FAINTED TOO OFTEN.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 20, 12 August 1893, Page 6

FAINTED TOO OFTEN.

“We may faint once too often,” said Miss Lilly wliite, and she sighed; and then her customary smile beamed about her. “ Of this dreary truth I am a sad example.” “ You, Miss Lilly white ?” said Angelina. “ Listen,” said the old maid. “’Tis a short story, but worth your hearing. When I was nineteen, I was about to be married. About, did I say ? Why, the day was fixed; I was in my bridal dress, at the altar, the ring—the wedding ring at the very tip of my finger, when ” “ Mercy on me !” cried Angelina. “ What happened.” “ I fainted,” said Miss Lillywhite, and she shook her head, and a wan smile played about her lips. “ And you were not married because you fainted ?” said Angelina, much awakened to the subject. “ As I have confessed, it was my | weakness to faint upon all occasions. I I .enjoyed the interest that I thought fainting cast upon me. My lover often looked coldly —suspiciously, but

love conquered his doubts, and led him triumphantly before the parson. Well the marriage service was beg-un and ” “ Do go on,” cried Angelina. “ And in a few minutes I should have been a wife, when I thought I must faint. It would seem very bold in me in such a situation not to faint. I, who had fainted on so many occasions, not to swoon at the altar would have been a want of sentiment—of proper feeling on so awful an occasion. With this thought, I felt myself fainting rapidly ; and just as the bridegroom had touched my finger with the ring, I went off—yes, my dear, swooned with all the honours.” “ Do go on,” again cried Angelina. “As I swooned, the ring slipped from the bridegroom’s fingers, fell upon the stove, and went rolling—rolling, to drop through the aperture of the stove that, from below, admitted heat to the church, when, though swooning I somehow saw the danger, and to stop the ring, put forth my foot ” “ Well!” exclaimed Angelina, “ Too late ; the ring rolled on—disappeared down the place where the stove was, and then I fainted with the greatest fidelity. Hartshorn and sal volatile came to my aid. I was restored—but where was the ring ? ’Twas hopeless to seek for it. Half-a-dozen other rings were proffered ; but no —it would be an evil omen- — there would be no happiness if I were not wedded with my own ring. Well, search was made, and time flew, and we were late at the church to begin with, and the ring was not found when the church clock struck twelve.” “ Well ! ” exclaimed Angelina. “Well,” sighed Miss Lillywhite, “ the clergyman, closing the book, said, It is past the canonical hour ; the parties cannot be married to-day —they must come again to-morrow. “ Dreadful!” exclaimed Angelina. “ We returned home; my lover upbraided—l retorted ; we had a shocking quarrel, and and he left the house to write me a farewell letter. In a week he was on a voyage to India ; in a twelvemonth he had married an Indian lady, as rich as an idol, and I after thirty years am still Caroline Lillywhite, spinster.”