Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1920 — You Never Can Tell [ARTICLE]

You Never Can Tell

By JESSIE DOUGLAS

I*l*. by McClure Newapapur Syadicata.) Little Miss Ancell looked smothered behind her pile of exercise books. The front of her hslr was quite white where she had brushed against the chalky board, and her middle finger had a deep scar of ink. When you looked very hard at Miss Angell you saw she might have been grotty, if the shyness of her eyes had not concealed their sweetness and the dullness of her hair had not hidden Its softness and the wistful look about her mouth had not forbidden you to look at its pretty curves. When you had seen all this —you saw suddenly just how little Miss Angell would look in ten years when the softness had changed to sharpness and Miss Angell would have become a “good teacher.” But Miss Angell wasn’t thinking Just now of becoming a good teacher; she was staring right through the schoolroom with its prim little desks, right through the wall with its gay maps, into the manse at Brookline where Unde Pete was sitting all alone. Just because she, Mary Angell, wanted to go out into the world and nee what happened there. And this was the world. This school with Its gay, carefree girls, and its older women who had taught too long to care very much what happened to the Mary Angells—all except Roberta. Right Into the middle of Mary’s thought came Roberta Hardy, the real Roberta. In a minute the room had ceased to be a schoolroom and had become the background for her glowing person. She perched herself on the desk, which was unthought of; she tossed off her hat and put a warm hand on a cold, red cheek, while her black eyes gleamed.

“Been in here all the afternoon working?" she groaned in sympathy. *Oh, Angell, if you wouldn’t be so good ! But whatever should Ido without you in this nunnery? Angell, I’ve got to tell you," she lowered her voice so that none of the curious maps could bear. ‘Tm going to marry!” "Marry!” repeated Miss Angell. "Oh, Roberta!” Her eyes glowed as though it were she to be married. “So it is Joe, and you are going to " “You poor Innocent! No I Whoever beard of marrying a man you could have? I just 'saw him this afternoon. I was taking the children walking up by the old highway and I was so bored. At the top of the hill we passed that pathetic looking mission; the girls begged to go in. Anything was better than their everlasting chatter. So in we went. I felt like an orphan asylum, of course, with six of them tagging on behind, and then I knew why they had wanted to go. Up the aisle came the assistant —a man. The first Pve seen in months, with the face of a St. Anthony or some early martyr, and the devil lurking in the back of his eyes. And a voice, the kind that once you’ve heard it winds itself about your heart and squeezes ft. After the service I put on my saintly expression and went up to him. *T wonder If I couldn’t help you. Isn’t there some Sunday school work or ' “He looked at me very gravely before he said. ’Thank you, I have about all the teachers and assistants I can manage at present. But— —* “‘Yes?’ I asked sweetly. “Tm going to have a sewing class Saturday mornings; perhaps you might—“I jumped at the chance, not that I can sew a stitch.” Mary Angell sat looking at the narrator breathlessly. She loved her warm cheeks and her wiry black hair and her eyes that were dark and daring and gay. “That’s all.” Roberta ended, “so Tm going to marry him. It’s very simple. I shall make a delightful minister's wife, something new in that line. Hark, there's the dressing bell i See you later,” she caught up her hat and flew down the hall, her heeis ClickHacking over the polished floors. And that was the beginning of it The last bell had rung, the lights were out in the dormitory, except for the tiny gleam that peered through Miss Angell's keyhole. Miss Angell was still working over a problem In arithmetic. She never even heard Roberta’s light knock. “Working? Oh, Angell, you’ll lose your beauty sleep F Roberta laughed at a funny little thought of her own. “You’ve got to help me. Angell. Tm in an awful mess. You know the man-rm-going-to-marry ?” Mary Angell nodded and for some reason she flushed all over her fair skin. “Yes. I’ve seen him when I’ve been walking with the children in the afternoons.” “Somehow that man Is very hard to woo,” Roberta went on, “in spite of Bernard Shaw. You know, I’ve taught sgwing every Saturday and twice a week I’ve gone to the mission in the afternoon; but he’s very backward. Mow I come to tike awful part He asked me today if I could play, and I told him I could! I promised to play for him tomorrow —the only way out Is for you to do It! Mr. Page will neyer find It out, for you are to wear coat and my little squirrel

“You’ve got to; beside* that tiresome Joe is coming up from home tomorrow just to see me.” So that was how little Miss Angell came to be caught in the organ loft by the young assistant of the mission. “I wanted to thank you. Miss Hardy, for playing. It was "he stopped, for Instead of Roberta's self-assurance and daring black eyes, he found a girl with wide, dreaming eyes of gray set in a white little face, who looked as though she had been caught In the wickedest of crimes by the blush that went creeping to her temples. “Why, you're the girl I’ve wanted — that I’ve seen walking every afternoon up by the old high way." •Tm not a girl. I’m a teacher,” said Miss Angell gravely. Then she knew why It was that Roberta had said that the very devil lurked behind those eyes of the young St Anthony. “Would the teacher play for me?” he asked very gently. Because she was very ahy, Mary Angell turned back to the organ and began to play; It was so much easier than talking to this disconcerting young man. After she had played a few minutes, she forgot all about him, about everything in the world except her music and the things her music was saying. It had grown very dark In the organ loft; the young assistant said, “Thank you," 'and ‘helped' her down from the high bench, and they stumbled together down the steps into the dimness of the mission room.

Tm going to walk home with you," he said very firmly, “It’s too dark for you to be out alone.” It sent a strange thrill through Mary Angell to be walking beside this tall, fair man that she felt somehow as though she knew; for she had never known any men in her secluded life, from her school days to her teaching days. “It isn’t as if I don’t know you,” the young man was saying. “I’ve seen you every afternoon for a month, and I made up my mind ” he stopped. Mary Angell wanted to know very much what he had made up his mind to do. . ■ Then he went on: “So you live in Brookline? How strange! Do you know, my brother-in-law’s cousin lives there, a very nice old lady. I must run down to visit her. When are yougoing?” “I’m going the next holidays—in a week,” Mary Angell said and her heart was beating very loud and she was afraid he could hear it. “May I come to see you then?” the young assistant asked. It was on the white stone steps of the school and Mary Angell said, “Yes,” and felt she was saying a great deal more when she looked Into his eyes. He took her hand for a moment and said, “Good-by until then.” “Until then,” Mary Angell repeated and her voice was just above a whisper.

Not until she reached the dormitory did she remember Roberta, Roberta who was her friend. Mary’s face was pitiful; for friendship in Mary Angell’s code was a sacred thing not to be marred. She would not go to Brookline next week. _______ “Angell, what’s the matter?” Roberta flung open the door and pulled her across the threshold. But Mary was too wretched to see how excited Roberta was. “Look; do you like it?” Roberta held out a pin, frosted with pearls. “Of course I wouldn’t accept It unless we were engaged!” “Engaged!” breathed Mary Angell, and her face was suddenly white, so white that it looked as though she would faint. “To Joe, of course, you silly! You never can tell whom you will marry. Little Miss Angell found herself sitting on Roberta’s bed, crying as bitterly as though her heart would break. Roberta was still puzzled when Mary Angell lifted a face radiant in spite of tears, threw her arms about her neck and cried, “I never was so happy!” and ran out of the room.Miss Angell’s eyes were all sweetness. her hair blew about her face like thistledown and her mouth showed its prettiest curves, as she breathlessly climbed the stairs to her own room, saying to herself, “And it’s just one more week!”