Dick Nugent's Wager [pp. 80-88]

APPLE TONS' JO URARNAL.
park of artillery? Will you come to Spain, Russia,
Japan, or Timbuctoo? Try half an hour in the Celestial Empire, thirty minutes in Siberia, a peep at
Paris, or a ramble in Rome?"
"How you do rattle on, Julie!" exclaimed her
father, with a pleased pettishness.
"Que voulez-vous, messieurs? The Slave of the
Lamp is here; and, if we cannot enjoy an Arabian
night, let us go up for an Arabian day."
"I vote for a Bath chair, begad!" said Bentick,
to whom extreme exertion meant a game of billiards.
"I vote for a tear round the block!" cried Dick
Nugent.
"A tear round, by all means!" exclaimed Julie.
"Call up the years that are due to you over threescore-and-ten, and live them out now, or have three
hours to do fifteen miles, and to see fifteen nillions
of objects! AZlons, messieurs! " and she laughingly started en route for the Machinery Hall.
"You were saying something as we came in to
luncheon to-day about Miss B," said Nugent to
his companion, in a low tone. "What was it? I
didn't understand you."
"Begad, I don't understand myself! There's a
doosid mistake somewhere. I can't make it out."
"Can't make it out! What do you mean?"
"Doose take me if I can tell! All I know is,
that in the train she-well, she wasn't the same as
she is now, begad! But I say, Dick, you've had
your innings. I want to get at the wickets now;"
and, screwing his glass into a secure corner of his
eye, twirling his mustache, and generally shaking
himself together, Mr. Lionel Bentick forged ahead,
and took up his position beside the banker's daughter.
Mr. Bulliondust, being officially connected with
the closing ceremony, deposited Julie in a wheelchair, and went his official way, much to the satisfaction of at least two of the party.
"Lead them a dance, Julie," were his parting
words.
And she did lead them a dance!
From building to building, from annex to annex, from department to department, from glass case
to glass case, from counter to counter, from article
to article, till their tottering limbs cried, "Rest, and
be thankful!" and their weary eyes ached again.
"Doose take me if I can go another inch!"
gasped Bentick, clinging to the effigy of a Lapland
lady hermetically sealed in fur, and hugging her with
frenzied fervor.
"We're to do the State Buildings yet, and the
Agricultural Department, and-"
"Julie, this is hardly fair to our friends," interposed the banker, who had given them a rendezvous
at the polar regions. "We are close to the Trois
Freres, and-let us also hope-to dinner."
"Oh, very good, papa. Mr. Bentick and Captain
Nugent will go back to Europe just as wise as when
they left. Mr. Bentick will, I am sure."
This was hard on the rifleman, who didn't see it,
though.
"But, my dear child, it's nearly dark, and-"
"We've got to do Lapland, Iceland, Greenland,
and Finland, in this department," she interrupted;
"but, to gratify your royal highness, we'll go to Foodland."
The dinner was a thing to remember: the wines,
"bosom caressers;" the banker, good, solid company; Julie, a bouquet of spring flowers.
There are some girls who can compel men to talk;
force stupid, idealess owls to tee-whit, tee-whoo; and
command donkeys, hitherto concealed behind their
own ears, to come forth and bray, till the very commonls resound again. Julie could do this, and she
did it.
Mr. Bulliondust having focused Dick Nugent's attention upon the question of autumn manceuvres, his
daughter riveted Lionel Bentick by a few autumnal
evolutions of her own; and, to make amends for her
shortcomings of the morning, she now proceeded to
cry havoc, and let slip, not the dogs of war-Heaven
forbid!-but a legion of indefinable, intangible fascinations, which to a pretty woman are as perfume
to the violet, as iridescence to Idalian glass. To
Lionel, who was usually snubbed and sat upon at
home-" He is not eligible, my dear; a paltry
four hundred a year and his pay; don't be more
than commonly civil to him "-this atmosphere was
bliss-laden, and nectar distilled itself from every
word that fell from her rosy mouth. Plunging chindeep into the stream, he quaffed the intoxicating
fluid like an ecstatic fish, and gulped until Julie Bulliondust became as several editions of Venus rolled
into one, and provided with allr the newest and most
modern improvements of the age.
How sad to say farewell, that word which whirls
the mind beyond the gulf of Time into the boundless realms of Eternity; that summoner of all sadness upon earth; that knell which lays waste both
hope and joy, and breathes despair; that curfew
which quenches the fire of the heart; that cry of anguish, as we pass each landmark upon Life's great
journey, born in tears and green as the mosses beneath the spring which bubbles on forever-we pause
upon its utterance, gazing into the past, and thinking into the future!
"Adieu, Centennial!" sighed Julie, kissing the
tips of her fingers toward the great black mass which
loomed over the party like a thunder-cloud as they
proceeded in the direction of the depot. "Adieu,
mile fois! I have had many, many rose-colored
days within thy mighty halls. I owe thee much.
Adios!"
The dragoon winced.
The rifleman felt a twinge.
Ah, that terrible jealousy of the past was upon
them already! "Rose-colored days!" during which
they were as dried ling on the arid plains of Aldershott.
"Rose-colored days!" and they were simply nowhere.
Tempora mutantur! It was a goodly sight to
behold these British warriors playing each his own
little game for the much-coveted seat beside Miss
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