 | Eli Perkins (at large) |  |
ELI IN LOVE.
A TAIL OF LOVE, FLIRTING AND DESPAIR.
(In Four Chapters.)
1. CHAP. I.
“Eli!”
“Yes, Julia,” I said
as I helped my sweetheart
dress the room
for her Christmas party.
“Well, Eli, I was
going to say that I
could live in a garret
with the man I loved
if —”
“If what, Julia?” I said, handing
her up another sprig of cedar.
“Why, if it had a nice Otis elevator and
I could have my meals sent in from Delmonico's
and —
2. CHAP. II.
“Julia!” I said, interrupting her two weeks
after the conversation narrated in the previous
chapter, “I have something confidential to tell
you.”
“What is it, Eli?” she asked in a low silvery
her beautiful eyes upon me.
“Well, Julia,” I sighed, “I think—I think, dearest,
that I love you. Now do you love me? Do you?”
“Yes, Eli, I do love you—you know I do,” and then
she got down off the chair and flung her alabaster
arms around my neck.
“I'm very glad, Julia,” I said, “for I l-i-k-e to be
loved.”
“Well, Eli!”
But I never said another word.
3. CHAP. III.
Time passed on.
Six weeks afterwards my beloved grasped my hand
convulsively, looked in my face and said:
“Eli, such devoted, warm-hearted men as you often
make me feel very happy.”
“How, darling?” I asked, too happy to live.
“Why, by keeping away from me, Eli!”
4. CHAP. IV.
“Why, O why is this, my beloved?” I sobbed, one
bright spring morning five years afterwards.
“Because, my darling,—father and mother told me
that when you called they wanted me to propose—”
“O Julia, darling, I am thine. Take, O take, your
Eli! Never mind father—never—”
“But no, Eli, they wanted me to see you and propose—p-r-o-p-o-s-e
that you don't come here any more!”
Base flirt—I left her—O I left her!!
| Eli Perkins (at large) | |