Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-08-08
The Clerks Tale.

1t was a sufocating evening ear.
ly in August, and I left my work
at the Foreign Office to plod home
to dinner through the dusty parks
in the worst spirits. The wrongs of
a Junior clerk whose long promised
holiday had just been snatched
away from him on the eve of full
tillment were boiling in me. 1 felt
that they cried out for justice in a
free country. Everything was pre-
pared for this months leave, which
was to have begun next day. My
father had taken a house on one OF
the most attractive slopes above
Grasmere, and the family residence
in Lancaster Gate already bore that
denuded and forlorn appearance
which precedes a general domestic
flight. We had breakfasted gayly,
picnic fashion, with old and mad
eQuate implements, we had prophe-
sled, with unabated cheerfulness,
dining with still fewer of the ap-
pliances of civilization, the family
plate being not lost but gone before
the Grasmere. The house was in
as uncomfortable a state as much
packing and putting away could
make it, for my people intended to
spend between two and three
months at Emerald Bank. Here
was / with my wings out-spread
for fight, caught back and doomed
to remain in solitude, with dis
mantled rooms and furniture lurk-
ing under dust sheets for company,
and all because an unstable senior
clerk suddenly declared that his
health demanded instant change OF
air, instead of waiting to take his
holiday later on, as he had inten-
ded. The tale of woe is not CON-
plete, for Olga Fielding, to whom |
had been but three weeks bethroth-
ed, was coming with us to Gras-
mere, and we had promised our
selves a month of unallOyed bliss
among the Westmoreland hills be-
fore she was obliged to 60 back to
her filial duties in Copenhagen.-
There, as her mother was dead, sne
had to preside over all matters,
social and domestic, in her fathers
extensive establishment.
Great heaven! what an i'll
arranged planet is this, and what
a disorganized constitution was
that miserable T.'s to choose such
a moment to be out of repair! In
the first week of September Olga
would have to follow her father,
who had returned to Copenhagen,
and we should meet no more till
after Christmas. Was itnot enough
to make worm blaspheme? and the
bang 1 gave the hall door on enter
ing covered a vigorous expression
of feeling.
Well, the news was broken to a
dismayed and sympathetic circle.
Olga, who had hitherto professed
to consider Inc as likely to prove
very small addition to the natural
features Of the lake scenery, was
quite overcome; there was some
small balm in that. My mother
was very unhappy. Even Barbara,
the youngest of the family, and
strong in the scOrn Of seventeen for
matters of sentiment, forebOre to
jibe, and gave utterance to violent
exclamations of regret, coupled
with equally violent abuse of vague
persons unknown
My father, after the first natural
shock of disgust, endeavored to
console me with unpalatable phil
osophy and the cool light ofreason,
which always seem an in
suit offered to aflliction, when ap-
piled to ones own case. It's hard
on you, Harry, my boy, no doubt,
and I'm sorry for it, he said, in
that SOLDERING tone which strikes a
chill through the greatest moments
of excitement, and makes all pre-.
vious emotion appear annoyingly
ridiculous; 'but now you have en-
tered on the serious duties of
life, you can't learn too soon that
work and not play is the object of a
mans life. Pm not at all sure that
) 'Ah! how horrible broke in the
soft voice of my betrothed, with
The pretty, careful intOnation and
ripple of these which
she had inherited from her Danish |
mother. Dear Mr.. Richardson, do
rot let us be reasonable tonight.
No, that poor boy is very badly
and it is all fr.r-rightful =
And my lady, unclasping her elo-
Iuent hands, approached the iron.
rrav narent for whom our affection