Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1909 — A Hero of Romance. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Hero of Romance.

By MARTHA M'CULLOCHWILLIAMS.

Copyrighted, 190 S, by Aeeoelated Literary Pre**. j

Binders had a penchant for new faces. He could always be depended «u to play the gallant to any fair looklag stranger within Hlgbtown gates. He was twenty-seven, well born, master of a moderate fortune and head of a thriving business. Naturally the fair visitors felt flattered, even honored, by Ids attentions, though warned In the autset that no serious Intentions lay behind them. “Frank Enders is a goose—the most delightful goose in the world, but none the less a goose,” said Mrs. Lawton, lady paramount of Hlgbtown society. Saying it was her privilege. She had stood godmother to him and in a way mothered him after bis own mother «ed.

“I’ve no patience at all with Frank,” the lady would run on. “He is quick to see the charms, the virtues, of all the nice girls I trot out before him, yet aggravatingly expects to find every one of those charms and virtues combined in some ‘impossible she.’ ” When she said as much to Enders himself, it made him laugh heartily. He knew the root of Aunt Isabel’s bitterness. She had been making matches for him since he left off

roundabouts. If he knew hie own ■find, he was abstractly rather anxious to be married, but so far had ■over seen exactly the woman he would choose as his mate. He had a definite mental image of her. She must be slim and young, with eyes innocent, yet sparkling, and with a rosebud mouth; bright, but not bookish; well bred, of course; gracious, yet with dashes of temper; reverent, gay, even almost frivolous, she would one day dance into his heart and stay there always. He believed it firmly; hence there was no thought of danger, of anything, Indeed, but a new experience, when he found himself upon Hlghtown's main street very early In the morning confronted with a tall woman, slight and tired looking, who held up her hand in arrest, asking Imperatively, "Will you take a lone woman stranded and stranger somewhere—anywhere—so she can get something to eat?” "Certainly,” he said, with a reassuring smile. "How lucky that I came out thus before breakfast! If you don’t mind, I’ll take you home with me. My aunt will make you very welcome, and somehow I rather hate to think of you at our hotel. It’s a disgrace to Hlghtown, but we dare not have it better. If It were better the summer boarder would descend on us"—

•*Oh! Is it possible any place has escaped?” the stranger interrupted. Enders smiled again. She had a delicious voice—soft, clear, vibrant, with the least possible drawl. She was dressed very quietly, but very well—even his uuuculine ignorance was aware of the fact. “You are doing a dangerous thing,” she ran on, “if you speak true. Hightown may never get rid of me. I’m so sick and tired of boarders and all their works." They were approaching his own door. The stranger somehow sensed the fact. She shut the laugh from her eyes, the merry curves from her lips, stood very straight and held out a card to him, saying primly: “I hope that vouches for me sufficiently, liiss Maxwell is a respectable enough person. Your name ■ Jg"“Enders Frank Enders —at your mrvice,” Enders said quickly. She gave him a quick look. After a second or two she said softly, the whimsical smile again wreathing her lips: “I know a lot about you, Mr. Frank ' Voders. My name child, Doris Clare, makes you out a sort of cross betwixt a fairy prince and a paladla. For her sake and because you ask no questions Tm going to explain. I was on the express, which does not stop here, bound for Pallantrae, a place, I take it, about twenty miles beyond. As I could not sleep I got up very, very early to find the train standing still, panting and snorting like mad, a mile •r so from your station. A perfidious

person In uniform assured me It would not start for ever so long. Wanting air, I got off and surveyed the landscape in the dawning light. “Just as I had strolled a little too far—whisk went my train. Not only my train, but my worldly possessions. I had left even my hand bag in the berth. So you see me abjectly a pauper until I can overtake my possessions.” “They shall be overtaken. Don’t worry about that. But, tell me, what did you think, feel, do, when you found yourself left?” Enders said, looking straight at her.

“Oh, I promptly forgot the landscape, and looked for a milepost. The first one I fcrtmd read “Hlgbtown, miles.’ Some malefactor had smudged the figures, but at least there was promise of finding son. . ' ing. It was not a false promise, you see. I tramped on and found—you.” “I wonder will you think you found anything worth while?" Enders murmured reflectively, as though to himself. Miss Maxwell laughed. “You don’t know what case you are In, that Is very evident,” she said. “I hate to proclaim the fact baldly, but I make a living by writing love stories, and ever since Doris came home I’ve been wondering If you were fit for the place you are to occupy in the tale I am weaving about her.”

“I defy you, defy anybody, to make me a hero of romance,” Enders said, flushing deeply. Again Miss Maxwell laughed; but, after it, she shook her bead, saying, “You truly won’t do for the hero of my romance—except your own.”

That was the beginning of IL The end came six months later. Doris Maxwell settled down easily upon a place she bought just outside Ballantrae, then brought in her name child to keep her company while she experimented at bomemaklng. So it had been the most natural thing In the world for Enders to fall in the way of haunting the Maxwell bouse. His new motor made nothing of the thirty mile journey. He found the two Dorises doubly delightful, and for three months at least lapped his conscience Into believing that Doris, the girl, was the magnet. Then came illumination—sudden and fierce. It took shape of a man, much older, much richer than himself, a power in the publishing world, no less the critical one, who came down upon the dovecote of a household, fully resolved to carry off Doris Maxwell almost whether or no. Doris Clare almost chuckled while she confided to Enders the whole story. “It’s so funny,” she said. “At first Colonel Baker was quite condescending—courted Aunt Doris with the air of ‘heaven is resolved to reward you, my child. Be duly and truly grateful.’ Then when she said ‘No,’ hardly troubling to say ‘Thank you’ after it, he got desperately earnest and remonstrated with her for standing so much In her own light. “But it was comic—there’s no other word for it—when he began to bluster. Still, do you know he almost frightened Aunt Doris? She ran away from him—she who Is so brave. I think she was afraid he would wear out her resistance, he's such a fine, high old Turk, whom nobody ever crossed before. And to think he’s metaphorically on his knees to her now! “If only she can bring herself to take him—but I won’t talk of that I daren’t let myself. It would mean such a lot to—both of us.” “No doubt she will take him,” Enders said, grinding his teeth as he walked away. He was a false prophet. Doris sent the colonel away more than ever disconsolate, but that did not hinder him from coming back next month, and the next, and the next. “Why don’t you put him out of his misery In some fashion?” Enders asked of Miss Maxwell upon the third return. She smiled a little sadly. “There’s Just one way to put him out of it,” she said, “and I can’t take that; it would be too ungrateful.” “Ungrateful! I don’t understand,” Enders returned. She looked over his head, saying softly: “1 was a stranger, and you took me in. More, you gave me the best breakfast I ever ate. Wouldn’t it be black ingratitude in me to turn the colonel’s eyes to Doris? She could console him beautifully—be to him a hundred times all be hopes to find in me. And how she would revel in spending his money and tyrannizing over him! But I can't bring myself to take away your sweetheart— Indeed. I’m bolding the colonel neither on nor off until after you two”—

"We two can be left out of the account," Enders said almost hotly. “Doris! Doris! You are the wife I want. Let the colonel have the pretty, child and welcome. I’ve waited all these years for you. Now I will have you, whether or no.”

“You see I was right,” Doris Maxwell said, flushing beautifully. “You can be a hero in our romance.”

"IF YOU DON'I MIND I’LL TAKE YOU HOME WITH ME."