Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1892 — Took a Desperate Measure. [ARTICLE]

Took a Desperate Measure.

An English writer tells an amusing story of a country-house where a regular daily routine is observed, and where no chance is given one of breaking the monotony. It is of a man who wanted to stay in a countryhouse, thinking it would give him the opportunity of proposing to a girl with whom he had been in love for a long time. His visit was to last a fortnight, but the last evening Came without his having had one chance of being alone with her during the whole time. As he sat at dinner (of course he was at the opposite end of the table to where she was), he felt that the time was fast passing away, and in a few hours he would no longer be in the same house with her. When the ladies went to the drawing-room, he would have to sit on in the dining-room. His host might allow him to look in .at the drawing-room for a few minutes that evening, but after that his presence would be required in the billiardroom. In utter desperation he took up the menu card, and on it wrote: “Will you marry me?” He doubled it up, telling the butler to give it to the lady in question. He did so. She read it, and with the perfect sang froid born only of the nineteenth century, said: “Tell the gentleman, “ ‘Yes.’”—Argonaut.