Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1914 — The Mistake of Her Life [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Mistake of Her Life

It Was Rectified by a Third Party

By MAY C. ETHERIDGE

I am fond of motoring and am . sidered Ax. :t a- good a drivjpr as a; Woman .. .the town in which 1 In -timn;. • I make long tours, sum time- ex trending over several weeks One iiia f ht . Pile touring I stopj at a neat f rmbouge, the owner .- sole o ■ rtpaiit of which .was a y<>: woman about twenty-seven and cor. ly, but-there- was a dissatisfied expt, sion on her face as though she had in. with some serious disappointment. She told me her name was Elizab. r Wymhn; her father and mother «<. dead and bad left her the property < which she lived—a ddiry farm, s had nothing to complain of except lor - liness. I suggested that an attract I v young woman with a nice farm shohave no trouble in getting a good hr. band, the best panacea for loneline- . This brought about a confidence wh; resulted in her giving me the cause ■ Ikt disuppomt.-d look. ' The trouble about men,’’ she sa;< “is that they don't understand us w men.” :■

“And perhaps.” I interrupted, “v women don't understand men.” “When I was a girl living here wit' my parents a man named Warr.-i' bought a farm down where the roa.l crosses the creek. He had a son nain ed Abner. I first met Abner Warrei at a cornhusking, and he picked u. out among all the girls present, dan. ing with me oftener than with any of the rest of them. He seemed then t he a, fine, manly fellow who could loany one straight in the eye. He didn't treat me right afterward, but howev. he a< tt-<l he had that same honest pridin his look. “Two or three of the girts made dead set for . him. and Agnes Walk, got him. I Thought at the time sh must have managed-it very adroitly gnd I couldn’t understand his engag

"I SPOKE OF HER IN VERY HIGH TERMS. ’’ ing himself to her when he had at least on our first acquaintance favor<<l me. Agnes was not well liked by us gjrls, and that was another reason why I was surprised at Aimer s engaging himself to her. • "The engagement between these two didn't last long. I never understood why it was broken, and no one else i seemed to know. Abner never said a word about it, AS for Agnes, all she I would say was that she didn't carei It was whispered about that she,didn't confine her lovemaking, to Aimer, and he objected to having to divide it with ! some one pise. It was the general impression that Agnes was one of that kind of girls who make, or seem to make, easy conquests of men. but who don't seem to have the faculty of lioldI ing them after they get them. i "As soon as Abner Warren broke with Agnes he renewed his attentions to me. I was glad enough to get him I. back, though his affair with her left a 1 sear in me. He was very respectful | to me as well as attentive, and it was not long before he proposed to me. Before I accepted him I told him 1 'thought I had a right to know what had passed between him and Agnes. He replied that he didn’t think I had any stich right. 1 gave up rhe point, though I was not satisfied to do so. 1 and we became engaged. “All wont well With us till one day Bettie Underwood came to see me. ostensibly to talk about some <liiirch i matter, but I’ve always believed since that had another Object in view. While we were, talking she asked me if I'd heard that Agfies Walter and ; Cyrus Bm kley were engaged. I -dd I had not. remarking at the same time that if it were so Agnes find not been ; a long whdo getting over her as-air with Abner. Bet replied that Atmos , wouldn't marry Abner mi any ,- •■e<emt. ■ Naturally I asked why. "‘You don’t know an-»hh>g i> ait that matter.’Fite said. d bt-

fess. hoard Abner’s side of the 9pry, but you’ve never heard Agnes’,’ " *T’re never heard either- side,’ I foplicd.

