Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1911 — Married By Accident [ARTICLE]

Married By Accident

By ANNA BENNETT

As Fired Carleton pushed Impetn* ously through the dispersing crowd on 'the platform and swung himself •.board the moving train, Margaret •oppressed an exclamation of .dismay. 1 Her face was flushed, there were dark circles beneath her eyes, and the lids were red and swollen. He must mot see that she had been crying. And '.hastily setting her hat straight she burned, her face toward the window. At her seat he hesitated, as If be ■would ask permission to occupy the vacant place beside her, but after one look at her motionless figure he sat down without speaking. Margaret fought down a desire to soream aloud. It was hard enough to have been married against her will, but to have her husband force his society upon her, when It was impossible to escape him without a scene, was unbearable. She had refused only two days ago. Today he was her husband! She closed her eyes and saw It all agaiu. Kittle Guthrey’6 parlor, the dozen young people assembled there, dressed In the quaint, old-fashioned clothes Kittle had dragged from an attic trunk; while from the doorway, the round, jolly face of the justice, Kittie s father, beamed upon them. They had been playing charades and Margaret, wearing Kittie’s grandmother's white satin wedding gown, veii and wreath of faded orange blossoms, had been the central figure in a tableau. Then, as one in a dream, she had found herself taking part in a marriage service. Mechanically she had repeated her responses, vaguely conscious of the girl’s giggling and the boys’ broad grins, but with a dim sense of awe, as the justice repeated the solemn words of the ceremony. Perhaps it had been only a dream. Perhaps there was np license, nor justice, nor ceremony; and she was still free.

Opening her eyes suddenly her glance fell upon the hand which lay upon the window sill There was the ring which Fred had placed on her linger, a plain gold band, which he bad detached from his watch guard. Once he had told her that it was his mother's wedding ring. She clenched her hands and stared at the flying landscape. Her anger against the man beside her rose in turbulent waves, submerging all other feelings. Why had he taken such a mean advantage? She would not have believed he could do it How triumphant he must feel. She stole a glance at his face, and was obliged to admit that he did not look at all triumphant. On the con-trsu-y, he seemed depressed and gloomy. His unseeing gaze rested upon the shiny bald head of the man in front of him. He seemed oblivious of his surroundings. Margaret stifled a feeling of pity, and steeled her heart against his troubled face. “Why did you do it?" she asked, aloud, without turning her head. “Do you suppose that because you have trapped me into marriage, you can compel me to live with you? Perhaps you thought of kidnaping me, and confining me in a tower!" Her low, well-modulated tones, vibrating with scorn, broke the intolerable, silence as a sharp knife cuts a taut cord.

“Is it possible that you believe 1 am responsible for what happened last night?” Carleton's voice expressed pained surprise. “I knew you did not love me, but I thought I still retained your respect If you had waited a moment longer, you would have known that I had no part in the plot which turned our frivolous play into sober reality. At first I was too bewildered to understand that the license was genuine and the marriage legal. And when I would have rushed after you, the boys held me while Morris explained. It was all a wretched, practical joke, which he and Williams had planned. Supposing that we were engaged, they thought we would relish the idea of an impromptu marriage, as much as they did." The conductor was making his rounds. Carleton handed him his own and Margaret's tickets, and frowned absently at him until he had passed. The energetic trainboy came and went, followed -by the pompous negro porter. The sonorous snoring of the baldheaded man rose above the rumble of the train and the spbdued murmur of voices. Margaret’s face was still averted, but a restless movement betrayed her impatience with the rest of Carleton’s story. They had no trouble in getting the license,” he continued. “Grant, the county clerk, has known most of the boys in oar crowd since we were little shavers. When they said 1 was out of town and had sent them for the license, he believed them. "Of course, they told Kittle, so that she could manage you. But -neither Squire Guthrey nor the otheiy knew that it was to be more than a mock marriage. The square says the ceremony is binding, but we can easily eet it aside.” Margaret moved uneasily, but gave no other sign that she had heard. Carleton's gase pandered across the aisle to the chubby, black-eyed baby who was crying so vigorously that conversation was impossible. The garage frowns of the sour-faced dramtoer behind him frightened the child into violent screams. At last.

