Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-09-17
A ROMANCE OF THE SEA.
with an Axiom That All Young Ladie,
Should Heed.
Long Branch.

1t was blowing great guns. A June
wind whipped the sea into spume and
sent 1t flying into the bathing houses
and bank III riffs of spray. Fashion
shlvered in oYercoats and furs on the
espianade. The farmers back on the
sand runes said they had never seen
anything like it, The hay burnt up
before it matured the corn stood ONLY
eight inches in the corniicld. and the
peas hadn't had warmth enough to
make. their pods.
1t was SO frigid at the West end that
fashion escaped having its blood chill
ed only by not having any blood. The
wild waves did nothing all day but hiss
at the people on the shore, and one
amateur vocalist who tried to sing.
Break, break, break" sent all the
bank cashiers bowling from the hotel
parlor.
''Dieu me pardonne," said Mrs. Cam
opus, who prays and swears in French.
put IL Is cold herc!" and she puts her
Japanese parasol up to keep off tho
temperature. mot Irritation to warm
ones cheeks at. and she tried to score
failure on her forehead with the tin
of the parasol but the wind had blown
all the Paris white OIL.
Very bleak was the esplanade. The
equipages that came out at 4 o'clock
had rugs piled up in them and the
norses tails were blown out straight to
leeward. The Grosvenor Platts had n
children's party last night at the hotel
and they shut the windows and PLAYED
pawns round a blazing wood fire.
came down here to get the dust
and ashes Cf thu yiptot. h1o,,,,
me. SO lean up against the ocean
blast contdingly ana look at the pa-
geantry OF the sea and the froth of
fashion.
The belle of the place is little Dora
Cranston. You probably remember
her last season at Richiield Springs,
where she and Zelic dc Lussan walked
away with all the admiration. IL il
only three summers ago that | saw her
digging the sand down there on the
beach with Il wooden paddle One
day she threw down her pail and shoy-
el, struck pcnsive attitude, with her
little white finger on her forehead, and
changed her mind
wv hat nonsense it is being a child"
she said I'm tired of digging sand.
IN gong up to the hotel, be woman,
and llrt "
The next time saw her She was in
long dresses. The transformation
scene had taken place in one night.
The evolution of u woman is not SCI
encc'-it Is magic. She capcrs along
as girl up to some great emotion,
and then suddenly unlaccS her girlhood |
aud. puts it away forever
Pardon me. she says TO YOU the
next morning whcn YOU attempt to
chuck her un,ter the chin. Pardon
me- we were acquainted. bul that was |
yesterday. 1t IS not customary To treat |
Il lady with such famiuariy.'
she has the stamp Of maturity on her
mouth.
II YOU call attention TO her shovel |
ami tail or to her doll, living neglected. |
on tine shore, She lifts her eyebrow, and |
remarks: IS me poor little dear of |
yesterday Ans left it there"
These ltlle ColumbincS OF society |
make such rapid changes that we poor, |
slow-naturin- men are put to our met !
tie to follow them.
Between IL aud 20 y woman plays |
her whole drama Of life. After that |
she sits in the audience and looks on.
Dora CranStOn is CranstOn no long |
or. l suppose YOU know that, il you
know anything about it. She married |
rallrOrd IRON and some OF it has gone |
into her heart. | was looking at her |
last night rs she stool in the moon |
light on the piazzt, and had q fancy |
that the two parallel lines on her pref |
" forehead rcSemblcd n narrow-guage !
track.
And all this ia three years.
Certainly and more. 1t is the Long |
Branch romance. IL comes with the |
june skies regularly.
Ii you ferret out real romance by !
the sca you will generally find that it !
E goes the wrong way.
can not help recalling Mrs. Cnno-
nus remark;
ON, transport dun cuur glacel
DQra's is fIozen.
where's your poet?" | asked, the
moment got Il confidential opportu-
nifty.
Il buried him in tho sand with my
paddle long ago." she replied with
laugh.
She spoke OF two years as long ago.
Lets go down and dig him out
with our memory" l said. THE
moon is shining aud the wind has gone
down"
Anything that isn't tiresome." she
crind, land the past is awfully funny
sometimes
He told mo everything, you know.
So We can be frank" said.
She sat down on the rustic bench,
and very beautiful she was in the glare
of that brassy June moon.
This is the girl whose checks, two
years ago, looked like lilies and whose
lips spoke roses. making continual
garland of expression.
/ used 10 see the red tide-mark in her
cheek whenever shs met him. Now
she was rs cold as the late season. She
had the whole sophistry of life at her
finger-ends. She brcathed irony as
easily rs she looked hypocrisy.
"Yes. you know all about it. of
course" she said. You ought to
maze story of it. 1t has all the hui
NOR, all the folly, all the piquancy of
the commonplace romance. Why, we
sat in this very place two summers
ago and did the whole traditional bus
mess.
Then the leaden sea shimmered in
golden lire msts He used to hold me
spcll-bound sitting just where you are.
L remember used to cuddle up to him
and listen. 1t was like an anthem. Do
you know used to think that if any
body took him away I'd die, and one
night when he did not come down on
the boat | went down to the shore and
sat there in the sand and cried as if my
heart would break. Children do some
of the most extraordinary things
and she laughed again. "A girl has
to have just 50 much candy and senti-
nent till she gets surfeit. Do YOU
remember any of the girls of two sum-
mers ago?"
''Do I? Every one of them. There
were tho Sandisons. had the blue cot
tagc, and the big Malthus-don't you
know? you used to call her the Mall
tese-and the beautiful Chapman, who
crushed all the young and old men at
the West end; and the blonde Farm
harm, who got up the picnic on that
Fourth of July, and fell into the water
while we were grabbing and was pulled
out by the artist Ruggles, who made
sketch OF her in her wet clothes-as
Ariadne. DO remember? Can for
get Florence Berger. who swan like
nautilus and was eourted all through