely to de-
slruction. And before him lay the morning paper
from whose columns glared with lurid dstinctnes,
the horrible blood. .curdling words: I" Best
| creamery butter, 10 cents"
| care you going to pass that butter, sweetie2"
| Viola's words reused Ethelbert from the reverit
| iuto which he had fallen. In q dull dazed way
| he showed her the butter dish.
| you look sad, my darling" Viola said.
| "Do II" was Ethelbert's response. THAT II
strange, because am feeling unusually happy thii
| morning"
"And why do you feel happy" asked Viola
smiling tenderly as she spoke,
| 8" Because" replied Ethelbert, looking at he
| with cold Charles Francis Adams expression
Summer will soon be here, and they do not ca
| buckwheat cakes in summer."-Erom " Betrayed b
| The Butter DISH" By Mdrdi HdlStedd.