The Monticellonian., 1895-02-08

should be q C. creed by fate to wear it In the common place atmosphere of mercantile life, but thus it was.
 | To behold Mir. Podd on Sunday afternoon, or on some evening, after | the multitudinous affairs of business had ceased until the morrow, one would almost have been led to believe that | the baptismal name was scarcely ade- | quate to the man, for when Mr. Podd | had cast aside the enthralling shackles | of dependent circumstances and stood | forth in the full freedom of a small | salaried clerk off duty, he might readily | have been mistaken for railroad mag nate, or a bank official with an evident inclination toward some country where | extradition law is not.
 At such periods it required an ex- ceedingly imaginative brain to grasp the thought that the individual who whirled past in the newest, and most stylish of rigs-to the utter annihilation of his weeks salary-or who occupied one of a reserved pair of orchestral chairs, front, was but the same person who smilingly tore down one side of dry goods establishment to enable some undecided female to select spool of thread, or who rewound yards upon yards of Hamburgs and other deeora- tive goods which similar consistent creatures had examined with a thor oughness known only to the feminine mind.
 Mir Podd cherished intentions. which, if rightly matured, as they certainly would be in the course of human events, would give to his existence that couleur de rose which the poets affirm eonsti tutes earthly felicity.
 Mir Podd's intentions were of a matri- monial nature.
 He loved.
 In this case the sentiment was species of mild insanity that often at tacks young men of a marriagable age and an unmarriageable salary, and Mir. Podd exhibited i-any of the symptoms in an aggravated form.
 He took in two or three extra squares each day in walking to and from his place of business that he might pass the abode which sheltered the idol of his soul, and, perehance, be rewarded by a smile, or bow of recognition from the fair occupant.
 The fair being who thus agitated the placidity of Mir. Podd's existence was a Miss Melinda s1nythe-her father spelled it Smith in bygone days.
 This mai,,en tiwelt with her mother whose small Income was obtained by working early and late at dressmak- ing.
 Miss Melinda led lily-of-the-field existence, and while her mother drudged, and cooked, and sewed in the little back room, her daughter received ill the front apartment, or went out to concerts and theatcrs, from which she brought back lyrical souven- irs to be distributed, with the aid of cheap rented piano, to the neighbor- hood at frequent intervals.
 From the department of Miss Melinda in public, one was jed to regret that life of fashionable dissipation had brought ennui to so young creature, and when she referred to "our resi- dence, it was in a tone that at once suggested brown-stone front, plate glass, and an extensive retinue.
 In Mir Podd's eyes, her bearing was simply regal, and he reioiced in the distingue atmosphere of her presence, unmindful of any doubts of it's genu- ineness
 Miss Melinda had gained her knowl edge of aristoeratic department from theatrical boards and the pages of that romantic school of literature she de- lighted in deyouring in prodigious quantities, but as Mir, Podd's ideas had been generated by the same equivocal source, he detected none of the flaws patent to more acute or less interest ed person.
 Mir. Podd's lodgings comprised the most economical part of his exis- tence, being in an obscure street. in building that wore the look of ab- ject-genteel poverty. Considering the dispiriting surrounding, it is little mar vel that Mir. Podd frequently sought the charming companionship of Miss Melinda Smythe. or entertained. in se- cret, visions of vine-embowered cot tage, with this divinity as its presiding deity, for If there be any excuse for rash plunge into the tumultuous sea of matrimony it is that the unfortunate victim leaps from the positive infc- licity of the typical obscure boarding house into the blissful unknown.
 Mir. Podd's sojourn at these lodgings, however, was matter of policy, both on account of the cheapness of bed and board, and also on the score that, ow- ing to the undisguised partiality of the landlady's daughter for this particular boarder the mother was more lenient