Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-10-09
Told = Four Letters.
LETTER THE FIRST.
Ha,ru Payns ID s. II. ".
NEW Y0RK, August =. :

This V0luminous eplstle You VIII, with
the practiced eye 0f Il man OF business.
glance over it to catch its gist, and
when you do / thank my stars that
half the length of the Erie railroad sep
arates Us, and confess that the thought
Of your written answer even ma kes nv
blood curdlc with terror.
However, ! have done nothing to be
ashamed Of, and I am not going to begin
by apologizing for it. Why / should
not do what you and other friends Of
rhine have done can't soc, and the fact
that / have waited until the first blush
Of youth has passed lyou remember that
] am thirty-two) il all the more credit
able to me.
Well, to come to the point (whv don't
they have printed form like that used
in the next step Of the proceeding9), /
write 10 announce my engagement to-
the name will not interest you nova
young lady of this city. / see your
scornful look and hear your ironical
laughter, but, my dear fellow. I am
dreadfullv in earnest this time 1t will,
/ know, seem incredible, but the honest
truth is that / am in love for the first
time in my life. Here your laughter be-
comes uncomfortable, and whcp you re-
cover your speech you ask how about
Fanny Glenwood and Laura Baker and
several others; and, upon my word. you
will insinrate that this is the second or
third time that Lhave announced my en-
gagement to you
All, Sam, that is the thing that
overwhelms me with confusion. For the
first time in my life I have known what
remorse is. don't know how you felt
when you asked an innocent young girl
to accept your hand, but / confess I
don't feel myself worthy of the one ]
have chosen.
You will want to know how it all hap
pened. Well. here it is in nutshell.
Last spring. while was having dcs-
perate Irritation with Laura Baker, which
resulted, rs you know, in the breaking
Of my engagement to Fanny Glenwood,
] promised to meet Laura one morning
at a picture gallery on Madison square
had some quite important explanations
to make to her, and wanted her to sec
Ruskin's drawings, which were on exhi-
Sition there. You know that after
Browning / adore Rnskin). For some
reason Laura did not come; but found
in the room a young girl of eighteen or
twenty, ! guessed, tall, slight and very
fair What struck me at once was the
child like simplicity and innocence Of
her face, her big blue eyes peering out
from her fluffy golden hair. Laura you
know, Is a very striking brunette). She
seemed rather embarrassed by my pres
ence. / suppose I did stare rather too
hard i finally tore myself away. but
hung around the neighborhood for some
time, and was rewarded by seeing her
come from the direction of the gallery
with young man some relative, / pre-
sume--and get into q carriage that drove
off uptown.
did not see her again until summer.
Fred Parker, yon know, took cottage
at Sea Girt, and invited me down to
spend Sunday, and the first person saw
on arriving at the station was my fair
unknown sitting demurely in wagon
cite, and waiting probably for her father.
/ did not care to keep Fred waiting, nor
did ] deem It prudent to ask about the
lady, thinking we should undoubtedly
see her on the beach that evening. We
did not. and Monday could control my
curiosity no longer, and after Fred had
gone up to town II making some excuse
to remain over until aftern0on) Twas on
The point of unburdening my heart to his
good -naturcd wife, when saw her driv-
ing up to the house, and before / could
recover my sang froid / had been intro
duced to Miss Lizzie Chapman. She
seemed fully as much embarrassed as did
ST Why. / wondered, did she remember
the meeting at the art gallery two months
Ii: E0rc2 lit appeared not. and that she