Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 195, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1917 — Zoe Makes a Wager [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Zoe Makes a Wager

By George Haskell

(Copyright. 1917, by W. G. Chapman.) Zoe Straith jumped from her horse, scattering the ring around two small boys who were Indulging in a slugging match in front of Bell’s grocery. She shook the larger boy, who had been getting the best of it very vigorously, and used some strong language to the other, whose bleeding nose and damaged eye did not seem to call for any further punishment. Next she told the men and youths who had formed the ring what she thought of men who could stand around and watch a big boy pummel a smaller one. f For tbi* and similar “unladylike” performances Miss Straith was not exactly popular in the town of Hazelwood. She had, too, the reputation of hfivlng a bad temper, and of leading her sister something of a dance since she had come to live with her. She certainly did not have extreme youth to excuse her escapades, so said the neighbors, for she was older than her sister, Mrs. Cole, who had come there a bride some two years before, so Zoe Straith, they avered, must be all of twenty-seven or eight. Helen Cole, quiet, conventional, and agreeable, found herself quite powerless to effect a change in her sister’s disposition, and tried to make the best of the situation. When the father died there seemed to be nothing else to do but to ask Zoe to come and live with her. But Hazelwood had not taken kindly to the unconventionalities of Miss Straith, and Helen saw that she, herself, was beginning to be left out of some social gatherings on this account. Naturally, she encouraged the attentions of Donald Brooke to Zoe, in the hope that her undesirable sister might be taken off he? hands. Donald Brooke was a very eligible bachelor of thirty-five, owning a fine place in the town, and being cashier of the bank. Most of Hazelwood wondered

how he could be attracted to the girl. Zoe did not return the feeling he plainly felt for her, and one day painfully surprised her sister by telling her this. She skillfully warded off all attempts of the younfc man to propose, but kept him dan/ing in worried perplexity. One day :It came to her ears that his family wps greatly opposed to her, and were moving heaven and earth to make him see the error of his ways. Whereupon Zoe, true to her nature of contrariness, took a sudden resolve. When Brooke came that evening, she made it easy for him to ask the important question. Then she looked him squarely in the eye and said: "Don, what if I tell you I don’t love you—as a wife should. I think you are the finest, truest man I ever knew, but that isn’t what love ought to mean, is it? Perhaps I don’t know —but that is how it seems to me.” “I don’t care I” he broke out passionately. “I love you so, I can afford to wait —if you will marry me —and let me try to win you—l believe I can." . “I am not easy to get on with, you know. You are taking a large contract” “I know what I am taking,” he said, “and I am very humble in the asking.” “Your people do not like me,” she added. “My people are not marrying you. We can do without them.” “Don, it is a great adventure. Well,” she said softly, “we will take it together.” • ’ After he Mad gone she told her sister, who received the joyful news in high elation, and began at once to plan tor the wedding. Zoe seemed to take no Interest in the trousseau, but sat deeply thinking. Suddenly she said: “Helen, I begin to think I’m a criminal!” ”—- "Criminal!” echoed her sister In mystified stupefaction. I don’t love this man. I just made up my mind to marry him be!au»* his people are all down on me. fust In defiance. I said to myself, I’ll iboW them I v What right had I to

do this to so good a man as Don Her sister, fearful lest she should change her mind, began to use the usual arguments as to honor in keeping her word, and the like. “Oh; I’ll do what I promised. Til not back out,” she said. And so they were married. They came back from the wedding journey, and went to live in the pretty home that Don had renovated and made beautiful for his bride. Contrary to the expectations of the townspeople things seemed to be running very smoothly in the Bfooke family. The two servants employed there helped to substantiate this impression, and declared they couldn’t w’lsh a better mistress than Mrs. Brooke. “I declare,” exclaimed Helen one day to Zoe, about six months after her marriage, “I never thought you could be made over like this! How did Don do it? He has got you so you’ll jump through a hoop and feed from his hand. I’d like to know how he tamed you 1” ■ “He didnjt. If there has been any taming. I’ve done it myself.” Helen looked simply mystified. “His people-have come around beautifully, haven’t they?" laughed Zoe. “Sister-in-law Gertrude ‘told Mrs. Duncan I was simply a model wife, and Mamma Brooke cried on my shoulder, and said she couldn’t imagine how those dreadful lies ever got around about me. They were all true, you know. Good joke, isn’t it?” Again Helen looked mystified. She never could understand her sister, and now she seemed more enigmatical than ever. “You remember,” said Zoe, “I told you I would show them. Well, I meant to show them I could make as good a wife as any woman living, if I gave my whole mind to it. I have been giving my mind to It. And people seem to think I have succeeded.” “And Don?” queried Helen. “He never lets me know —if I haven’t. He is very kind and dear.” Helen wanted to ask if she had really learned to love him, but she did not dare. One day Don came in when Zoe was giving a carpenter a' rather forcible expression of opinion as to some bad work he had done. A surprised smile came upon his face, and when the man was out of hearing, he said: “Well! well! the old spirit broken out again!” And he playfully pinched her cheek. “Do you want it back again?” she laughed. “Dear!” he said, taking her in his arms, “you are more adorable every day, a kind of miracle. I never. expected it to happen. I knew I loved you —but —” “But someone has said love is a miracle,” she said softly. “It has happened to me.” “Do you mean —” He could not trust himself to go further. “1 mean, dear, you have wrought the miracle. You have won. lam a game loser, you see!” she laughed in her old whimsical way, “but such as it is, this love of mine you have it all. I shall never ask it back.” His heart seemed too full for speech. He held her close, and a tear fell upon her shining hair, .

“Don, What If I Tell You I Don’t Love You—”