St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-08-02
ELAINE.
AN InYL GOTHAM.

which ruStled ghOSty VlSltantS by night;
| there was no romantic air of decaying
grandeur about the place: in fact, every
thing was hopelessly, painfully, inartist-
ically new. 1t was a spick, span, and
very swell apartment house away uptown
in Gotham, and there wasn't even a sug-
gestion of romance about it,
Who could romance where the odor
waited to ones nostrils was the echo of an
overdone joint. or grow sentimental in a
room whose outlook was upon a beer
garden across the way, and where, instead
OF the merry bubble Of laughing brooks,
the singing of birds, and all that sort of
thing, came up through the open window
the clink Of glasses and the horrible dis
cord of a disconnected and disconnected
band.
Elaine didn't mind it much, however, be-
cause it was all awfully swell flat. and it
cost great deal of money to live i'll an
| apartment overlooking the beer garden. and
| the rooms within were really very pretty
and done by Herter So, Elaine, who
| was counted quite swell, was congratu-
| lated upon her home. Now, Elaine, was
| not limp and clingng maiden of the
| idyllc order. She was healthy New
York girl, sensible and good; as girls go
nowadays. She didn't wear Greek drapery or
let her hair tlew-''it tresses unconiined'-
and she didn't play on a harp. No: she
wore very stylish dresses which she called
gowns" because it made them more
stylish, and she did her hair in the latest
fashion, and she drummed little on the
piano, and thought perhaps when she had
| time she would learn the banjo. Elaine
had no brother to bring Lancelot on a
| richly-caparSoned steed for brief call on
their way to the polo grounds. So she had
to meet Lancelot at dancing Glass;" and
| then she had to meet him once more, and
| then her mamma had to ask him to call,
because that was the proper way and not as
likely to frighten Lancelot as if Elaine had
at the first asked him to wear her sleeve
down Fifth avenue on his glossy beaver.
Lancelot was not much of hero. He
was rather conventional youth, and he
wore collars of abnormal height and
pinched his feet and banged his hair, and
carried very ugly cane which he called
''stick"-all, not because he liked it, but
because the other men of his set did it,
There was nothing so very ''early Eng
lish" about either Elaine or Lancelot, but
they met, and our Lancelot found favor in
the sight OF Elaine just as did the brave
Round Table young man in the sight of
Miss Astolat Now. Lancelot was not at
all impressed by Elaine, and when her
mamma sent him card for her evenings
he called just as he did at host of other
places, and then Elaine who was a very
clever girl. didn't ask Lancelot to leave his
shield. because he didn't have one, and
Elaine could only have hung it over the
hall door anyway; but she contrived to have
| Lancelot forget his stick SO he would call for
| it soon, and then after little she COM
menced having him to her dinners, and she
| made him Satchel, and cigar-caSes. and
polo-caps. until embroidery became a hor-
Tor to him and woods a nightmare;
and she asked him to escort her to theater
| parties and ''Festina Lentes," and bowling
| clubs, and tennis clubs, as is the custom of
| Gotham Elaines with their Lancelots. But
with it all Elaine's wooing seemed to make
no progress, and all this time Lancelot went
| to other theater parties, other Sunday
breakfasts. and there was a certain Queen
Guinivere, who lived in swell hotel, and
who was fond of Lancelot, and who
wanted to marry him by and by when the
season was over, and Lancelot was quite
pleased at the prospect. There wasn't any
Mr.. Guinivere, and some spiteful people
| (wOmen mostly who were not as pretty as
Mrs. Guinivere) said there never had been
| one.
Now one day as Miss Astolat was calling
on Mrs. Camelot. and they were talking
over their friends and their irregularities,
with that sweet charity which characterizes
the converse of the modern young woman,
Miss CamelOt remarked that she heard
Lancelot was to marry that horrid widow
in June. Elaine didn't droop and cry,
Love. thou art bitter; sweet is death to
me-, " but, she said yes, she had heard soo
which she hadn't-and she called her car
riage and drove right home, and there, in
the dainty drawing room overlooking the
| beer garden, she found rich, elderly
| bachelor waiting to see her.
Now this bachelor had wanted to marry
Elaine for long time. and this morning he
had come to once more urge his suit, and
! Elaine knew that 1.-THE gods had sent him.
and she said Yes" and the bachelor went
away satished-and Elaine wrote a nice
| little note commencing Dear Mr.. Lance
! lot, " in which she said that she was TO be
married in May, and that she would be so
pleased it Mr.. Lancelot would be one of
her uShers at the wedding; and having dis
patched this missive, Elaine was content
Lancelot, when he read the note, felt
very much surprised. then very much ag-
| grieved, and he said bad word and felt
that Elaine had thrown him over, though
really she had done by him as he would
have done by her had she given him time:
but the sense of justice in the heart of the
Gotham young man is peculiar sentiment,
and in Lancel0t it was offended, and he
voted Elaine'S treatment cruel and himself
All lll-treated young man, which was lust
as it should be, and he went off and con-
soled himself by dining with Mrs Guini-
we're. By-and-by in May there was bril-
liant wedding. and Elaine was married to
the elderly bachelor, who turned out good
sort of fellow after all, and they were quite
happy-for married people. And then
| in June Lancelot married the Widow
Guinivere. and Mrs. Bacnelor (nee Astolat)
went to the wedding with Miss CameIot.
and they both remarked how the bride had
fallen off and how disipated the groom
looked. and then they went to the Pinard
breakfast, which they said was very bad
and of which they ate great deal, and
| then drove home with the consciousness of
duty well done in their hearts.
| Mr.. and Mrs. LancelOt went on their
wedding trip, and Mrs. Lancelot wanted to
go to all the places where Mr. Gunivere
had taken her, and she had great many
"reminiscences. and Lancelot thought rem
| iniscences bore, and didn't care much for
his wedding trip; and they came home to
Gotham after little and all settled down
and lived and battled and were briefly
happy, as is the way with our howaday
knights and ladies.
This idyl is unlike the older one for many
reasons. There wasn't any elderly bache-
lors at the Round Table for Elaine to
marry so OF course she had to die This
ldyl is quite as probable and perhaps just
as healthy in tone. 1t hasn't any moral
an idyl OF Gotham couldn't have moral
ana 1t isn't intended to prove anything.
In TACT don't know that it is much of an
idyl after all.-New York Graphic.
| Editor Gt,5sa,s SrohIns