MR LOVED A BALLET GIRL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 7 April 1891, Page 4

MR LOVED A BALLET GIRL.

!' " I-lermione, my darling, I cannot live wilY-cut you !" Tremulous as the voice of an alto cat cxecuti'/j' n, diflicult bolero on the garden fence at the midnight hour are the tones of Telemachus yen Sawdoff. Eiit to Hermione Weinhandlnng, the Siricl-cn maiden eating corned beef and cabbage ty his side, they are none the less frw.p;ht vith a meaning all too terrible. "Not that, not that, Telemacbus," she gasps, gulping down a sob and a mouthful of cabbage, "do not speak of love to me ; do not speak of it, for that way lies madness madness!" " And wherefore madness, good my Hermicne?"he queries. " Why should I not declare my passion — why remain silent now, when my whole heart cries out for a word of love from you, and my corns in these newly mended shoes are throbbing with vast throbs from Throbville? "Was it for this I have anticipated your every wish — have pilly-gcolied around here all winter Jiangi 112 up my board week after week in the one sweet hope of winning your young unblistered heart ? No ! perish the thought ; it is too thin — too altogether gauzy for this fi clirr.cnt climate !" Ilij passionate reproaches broke her all up, and she trembles like a well-developed * case of chills. It is, however, only a momentary struggle taking place in her component parts between love, pride, and heartburn. " Te'emachus von Sawdoff," she at length exclaims, tearfully, jabbing her fork into another potato, "it is useless to plead further—to you I can never be aught save a friend. True, I might work off the old chestnut and say that I'd always be a sister to you, but I will not cause you unnecessary pain — at least, not so much pain as you give me, Telly dear. Do not ask my reasons for this, my irrevocable decision. Enough that they arc strong— strong as the odour from the Hunter's Point oil receivers. Believe me, these words aie harder for me to speak than for you to hear, for oh, I do t love yon, Mr. von Sawdoff, with one oJ those great, two -clasp, morocco -bound, give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death loves that Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, and Ella Wheeler Wilcox have made us familiar with. For you, Telemachus, I would gladly endure any peril, suffering, or fatigue — would ride in a New York 'L' train during the busy hours, or even on a Broadway car when in a hurry ; aye, would laugh in the very faces of the ' step-lively-there' and ' both-gate' fiends, and risk crushed fingers, torn garments, and cars without an unoccupied sLraj) to cling to in the attempt !" " Great heavens, Hermione !" he cries, vehemently, " I ask no such sacrifices as these ! It is to save you from such dangers that I crave the priceless boon of your love." He is very much in earnest now, his wholo soul in his eyes, and the half sole and heeling in the mended shoes he had referred to grinding both corns and bunions with bri:;k, business-like impartiality. "As my wife, Hermione, you " " Your wife !" she shrieks, hysterically, " your wife, ha, ha!— you know not at what ' you are driving, young man ; better take a drop on yourself or you will get into trouble." Then, her mood changing, she wails forth " Cli, why did we ever meet, only to part when my hopes had almost reached their fullest fruition ? Go, go, sonny, ere it be too iate ; forget all that has passed between us (even the borrowed money), and think of me only as of one who loved you madly, devotedly, but sacrificed that love to her sense o.' duty !" " Womaa, you know not what you do," he stutters, that wild maniacal laughter still ringing in his ears as if ten thousand mocking fiends were re-echoing it — "what rubbish is this you talk ? Can you not realise that what I offer you is not the first, fleeting-rapid-transit, electric-motor passion of a beardless boy for his new mash, but the one great overwhelming love for a man's lifetime — a man through whose ruby whiskers the gentle summer zephyrs and winter's • howling blizzards have time and again whistled ? How shall I make it clear to you, carita, that my only ambition is to be supported by you in a style befitting my birth and station ? You cannot quench such deathless love as this; you cannot drive me from your side to face a dreary, hopeless future and my creditors ! You cannot, I say, do this thing — you shall not ;" His oratorical bursts of Presidential cam pain-like eloquence completely unnerve lh: sorely tried Hermione, and she turns with an indigestive sigh from the strawberry shortcake she was about to tackle to the big, blighted clam by her side. " Telemachus," she simpers in low, Dutch accents, "why prolong this interview further? Each moment but increases our pain and the amount of the bill here ? I will confess that your appeal has moved me— that each lurid avowal of yours finds aresponse in my heart that thrills my whole being and makes me tremble like blanc mange or a cornstarcl) pudding. And yet, alas ! a barrier worse than death divides us/ Gladly, oh so gladly ! would I lavish upon you the rich treasures of my love and my safe-deposit vault, but you see I am engaged for the ballet in Ihe approaching production of 'Nebuchadnezzar, 1 and that and the care of my eight little grandchildren will occupy my entire attention. Were I differently circumstanced I " But she is talking to the empty air. With a low groan in a minor key, deep below the staff, Teltmachus von Sawdoff has grabbed bis hat, and rushes forth into the darkness seeking some saloon where he can drown in foaming hock the memory of this ancient ballet girl and her eight little grandchil dren.