Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1904 — Her Chapter of Proposals [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Her Chapter of Proposals

By Hattie Preston Rider

.„ Copyright, 1900, by T. C. McClure ...

Miriam came Into the library and sat down opposite Graham. There was a pucker of anxiety on her forehead. “Bart,” she said, “would you mind being engaged to me?” Graham took his feet off the window sill and sat up. “Engaged!” he repeated dubiously. Miriam nodded.

“It’s only for a couple of days,” she hastened to reassure him. “Mr. Forsythe Is coming to propose, and I’m at my wits’ end. I haven’t a single excuse for refusing him. He’s good and wealthy and nice looking. Mother won’t hear an objection, even his age. So, you see, the only way is to let him understand ever so delicately that I’m

not free to listen to him. Nobody will know, for be Isn’t the sort to repeat confidences." Graham lay back In his chair and surveyed her coolly. “If you’ve no objection to him, why don’t you marry him?” he inquired. ‘‘l thought I made it clear that I didn’t want to,” she explained, with a note of injury In her voice. “I’m sure, if you don’t wish to help me out, Bart, you needn’t But we’ve been such chums I thought you’d as lief as not I’d do as much for you.” Graham swallowed hard, but she did not notice. “Why don’t you tell him the truth?” he said at last “He’s man enough to stop his attentions if he knows they’re unwelcome.” “That’s just It,” she rejoined hopelessly. "Mother has tacitly given him to understand that I do care for him for all my seeming indifference. In fact, they’ve done nearly all the courting themselves.” Graham’s lips curled. “Well,” he said shortly, “I should think you could disabuse him of the idea easily enough. Miriam’s brown eyes widened. “You must think it is prime fun, Bart Graham, to boldly tell a good friend right to his face that you don’t care for him, especially when he’s such a dear old fellow!” she said, with a little quiver in her voice. Graham stared. What a refreshing phase of womanhood! Then he smiled grimly. “So, I suppose, it was your idea to let Forsythe down easily by giving him to understand that, although I held your hand, your heart responded to him, eh? You'll pardon me, Miriam, but you remind me forcibly of the Irishman who was too tender hearted to dock his dog’s ears at one fell stroke, so he cut them a half inch at a time.” Miriam winced, reddening. The truth sounds so different stripped of picturesque phrases. Graham relit his cigar. “You want me to go in with you, virtually lying to Forsythe,” he went on gravely. “At the risk of appearing ungallant I’m afraid I must decline your flattering offer. I don’t know much about such things, but it seems to me if I didn’t care to go into partnership with a man I could make him understand my refusal had nothing to do with my personal regard for him. If—if I didn’t want to marry you, for Instance, Miriam, you wouldn’t take it as unfriendliness on my part, would you?” Her downcast eyes missed the fact that he was watching her narrowly. She got up. “I don’t know if I’ve the nerve to do it,” she said, rather tremulously and letting his question pass unheeded. "You’ve no idea how hard it is, Bart. Tve always liked him, if not In that other way, so very much till—till”— She hesitated and looked at him appealingly, but there was no sign of relenting in his averted face. She sighed softly. A moment later he heard the swish of her light skirt along the hall. He laid down his cigar. “In one respect,” be groaned, “women are like Providence—their ways are oast pmting out!” He did not see Miriam again that day or the nest He watched her mother’s face, however, when they

met at table, aa a seaman does hi* barometer in squally weather. Though thA lady’s bland cordiality to himself was marked, the two tiny lines of anxiety between her brows became a beacon of hope to him, for Graham knew Forsythe had arrived, and he could not put out of mind that parting speech of Miriam’s. His growing fears, for disinterested ones, were acute Indeed. j On the morning of the third day, from the vantage point of his own window, he saw the suitor depart. There was a rosebud In the lnpel of his faultless coat. As he got luto the autobus Graham caught a glimpse of his face. His own promptly fell. As If that were not sufficient, on going out directly after, he met Miriam’s mother In the hall. The pretty widow’s cheeks were flushed like a girl’s, and, It seemed to him, there was a guilty look in her eyes. She gave him a smile that relaxed not a whit of Its sweetness at the savage tone of his “Good morning.” This last confirmed his worst forebodings. He decided that between the two they had succeeded in coercing Miriam to their wishes. It took Graham the whole of forenoon’s tramp to perfect his plan of action. He blamed himself bitterly that he had played the mentor in refusing Miriam’s request, foolish and cowardly as It had seemed to him then. But from the very fact of it he felt justified now In taking a bold band. He went back to the house and sent a peremptory note to the young lady. He wished to see her once more and at her earliest convenience. He thought their former close friendship gave him the privilege. He was hardly prepared for the flushed cheeks and defiant eyes that greeted him. Nevertheless he resolved to stick manfully to his role of protector. “If it came to this, Miriam,” he burst forth, “I think you might have trusted me to help you out for all I refused the other day. I would have done anything but what you asked, even to shooting him,” savagely. Miriam’s nervous color deepened. “I—l don’t see how any one could have helped it except mother,” she stammered. “I could, and I intend to yet,” he retorted grimly. He came a step nearer. “I tell you, child, you shall not be forced Into this marriage against your wijl. I have some right as—as your nearest friend, and I shall remonstrate with your mother. That failing, I shall go to Forsythe himself and tell him the truth, since you dare not. He Is an honorable man, and he will release you.” Miriam backed away from him and hid her face In her hands. “Oh, Bart!” she cried between hysterical sobs and laughter. “What in the world are you talking about?” “You shall not marry Forsythe against your will,” he Insisted. Then, to his astonishment, Miriam uncovered her face and burst into a ringing laugh of sheer relief. “It was mother, not I, to whom be proposed,” she said. “It was Just her silly blunder, the blessed goose! She never told me they were engaged years ago. And I acted such a guy before you. I fretted myself sick about 1L But," meeting his eyes with unwonted and bewildering shyness, “If he had asked me, Bart, I should have told him the*truth. I’ve resolved to be as honest as the day hereafter.” Graham’s head swam in the great light breaking on him. Impulsively he strode forward and took both her hands. “Miriam, be honest with me, then, as I am with you. I’ve loved you all the while I was pretending friendship, and when I thought another man was winning you I was beside myself with misery. Tell me, little chum, could yo« love me In that ‘other way 7 " The flushed face was Instantly burled against his sleeve. Graham as promptly unearthed it and forced Its shy eyes to meet his again. What hs saw there only he knows, but It proved to him beyond a doubt that Miriam’s impersonal friendship was as preposterous a fraud as his own.

“I DON’T SEE HOW ANT ONE COULD HATH HELPED IT EXCEPT MOTHER.”