“She went on talking about som» thing else, but what she had said left a very unpleasant impression on me, I tried not to think of it, but the more I tried to banish it the more it persist’ ed in coming back to me. At last I could stand it no longer and spoke to Abner about it, telling him what Bettie Underwood had said. “He seemed ill at ease and tried to turn the matter aside. This made me the more suspicious, and I told him that if he had treated Agnes badly I should know it, for if a man will deal wrongfully with one woman he will do so with another. To this he replied that a girl about to be ’married had best leave alone her lover’s previous affairs with women. Her only concern was his treatment of her. I insisted that he should make a (Clean breast of it, and he refused. Then ,1 took off the engagement ring he :.ad given me and handed it to him. lb- looked at me for a few momenti With a sorrowful expression, then told me that I was making the mistake of my life, and would prove the truth of what he said. He wouldn't treat any woman badly unless she treated him br.some one whom he loved badly, and then not for revenge, but for infliction of a just punishment. He left me and has never been to see me since/’ • c-. ■

My hostess paused in her story, and I saw that what her lover had said to her was true. She, not he, had made the mistake of a life. Doubtless there was something, between him and the -irl he had broken with that he could not speak of without casting blame upon her. If both were at fault there was all the more reason that whatever it was it should be kept secret. There are many affairs of little or much importance that cannot be unraveled without a regular trial, and even then it is often impossible to extract the truth. But I said nothing of this to the story teller—at least, not then. I was curious to know what her lover meant by saying that he would prove that she was making a mistake in endeavoring to force him to make a clean breast of his relations with his first fiancee. So I asked her if there was' no more to tell. . ■ • . “les,” she continued, "there is one very important matter to tell. Soon after Abner's parting with me I heard that he had become attentive to Bedtie Underwood. I inquired if Bettie accepted his attentions and was inform ed that she was very much pleased with them. Can it be, I thought, that, she will engage herself to the man

against whom she had covertly warned me’.' 1 had not long to Wait for an answer to my question. It was soon generally understood ’ t hat Abner and Bettie were engaged, one day I met Bet in the street and asked her if the report was true. She said it was and floim ed awa'y from hie; evidently desiring to avoid a discussion of what she knew 1 had on my mind.” , Again the narrator paused, and 1 asked lier if she had finished her story. “There is little more to tell," she said. “The engagement bet ween Abner and l',<t tie lasted just one month when it was broken off. Since Abner never came to see me after I returned my engagement ring I could not ask him what it all meant. I suppose he engaged himself to Bettie to show me' how silly I had been to permit her to make a breach between him and me, and that she did it because she wanted him herself. 1 doubt if she was a girl of much feeling, for she married some one else w ithin a year after she broke with .Minor.’'. . 1 asked Miss Wyman if Abner Warren had married, and she said he had not. He had since inherited the farm on which he lived and kept house alone. Before leaving I a§ked to be informed of its location, thinking that I would like,to meet him. It happened that my route passed hij House, and I made up my mind I would find an excuse to have a word with him. 1 bid my hostess a sympathetic goodby, promising to make her a visit on another occasion, then started again on my travels. When 1 reached the house of Abner Warren 1 left my car at the gate, a nd. seeing a man at work, asked him some questions as to thd roads 1 was to traverse. In the course of the conversation I gave him an opportunity to tell me his name and learned that he was the man I sought. Then 1 asked him, tor a glass of buttermilk and sat on the porch of his house while he got it for me. While drinking the buttermilk 1 told him that 1 had been entertained by a Miss Elizabeth Wyman, who lived a few miles down the road, and I spoke of her in very high terms. 1 told him that! wondered that so lovely and attractive a woman had not-been appropriated and hinted that 1 surmised she had experienced a disappointment. I could not help being amused at the interest he took in the subject, and when 1 added that Miss Wyman was one of those true women who when they gave their hearts a way would never withdraw them I hqped he Would give me his confidence, but he did not, proving himself to be the kind of man 1 supposed him to be from the story I had heard. However. I thought it quite probable from the effect Any words produced on him that soniething wonld come of my effort. I left him without having- given him any reason to suspect I lint I knew his secret: What I ‘said to him bore quick fruit, for. returning .that way. I stopped at Miss- Wyman’s and found a great change ,itph<r. ’ “What do you think has happened since you were here:" she asked, he! face lighted by a radiant smile. ‘‘W*hat’.-’3 I asked. . “Abner W’arnui has been to see me." “You don't" mean It? And all is mad*. up?" “Yes. and vve are engaged again.” “The Lord be praised!"