Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1909 — AS IT HAPPENED [ARTICLE]

AS IT HAPPENED

On the third day of the honeymoon he observed: “Some said it was certainly Sartlea, and some said it was Sir Herbert, .but nobody said it was me. Yet I was chosen and they were rejected. Why?" “You don’t want to know, and I don’t want to tell you ” “But I do want to know. You didn't care for me in the least I have no Illusions about myself. lam not nearly so good looking as Sartles, who certainly proposed to you at the GarstlnVenn’s dance. Neither am I nearly so wealthy as that amiable and elderly knight, Sir Herbert, who unquestionably spoke to your father on the subject." “That was just the reason why I married you.” “What! Because I was plainer than Sartles and poorer than Sir Herbert?" ‘‘The same thing, but put rather differently. You were much better (looking than Sir Herbert and much richer than Sartles. You’re quite right about the Garstln-Venn’s dance. Mr. Sartles did propose then, and I did not refuse him—not at the moment.” “Do I not know It? Was not his face transfigured?” “He was terrifically handsome.” She shrugged her shoulders. “What idiots girls are! I’m utterly tired of that Greek god business now. I think a man who Is as handsome as all that always looks a little vulgar or even effeminate, which is worse. Mr. Sarties looked both; but, being a girl, I was also an idiot, and I did not refuse him. But I did not accept him either. I postponed—l spoke to papa.” “And your father said that Sartles was a pauper?” “A pauper and a buffoon and a grinning ape and a liar. You know, dear papa never did like men who played the violin. He had an Interview with papa, and papa was very rude, and Mr. Sartles wrote me a perfectly horrible letter which was meant to he sarcastic. So that finished it.” “And then?” , “Then Sir Herbert came along, and papa said that here was an honorable, upright gentleman who could well afford to maintain me in a proper position in life. Papa said he did not dream of coercing me in any way and that I was to make an absolutely free choice, and he would not let me refuse him finally. On the other hand, I would not accept him. How could I? Why, he was old—forty if he was a day. (Oh, Edward, dearest, do let us never not be young!) And then he was hideous.” “And then I came in. I was the compromise—not too ugly for you and not too poor for your father. And you did not care for me in the least.”

“It was only that I did not know you well enough then. And papa always liked you.” “True. But I was not marrying your father.” “Girls are idiots! Oh, to think that I might have Insisted on marrying that Insufferable Mr. Sarties! Why did you make me tell you? It makes me feel so horrid! I can’t think how even a girl could have been the idiot I was. The only sensible thing that I did was that I did accept you. You don’t mind, do you? Not now?” “It has always been my opinion,” said her husband, “that the man who wins a race need not grumble very much that he did not get a good start.’’ “And you have won—most completely.” She paused and then said pensively: “Do you know, I did not think you were really very fond of me either —Just at first. You asked me just now why I accepted you. Now, tell me, why did you ask me to marry you?” He smiled, paced the room once or twice and replied in her own words: “You don’t want to know, and I don’t want to tell you.” “Then you didn’t—not just at first. I was right. Then why on earth did you ask me to marry you? No; stop. Don’t tell me. You made me tell you, but I don’t want you to tell me. A woman’s wiser than a man there, and yet some men say that women are curious. As a rule, they don’t want to know half the things that men insist on telling them. So you didn’t love me at first? I understand, of course. I can’t help understanding. AVas she as pretty as I am—that other girl who refused you Just before you proposed to me? What an idiot she must have been! But, of course, girls always are idiots. I’ve said that before. It doesn’t matter a bit when you come to think it oyer. We got engaged without being a bit in love with each other, but it turned out all right as it happened.” “Yes,” he said, “it turned out very particularly all right as it happened. One doesn’t deserve one’s luck,” he added solemnly. She gave a sigh’of relief. “I’m rather glad it was the same for the both of us,” she i said, “because that means it wasn’t different for either, doesn’t it?” He assented. There was nothing else that he could have done. She leaned back in the easy chair (saddlebag type, common to riverside inns that play at being hotels) and clasped her hands at the back of her head. "I’m so—so happy!” she murmured ecstatically.'—Black and White.