Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 250, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1920 — The Wretched Deceiver [ARTICLE]

The Wretched Deceiver

By R. RAY BAKER

I (©. 1920, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) "It seems so good to get away from | the cares of social life,” murmured Winnie Aton, as the cool breeze of I Little Traverse bay caressed her She was speaking to Leonard Brockwell, who sat on the hotel veranda beside her, striking imaginary files on the railing with his dainty cane. I Leonard was not dainty. He was I more than six feet tall and the muscles of a perfect physique rippled under his Palm Beach stilt. He was a good-look-I Ing blond young man. I Winnie was ttie dainty one, being fashionably slim and only five feet three in height She was a pronounced brunette, and a summer-white frock with’ a tilted pink hat made her look exquisite. “Yes, ’tis so,” replied Leonard, stifling a yawn and watching a lake steamer loaf into Petoskey harbor. “But, do you know, what appeals to me most is to get away fropi driving the | everlasting motorcars. I’ve had so much of it I was glad to leave the cars in the garage and be able to stretch my legs without depending on gasoline.” “You’re right,” Winnie agreed. “Driving motors bores me to death.” Poor, pretending Winnie! Her so- i dal obligations consisted of an occasional visit to a dancing assembly back, In Chicago, when she was not too tired from her activities behind the silk counter. And all the motor she had ever driven was the relic that did service on Aunt Martha’s farm in central Ohio, where she spent last year’s vacation.

For four years Winnie had saved money, and it would have remained in the bank where It was put if it had not been for Phoebe Williams. All Phoebe had done was to go and get married. In s«ne manner she had caught a rich man, and now when she strutted into the store she left an electric out In front. That had set Winnie thinking, and she had come to the conclusion the only way to enjoy life was to have all the money one wanted; and It seemed the only way to su,ch an attainment was by means of the matrimonial knot. Her roommate had agreed, In so far as the latter part of Winnie’s philosophy was cßhcemed. “It’s done lots and lots of times,” the chum declared, “and the rich men are hooked the easiest at summer resorts. All you need is enough dough to live in style for a few weeks at one of those places, and the first thing you know some son of the idle rich Is proposing to you. It’s easy, they say, but for me, I'll stick to Jim Wilson, even If he is just a truck driver.”

That looked good—not the truck driver, but the summer resort idea — so when vacation time came Winnie drew her seven hundred dollars from the bank, invested a considerable portion of it In clothing and took a steam-, er for northern Michigan. At Petoskey she took a room in a hotel close to the shore of the bay and began her campaign. ' Winnie had the looks and personality to win, and at the start the young men staying at the hotel paid homage to her. One of them, a frail anemic youth who never drew a breath unflavored with cigarette smoke, proposed the second night she was there; but somehow, for all of bls evident wealth, Winnie could not bring herself to accept. She still,retained girlhood Ideas in which marriage minus love did not fit.

In the first week Winnie had three proposals to her credit and five hundred dollars on the other side of the ledger. She was progressing famously, but she was not satisfied. All the men who had placed themselves In her market were wealthy, no doubt; but they were insipid parasites clinging for life to the riches their more ambitious fathers had accumulated. Then along came Leonard Brockwell, and she fell in love with him. To be sure, the wealth that was evi* dent In his dress and bearing attracted her as much as his handsome , appearance; but before she had known him twenty-four hours the money question faded Into Insignificance be-

fore the man’s wonderful personality. She feared she would lose him, so she felt obliged to continue the pretense she had begun, which accounted for her reference now and then p her social sphere back home. On the fourth night the climax came. They walked along the beach. In the light of a full moon which turned the blue of the water to burnished silver. They sat In an arbor of trees and there he proposed, and she accepted. “The only girl I ever could begin to love,” he breathed, and she told him similar things; and they were the truth. ■ ■ But Winnie had a conscience, and it began to Intrude itself. She tossed all night in bed. unable to reconcile herself to the idea of having won a husband by deception. Here was this man, rich tn his own right, asking her to be his wife under the belief she was Dis social and financial equal. She began to wish he was not rich, that he was a common plodder like herself.. Early in the morning Winnie arose apd dressed, her mind made up. She loved Leonard, but she never could

accept him under the crlcumstances. She still had a week of vacation left, and she decided to spend it with Aunt Martha in Ohio. Before leaving the hotel she penned a note and left it with the clerk. "Dear Leonard,” it said, "I 6m leaving, and will never see you again. I love you, but I have been a wretched deceiver and cannot bear to look you in the face.” Thirty-six hours later she leaped from the train and into Aunt Martha’s arms. Aunt Martha escorted her to the relic that had once been an automobile, and they drove to the farm.. It was lonesome there, but Winnie made the best of it. She felt that she was atoning for her sin by shutting herself away from the world. She was pensive and moody, but she roamed the fields and woods and tried to forget the handsome rich man who had asked her to marry him. ( One day. Aunt Martha sent her on An errand.' *Tve got to churn today, Robert’s busy in the field; so we can’t get away. I wonder if you’d as soon drive the flivver to town and get that tire we left to be vulcanized? That left front one is about ready to blow out.”

Winnie welcomed the opportunity, but she smiled bitterly as she recalled her conversation in,the north relative to being bored by driving. She found the garage without trouble. stopped the flivver in front and went into the office, making her wants known to the proprietor, who looked as though he had just taken a bath in grease. “Oh, Mr. Hendricks’ tire; sure, I think It’s ready,” he said, and stuck his head out the door to call: “Oh, Len, get Mr. Hendricks’ tire, and bring it out and put it on for hie young lady.” Winnie walked back to the car and stood waiting. Presently a tall, athletic figure appearetOugging the tire. His face was so black from mechanical dirt\ that he would have passed for an Egyptian night. “Which wheel, miss?” he said, and then stopped and stared j allowing the tire to drop in the road. Winnie, puzzled by his behavior, ' studied his countenance in an effort to penetrate the make but what he looked like. Suddenly she recognized him, in spite « the grime. “Leonard!” she' exclaimed. “Is it possible? Why, I thought you—did you get my note?” “I did," he affirmed, “and I had just written one like it, to leave for you. I got sick of that business up north and beat It home about the time you did. You see, I am another wretched deceiver. All the money I possess is what I’ve saved from my wages here, and it isn’t much, and the cars I repair are! the only ones I have anything ■ to do I went resorting just to I catch a rich girl and I —well, I really wished and wished you were poor like myself, as I could —” “Well,” said Winnie, joyfully, “your wish came true, the same as mine did, so now there’s nothing to prevent—"