The record-union., 1891-10-10


his speech, and George realized that
| Sallie's merry laughter would extin-
gulsh any proposal from him before he
had half suffered through it, Besides,
he knew in his heart that she only waited
| his asking. Why, she had almost asked
him herself at thousand different times
IN thousand different ways in which q
woman can speak her thoughts and yet
| be silent. Perhaps you don't follow me
/ Are not eyes eloquent with glances and
| lips with smiles? Hath not q tremulous
little hand a vocabulary of love? Ger
tainly, Georges mother often assured
| him that Sallie wore her heart outside her
dainty bosom, and that his name was en-
graved upon it.
'But George would reach the sticking
point, and there he always stuck. His
hands, his cheeks his eyes, his back, his
face and his voice would rebel against
| him, and he would become SO absorbed
in the contemplation of the enormity of
their desertion that he would StraightWay
| forget what he had been about to say
| How cruel it was of them! When he de-
bated "rhe Beauties of Moral Courage
before the roomful of young men who
composed the Aberdeen Philomathean
| Club, they were his stanch allies, and he
was as cool as a schoolmaster; but one
roguish glance from her hazel eyes set
them quivering in confusion.
''He resolved to put his fate to the touch
with his pen. With infinite labor and
great impartiality he indited an argu-
mentative letter; but. when he read it
! over, con seemed so much stronger than
pro, that he destroyed it lest he snould be
hoist with his own petard.' He even at
tempted poetry, but heart would only
rhyme with part and dear with fear
and love with glove which reminded
| him of the mitten, and so he deSisted in
despair.
"He grew so thin and wan that his
parents dreaded lest be should be taken
for the Before of q patent medicine, and
sent him to this city to recuperate. Here
| by an evil chance, one day he ran across
one Of the universal letter writing ma
chimes. He read the printed notice that
so accurately described it. The very
thing With trembling fingers he pressed
a dime into Slot, nor did he peceive that
in his agitation he had inserted it into
Proposal thirty five-fifty' instead of Pro
posal SiNteen-t wenty-two,' rs was his in
tention. Out came the precious missive,
the stamped envelope, the fountain pen
on string. he started to read the ten
der words, but suddenly merry peals of
l laughter summoned him from his pleas
ant task. He glanced over his shoulder.
| Horrors! a beyy of schoolgirls were ap-
preaching. Oh, if he should thus be
caught in the very act! Again his allies
| sounded the retreat. He hastily signed
his name; he folded, sealed and directed
the fatetul letter; he placed it within the
adjacent mail-box; he fled like the
wicked, since no man pursued him.
Then he waited a day, week, a
month, and certainty changed into hope,
and then into dread Why did no answer
come? Surely, such popular panacea
could not have failed. Come, he would
| at least know what he had sent He
again sought the machine he procured a
copy Of Proposal sixteen to twenty-two.'
! As he did so young man in clerical
| dress brushed by him, inserted dime
In the self-same slot, received the letter
| and stamped envelope, and, ignoring the
fountain pen on string, hastened away.
! When George afterward recalled the in
cident it seemed to him that those clerical
clothes had a familiar cut, and that they
had adorned the handsome young curate
| of st. Anne's
THAT night he arduously studied this
specimen OF his wooing, and The more he
did so the better pleased he was with It,
| 1t expressed his lneXpresSible thoughts:
it was ardent. tender, and urgent; it
abounded in SMILES ever dear to maidens'
hearts. 1t surely must touch the chord
| OF assent! And yet she answered not
but his trial soon ended The sentence
of left was soon pronounced. One
| morning he received letter and a pack
age by mail. He opened the former; it
was from his mother, and of course gave
diagram of the gossip of his native
town. One item caught his eye He read
it, he reread it, and he read no more. 1t
| ran as follows:
| "'What do you think? Sallie Manton is
| engaged. And TO whom in the world but the
handsome young curate OF st. Annes! Did
| you ever? 1t came out yesterday, and every
| body is talking about it. You know, my dear
boy, never could endure herP
"'The handsome young curate.' 1T
came out yesterdays What could it
| mean? How could that suffering baby
have expressed himself so successfully? !?
The black letters danced before his eyes
like mocking demons. Surely, some evil
! chance had encompaSSed him.
| For hours he sat III that stupor which
a stunning blow will cause; then his eyes
| lighted upon the package. Surely he
recognized that superscription; it was her
contained a motley collection of missives,
| all, alas his own. Yes, there was the
| blotted half page upon which he had first
printed with such pride the boyish notes
of invitation and Of birthday congratula-
ton; the descriptions of his pleasure
| trips and Of his life at school, and last,
but not least, the fateful product of the
| Universal Letter Writer, which had so
| signally failed of its purpose.
| He unfolded 1t; he read it in amaze
ment, in CONSERVATION. What devils
jugglery was this? These were not the
|
couraged him when he had studied the
| duplicate the other evening. And yet his
name was surely signed, and in that pc
culiar ink, too, which was Indigenous to
the fountain pen with string. He even
recognized the thumb marks of the seal
| ing. But had he been daft to employ
such substitute. whose very face was an
insult. In trembling accents he read it
aloud as follows:
| "'REsPECTED MADAME: 1 crave not the
meretricious charms of youth. The beauties
of character alone fascinate me. In the pres
ence OF your gracious maturity, am over
powered by sense of my inferiority in years
| and experience. My love for YOU is at once
luxurious and flial. need your fostering
care, sigh for your matronly embrace. Twill
will be to myself a father. Be mine. and thus
/ gladden. an orphans heart by becoming at
once my wife and my mother
I'm the fury of despair George cast the
ridiculous screed from him. AS he did
so slip of paper foated from it. 1t bore
but line, in Sallie's handwriting: When
/ compared this insult with the dear
curate's sweet sentiments, I could not
| hesitate. Forgive me, as / do you.'
George did not return to Aberdeen,
The crusade against all the nickel-in-the-
slot machines was just beginning. With
heart and soul he espoused this holy
cause, and that eloquence which erst-
while had proved SO potent in the Philo-
| mathean Society was largely responsible
| for their final abolition
| WELL" said /, as my friend Smith re-
sumed his unlighted cigar, and the
| elevated expression of his eyes, lis this
the romance which makes you sad ?"
Yes" he gravely replied.
And so it does me-"
Still on Parole.