People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1896 — THE REASON OF IT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE REASON OF IT.

“No,” said the doctor, throwing his arm over the back of a chair and settling himself comfortably for one of the long stories he delighted to tell and we to hear, “I have never been able to understand it” “Understand what?” asked Charlie Brown, lazily. “What Is It which is too much for your wondrous comprehension? Unburden yourself at once, my dear fellow, and tell us all about It.” ‘“Well,” answered the doctor, nothing loath to comply with this request, “we were talking about John Hinkleman. You know he is married at last.” “Why at last?” queried Charlie, lighting a cigar with his usual indolent grace and winking at us to express his satisfaction at having started the doctor off on the entertainment of the evening, “has he been in danger of committing matrimony before?” “Do you mean to say you never heard of his love affair?” the doctor almost shouted, actually sitting up in his astonisnment. “Why, he has been in love with is wife for seven years and has proposed to her regularly every three months during that time. And what we were wondering about is why she accepted him at last.” “Well, fire away with the story,” spoke up Arthur McCafferty from his usual recumbent position ’on the floor, and after lighting a fresh cigar the doctor complied. “You all know, of course, about the yacht wlflch John owns,” he said, when the operation had been successfully completed. “Well, it was this yacht, the Oneida, the boat which he always' declared was wife and family to him, that led to his marrying her. “He was very fond of cruising about Lake Michigan, and one summer afternoon, after spending several days upon the. water, he came to a little river which ran away from the lake out into a beautiful wild country. No the river doesn’t exist in my imagination alone, Charlie; it really runs through a neighboring state, or part of it, and manages to make a little island of one spot a hundred miles or so away from where It Joins the lake. To reach this island from Chicago it is necessary to travel first by train, then by boat, then by stage—impossible as this last sounds in this day and generation. And to reach the home of John’s wife a distance of six miles or so must be traversed by foot and over the loneliest road in the world, too. But from the river the island is easily reached, and ’the day John’s boat ran into the little bay just below the farmhouse it looked like an oasis dropped into a desert of water. “A pretty, girl came down to the shore presently, and after the first glance at her. John was never himself again. His stay upon the island was

prolonged until his companions were impatient, and he oqjy left at last because one of them looked admiringly at the girl he had fallen in love with at first sight. Two days later he went back again, and after that everybody began to suspect something queer. And never a week of that summer passed but the Oneida ran into the little bay and poked her nose up toward the farmhouse. And never a time did she go but she carried some pretty or useful present for the girl who had charmed particular John until he could see nothing but her in all the world. One day she carried a jeweler’s tiny box and on the pretty pink cotton inside it lay a shining ring, with a big solitaire diamond gleaming like a star in a sunset sky. “After that John was too happy for his rapture to last —he was in the condition which the Scotchmen call ‘fey’— that state of joy which often presages a coming sorrow, in the opinion of pessimists. This state of beautitude lasted until the cold weather had made a trip to the island almost impossible. When the lake can no longer be used as a means of travel, the inhabitants of the island, few in number and widely scattered, resign themselves to their own society and resources until spring.

John knew that as tie sweetheart would not be married until spring he could not see her until the warm weather unlocked the lake and river, so he consoled himself with writing long flowery answers to her short, businesslike epistles, and sending her a present every week. He was the happiest man tn creation. "Then one day 1 went to see him and found him in the depths of a black despair. Slowly and with much work I dragged the story out of him. She had written him a curt note breaking the engagement, On the table at bis elbow lay the jeweler’s tiny box with the beautiful ring inside. “I took It up and looked at it, wondering meanwhile why a girl should refuse a than like my friend, rtdh, finelooking,tenderly loving, able to give her all the things for which she longed, ahd desiring nothing in the world but to fly at her beck and call. After a little I put hq question to bilk: “ ‘What reason did she give?’ he answered, looking up with/ wild, bloodshot eyes. ‘Nope! She merely “desires to break the engagement” And yet I know she has no other lover. Who is there upon that desolate island who could be attractive to her? And I have a letter from her mother, dear, kind soul, in which she tells me that Irena’s conduct is a mystery to her. But it 1b of no use to discuss it I shall go mad soon enough without that.’ “Nor could I rouse him from this state qf despairing sorrow. He went from bad to worse until I was forced to attend him in my professional capacity, and at last I yielded to his solicitations, and consented to accompany him upon a trip to the island. “It was bitter winter weather and I shall never forget how we suffered with oold during that awful trip. Even after we reached the island we had that horrible six-mile walk to manage, and we were spent with cold and fatigue when we arrived at the farm. John was too weak and exhausted to do more than yield passively to the ministrations of myself and Irene’s mother. But the next day he commenced to seek for an opportunity to talk with the obstinate girl.

“But it was useless; she eYaded us both, for I would have spoken In behalf of my friend. She kept out of our way with a persistence and success which was marvelous, considering how closely we were all-kept together by the sold, which made outdoor life an impossibility, and we were compelled to return home at the end of a week without having wrung so much as a word from the girl herself. Her father, mother and sisters were upon John’s side and it was evident that the girl herself was suffering deeply. But she bade her lover good-by with an icy handshake and returned to her work in the kitchen before we were out of the barnyard. "John was in despair, but he is persistent by nature, and as I said at the beginning of my story, he wrote and proposed regularly every three months. And do several years went by. “At last, one day about k month ago, he called me up by telephone and began to talk wildly and a little incoherently about how hdppy he was and nonsense of that kind. “’What is the matter with you?” I asked at last, fearing that he was ill and delirious. I shall never forget his answer. “ ‘Can’t/you tell what is the matter with me?’ he called back. ‘lrene has written that we may be as we once were and I am too happy to be lucid.’ "Yes, that was what she had done, with woman-like unexpectedness. And John was almost too happy to live. He made a flying trip to the island—that is the going there was hurried. He was slpw enough coming back. When he returned the day was set for the wedding. So two days ago he started back, the happiest man in the world, and last night I got a telegram saying that Irene was his wife, and, although she still refused to say why she had acted so strangely, he was quite satisfied to have got her at all and was supremely thankful. "In that week he spent here in the city he furnished a beautiful flat, devoted himself to so doing, taking notes of things he saw in other houses to which he had the entree. Everything is ready for the coming of the bride tonight, even to the stationery, tinted her favorite color and marked with her monogram—her new initials, of course. Framed photographs of her island home hang upon the walls, he has prepared a room for her sisters to occupy when they visit her,and even the fires are laid. I must go now or I shall be too late to welcome them to their new home, which I have promised to do, as well,” with a whimsical smile, “as apply a match to the fire in the parlor, so that a cheerful blaze shall greet her when she steps inside the door, and I would not omit this ceremony for anything. No, Charlie, you can’t go with me; I am invited, and I alone, so I must bid you all good-night. You can all send John a wedding present, of course, and no doubt he will invite you to visit bim, and make the acquaintance l of the girl who has acted so strangely. And perhaps you may some of you be able to do what passes my ability--discover why she refused him so many times, to marry him at last. 'The way of a maid,’ says the old proverb, ‘is hard to understand,’ and I should alter the ancient maxim to agree with that of a wellknown- political orator. “ ‘Some discourses,’ he said upon one occasion, ‘are like the peace of God, which passeth understanding, and not a few are like His mercy also; they are from everlasting and without end.’ / “The first part of the sentence I would apply to Irene’s conduct, and the last to John’s patience. Good-night.” And with that half-cynical, half tender smile upon his face, the doctor went away, and the rest of us fell to discussing John Hinkleman with a freedom which is only possible to a men’s club.

IN THE DEPTHS OF BLACK DESPAIR.