Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1910 — A MISTAKE IN THE MAN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A MISTAKE IN THE MAN.

It Was Embarrassing, but it Turned Out Well. By EDGAR P. YARDLEY. [Copyright, 1310, by American Press Association.] One summer I alighted from a stage at the entrance of a hotel beside a New Hampshire lake. There were several persons sitting on the porch, and one, a young girl, arose and advanced with a happy smile to meet me. If there is one thing 1 have always prided myself on it is keeping my equipoise when people speak to me whom I don’t remember. I had no idea who the girl was, but did not propose to betray my ignorance. She put out her band and put up her lips. Not to give her the expected kiss would bave been a rudeness. That was about as sweet a kiss aa I ever enjoyed. Whether it was because her lips had a peculiar flavor to them, whether it was that it was unexpected or whether there was a natural predisposition in me for that particular girl I don’t know, i only know

that the softness of rose leaves is nothing to the exquisite sensation I experienced In the pressure of those Ups. Of course I was not so stupid as to speak first. I gave her that privilege and waited for a cue. “What brought you §o early?” were her first words. “I found 1 could get away earlier than I expected.” “How did you leave Katherine?” “Very well.” “Why, she hasn’t recovered, has she?” “I mean she’s doing very well.” “Oh!” "I think I’ll go in and register, getting rid of the satchel at the same time. I’ll be with you in one moment,” Entering the office, I found a clerk and asked if Miss I stumbled on the name. “Miss Ellison?” supplied the cierk. “Did she say anything about a rdom for me?” “Yes. but she didn’t expect you on this train. However, I can take care of you.” While we were talking I was running my eye back over registered names until I came to “Mrs. Montgomery Ellison, Miss Edith Ellison, Detroit.” I didn't know a soul in Detroit, so I was now quite sure the young lady had mistaken me for some one else. I must let her down easy. It occurred to me that to put my name on the hotel register might betray the situation, so. the clerk turning to inspect his key rack, I left him without doing walked toward the door. “Mr. Ward well!” he called. I turned. “You have not registered.” “I will do so presently.” And I walked out on to the porch and joined Miss Ellison. My next move was to discover what relationship Mr. Wardwell bore to her. It was,to be supposed that he was her lover, but I was not certain. “You’ve changed a little since I saw you,” she said. “Do you think so? Let me see—how long is it r “Two years last month.” I wished to ask where we were when we parted and. above all. whether we were lovers. How could I frame a question to get this information without making a break? “I’ll bet you can’t remember your last words.” I said playfully, “on the day I left you." “I can,” jshe said—“‘don’t forget the candy.’ ” “What a memory!” “It was delicious. I almost made myself sick.” I was puzzled. Candy Is sweet, but I fancied the last words of a young girl to her lover before parting for two years would have more depth to them. “Well," I said, making another attempt to draw her out, “do you feel just the same as when we parted?" “About what TJ i “The most important thing you can think of.” 1 “The most Important thing I can

think of?” she said musingly. ”011, 1 know! No, indeed I don't feel the sam* about what was the most important thing to me at that time.” t “Any change there?” “Where?” '■}_ “Why, in what you bave just mentioned.” v “Yes, indeed! What was it we wei« talking about? Ob, yes! I’m so glad to see you that I can’t think of anything else.’’ “Well, about this change of heart?” “Change of heart?” “Yes. Weren’t you saying yon’ve had a change of heart?” “No! What put that into your head?” “Oh, tell me. about that most important thing to ydq!” “The most important thing when you left; not now. Well, 1 was to have a new dress, and I was in a great quandary as to whether I’d have It made up with large or small sleeves. Yon know, then they had been wearing small sleeves so long that there was sore to be a change very soon.” I gave an Impatient grunt I was not getting on. Here was 1 playing the part of another not knowing whether that other was cousin, ancle, brother or lover. The situation was distressing. “Do you mean to tell me.” I said, “that your heart has had no emotional upheavals since I last parted with your She turned and looked me square in the face. “Emotional upheaval!” she repeated. “Aren’t those words both too big to be put together?” “What I mean is does your heart occupy the same position it occupied two years ago, or has it changed?” “You remember that position was equivocal.” “I understand that perfectly well, but an equivocal position may become a settled one.” “Well, then, I don’t mind telling you that the position is settled. My mind is made up.” I was getting deeper in the mire rather than getting out of it Every moment I dreaded lest I would be called upon to make some explicit statement that would give me away. I bad taken a kiss from a stranger I had no right to take, and now I was piling up the sin by endeavoring to extract from that stranger her heart’s secret Nevertheless I pushed on. "Well, what is the result?’ “That things are the same as they were before anything happened.” I was getting red in the face. Though the air was delightfully cool, I took out my handkerchief and mopped my face. Having lost my assurance, I began to fancy all kinds of unpleasant happenings. Another train might come in and bring the real Wardwell. I remembered that on consulting the railroad time table before starting there were two trains I might take fifty minutes apart. I took the first. “I’m disappointed,” said Miss Ellison. “Disappointed! Why?’ I asked. . “I don’t believe you are glad to see me a bit”. “How Can you say that? I was never happier in my life.” My looks belied my words. I was never more miserable. “You seem to be bored rather than happy.” This was said with an expression of disappointment. “What yon mistake for being bored,” I said, “is really path. When I left you it was under certain conditions, known only to us two.” "And one other.” Another stumper. “After an absence of two years isn’t it natural that I should wish to know how those conditions now stand?’ In my agitation I had changed positions so often that my chair now faced the ladies sitting on the other jend of the piazza. One of them gave me a bow or half a bow, as though fearful of not being recognized. Her face was familiar to me. I knew that I was acquainted with her, but I couldn’t place her. I was also sitting with my back to the direction from which a stage was approaching. I heard the creak of wheels, but was too intent upon other matters to heed it. It stopped before the door. . I turned in time to see a man who very much resembled myself coming up the steps. He stopped and stared at me. I stared at him. Miss Ellison burst into a laugh. “Frank.” she said, giving him a duplicate of the kiss she had given me, “this is Mr. Edwards. He came an hour ago, and 1 mistook him for you. Had not Mrs. Gordon, who knows him, told me when he went in to register who he is I should have continued to be deceived.” She looked at me and burst into another laagh. If I looked as I felt I mast have resembled a man who had been tarred and feathered', ridden on a rail and then keelhauled. My legs would scarcely support me. Then she kindly came to my rescue. The real Mr. Wardwell went inside to register, and Miss Ellison bade me be seated and said: “Don’t be troubled. It was my mistake, and you were led Into it very naturally. Mr. Wardwell is my half brother. When I saw him last I was meditating accepting an offer of marriage. 1 declined it”— ‘Thank God!” “And thfs is the explanation,” she continued, with a smile, “of what I was saying to you. But what in the Thank God’ for?’ turning away her face and continuing the smile. “For two things—first, that you declined the offer and, secondly, that Mr. Wardwell is your half brother instead of your lover.” fc ‘This is quite too much,” she said, rising, “for an hour's acquaintance You should speak to Mrs. Gordon.” 1 left that hotel engaged.

“LOOKED ME SQUARE IN THE FACE."