with a stick of candy purchased from the train boy, his mother bribed him into silence. "For your sake I am sorry,” Carleton said softly, "but for myself I havs no regrets. To that fun-loving crowd the service which Squire Guthrey performed was only a farce Improvised to afford amusement for the moment. To me It seemed sacrilegious, yet as I repeated my part It had all the sacredness of reality. At that moment I would have given all I possessed if I could have , made the words true. When I knew they were really true, my first feeling was one of gladness. And even though the law should separate us tomorrow, I should always be glad that for on® brief day you Were my wife." The monotonous rumbling which had rendered their conversation private, suddenly ceased. Tho train had stopped at a rural station. A little old lady, laden with bundles, hurried eagerly down the aisle. As the door closed behind her Margaret Idly turned her attention to the station. On the platform stood ft tall, whitehaired man, whose wrinkled face was aglow with Joy as he held out his arms. A moment later he had clasped the little old lady close to his heart. There was a peaceful, satisfied look on her face as she followed her husband to the waiting buggy. The eyes watching at the car window filled with tears. Again the wedding refrain, “Till death do iis part," sounded in her ears.

The train was moving, and the old man and the little old lady were soon left far behind. The sun burst through a rift in the clouds and miniature rainbows danced before Margaret’s eyes. She hastily lowered the blind, but still kept her face turned toward the window. “It is fortunate that your visit £nded today, and that business calls me to Chicago. Your aunt and uncle will suspect nothing. All the folks who Were at Kittie s last night have promised to keep silent until I give them permission to %peak. No one else heed ever know, for the marriage caq be annulled without publicity. Even the gossips who predicted our union will soon forget all about us, when we are both gone." His spiritless tones trailed off into silence, and he resumed his moody contemplation of the bald head in front of him. “I do not wish a divorce,” said Margaret, abruptly. “I have heard you say you do not believe in legal separation,” he said. "Neither do I. But in our case one could hardly call It a divorce. By the testimony of the witnesses It will be proved that we did not intend the ceremony to be binding. The law will cancel the marriage and you will be Tree. I will go away and the whole affair will be only a memory. “Why should you go away?” she asked faintly. “Of course it isn’t necessary that I should go. But it would Hot be easy to live within 40 miles of the woman I love, when the law'has put her as far out of my reach as though an ocean divided us. You would not want to see me after you are free.” "Suppose I do not want to be free?” Her voice trembled, but he was too miserable to notice It. “You must not remain* bound to a man you do not love, because of a sense of duty. You are young, and will probably live many years. Some time the right man will come; when he does, you will marry him and be happy.” "And you?” she asked gently, with a furtive glance at his grave, sad face.

"Oh, it. doesn’t matter about me. I hope 1 am man enough not to wreck my life because happiness is denied me. You know I don’t wish freedom, but I want you to be happy." He sighed wearily and turned his head away from her. The canary belonging the elderly spinster who sat behind them suddenly broke forth into a song so Joyous >hat the black-eyed baby clapped his hands and laughed aloud. And at that moment Margaret’s heart began to sing, too. The puflflng locomotive, the rumbling car wheels, the canary and the baby’s laugh all seemed to join in shouting the refrain, "Till death do us part.” “Fred." she murmured turning her radiant face toward him. “I do not need to wait for the right man.” Fred looked at her uncomprehendingly. “Don’t you understand, dear boy? If we had not been married by accident I might never have known that the right man had come!” As he looked into her luminous eyes the shadows fled from his face. Unmindful of his surroundings, he kissed his wife’s lips. "yhere’s gwlne to be a weddin’ soon, if dis child knows anything about it,” chuckled the porter, nudging the grinning train boy. “Aw, go long!” exclaimed the train boy, with a backward glance at Carleton’s happy face. “Can’t you tell a bride and groom when you see ’em? I know they didn’t come on the train together; and there ain’t any rioa ■tickin’ in their hair, nor any white ribbons tied to their grips. But I tell you, they’re on their honeymoon! You can’t fool me!” He backed out of the car. winking knowingly at the passengers. Everybody laughed, even the sourfaced drummer. The canary sang as if it would burst its tiny throat And the black-eyed baby suddenly reached his hands toward blushing Margaret