The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1889-06-01
AT THE EGMOET.
BY WILLIAM PERRY BROWN.

This remark, uttered under aid involuB- |
tary impulse by the young lady from Phila- |
delphia, amid group Of guests gathered |
around her upon the long piazza OF the Egg |
mont House, rendered the situation sudden |
ly very awkward. To none could it have |
6ecn more so than to the handsome young |
Virginian, whose extended hand, saapeiy |
and refined, had caused the above startling
{ ommene
But, as her light clasp of his finger tips |
loosened, he coclly surveyed his own digits, |
and with mock ng inclination of his head
said, nonchalantly;
"Ah, to be sure! Miss Waidfop has s1g.
gested means of getting along that had
4evcr occurred to me; and since the war
we soatherners have to be ON the lockout
for opportunities.
His gentle raillery relieved the strain Of
the situation. The guests laughed AMI
prattled over the exasperating mysteries of
palmistry, while Miss Waldrop apelegizea
for her rudeness.
''Mr. Brent" she said, knows that in ali
things there are exceptions to certain rules.
My divinations, as some call them, may not
be correct, nor can 1 account for having
them. When am shown hand they come
to me, and-as in your easel presume 1
am often mistaken"
THE r1erest nonsense of q passin, hour
rs l marc often told you, Alice" remarked
Stout pink-faced man, who stood rather
tamiliarly Dy tho lady's chair.
She gave slightly impatient glance up-
ward, then smiled swectly at the young
Virginian.
tom Fred is nothing il not practical"
she said. Am forgiven, Mir. Breut!'
"You are more than so, having never Of
tended. It Il who need pardon, for thus
taxing the credulity of your be ief,''
DO not say my belief Indeed, know
now that hardly have any in-in ~
In my case, a. least" said Cyril Brent,
lightly. "But permit me to say-that in
palmistry, as in sausage, 1t won't do to
trust too much to mere appearances"
His services were now loudly claimed by
some tennis players on the lawn, and he
was soon seen, racket in hand, gracefully
leading off-the admired Of al feminine be.
holders. The guests had dispersed, yet
still, Alice sat reclining, with wrists droop-
ingly folded to one sid, and watched him,
1reamily. Her pose was at once statu-
esque, lily-lile and languorous. Tom Fred
still stood like sentinel behind her chair.
did l ever make worse .tdaI pas than
thatP' she asked at length.
Nv en'-it was In the days OF Pinafore-
"hardly ever. He seems
"You know perfectly well never did
neverr'
"Oh. Brents all right Let's take e
wall A1Ixy. lyYo 7 ho1 20 tao,yo
the five o'clock"
~ wish you wouldn't call me Ally. 1t
sounds so silly"
mo more than Tom Fred, does it'n he
returned
''Of course it does, Thomas Frederick
Thompson is too long, and mere Tom too
short and common. Tom Fred is just right,
and like it better than anything about
YOU"
Then she arose and went with him down
the sandy avenue, to where tho ocean waves
were tumbling upon tho bread, Florida
beach. as though weariei by their four
thousand mile journey from Africa They
strolled, leisufplS, up the white firm shore,
that swept by in league-long curve, while
che sandpipers ran before, with uualarmei
shrieks, The brown sand-crabs ambled side
ways to their holes near tho edge of the
breakers, and pceped forth from their moist
beds. A sail or two dottei the horizun:
nearer by the gray outline OF Havana
Steamship ploughinE up the Gulf Stream,
glided from beneath, yet never left, the
widening trail of smoke belched backward
from her tunnels. Behind them the sand
dunes rose irregularfy, covered, sparsely,
by stunte1 red legs of saw palmetto, to
where the white light house lowered over
the swirling inlet. The recurrent thunder
OF the breakers mingled sadly with the
outh1aster's" whistle, seeming to moisten
by its sound the very glare of the uncloud.
cd sky.
Tom Fred trailed his cane in the sand,
while the mind of Alice still dwelt upon the
case with which Bent had changed an awL-
ward lmputation into relishable joke. His
easy audacity and his deferential manner
were attractive to her, though vague lack
Of confidence swaved her judgement in
subtle way, quite unacknowledged by her
inclinations.
There were many handsome men about
her. She fancied that she did not care much
Tor mere masculine beauty. Was not the
fact that she intended to marry Tom Fred,
by and bye, proof of that. Yet, there was
fine combination of attributes about Brent
whoa all admired, yet, no one knew much
ah1nt-that filched prudential thoughts con-
I ceraing him.
"Ally,n said Tom Fred, at length, ''after
| leave may not see you again until your
return North. Won't you promise to marry
| me by April-at farthest!"
"There you go again. If you say marry to
me again-f-I won't marry you at ALL
! I've promised to-sometime; isn't that
enough.''
Tom Fred mechanically dug a sand crab
out Of his hole with his cane. He glumly
watched the crustacean scampcr to another
hiding place, while Alice, with lips COM
pressed, gazed at the distant steamship.
Then he looked at her. his plain kindly face
ruffed by troubled expression.
"Ally," said he, ".have ever prevaricat-
ed or deceived you in any wayl"
| '.No, youdear old goose. You are delight
fully true and commonplace. OF course,
sometime we will be-therel nearly men,
toned Just what had forbidden you to
speak of. don't want to be unreasonable,
but cannot talk over these things now
you know I can't"
/ She assumed pretty, self injured air,
that he only sighed and soon talked of some
thing else. That afternoon when the hotel
bus drove up, he came into one of the par
lors looking upon the ocean where she then
sat. Brent was at the piano, executing an
airy prelude to song he was about to sing.
He seemed an Apollonian incarnation Of the
music he was renderinging, while Tom
Fred, in duster two sizes too large, grip
| sack In hand, was the personifcation Of the
commonplace. To Alice the contrast was
4 iarringly complete.
When Tom Fred had given her final
hand shake, and square look Of honest
affection, she felt relieved to see his broad
back disappearing within the bus door.
Brent sang his little love song SO sweetly,
that she caught herself wondering, with
half closed eyes, how Tom Fred had ever
been encouraged to believe that she would
ever marry him at all.
\
The distrust which Alice had at first re-
garded Brent gradually vanished, as their
chance for knowing each other had increas-
ed. The opening incident Of this tale was
not afterward alluded to. Alice thought
Of it with shame, and growing disbelief In
the r,ntnucv of her power in the realm OF