Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1885-08-08
The Mvstey Solved.
IN s s.:', :: ..'.- ! shah not


ry John Brant ?"
s'Assuredly, / do not. He is pass
able, that's ALL"
sThen il viii be Harry Rogers"
.'Neverl Harry Rogers is not en-
durable with his mild ways and meek
courtesy"
'sThat will do to tell me, Miss May
I Saunders, but wait till either of the
gentlemen proposes to you, and you
viii accept
n 'They have both proposed and
both been refused within the past
twenty-four hours There now! what
do you think Of that? Have Inot just
alittle bit ofspirit and Independence
'Why, May Saunders, you are a
! silly girl to refuse either of these gen
tlemen. You have made the first
great mistake of your life. Recon
slider what you have done, and accept
y one or the otherof them.
II will do no such thing. I'll live
/ and die an old maid before | marry
either of them, or any other man, for
the matter of that"
"We1l both live long enough to see
things come out differently
sob, [ hope we will both live to o
ripe old age, but in the end you will
find that have kept my word"
This bit of dialogue took place be-
| tween my intimate friend, May Saun-
ders, and myself, on her oath birth
day, and had been rallying her be
cause she only had one more milestone
to pass until she entered the domain
of old Observation-Disclosures bemade
for coming the word-and | had been
advising her to marry before she
crossed the borderland.
John Brant was book-keeper and
Harry Rogers was cashier in the bank
of Iveson & Co, and both were excel
lent young men / knew that both
were devoted admirers of May, but /
was greatly surprised to learn that
they both had proposed, and still
more dismayed to learn that both had
been rejected.
''Tell me, May" said, ''what OBJ
lection could you have to Harry Rog-
ers2 He is an exceptionally splendid
young man, and no one stands higher
in the public esteem in the whole
town of Dayton"
81 presume she replied, "that /
dislike him because everybody praises
him. He is unselfsh, I grant it, and
gentle and courteous and all that, but
to my mind he lacks self-assertion,
without which no mans manhood is
complete or perfect
"Well, that charge does not lie
against John Brant. He has self
assertion enough for any one man
q little more, in fact, than | admire,
but perhaps none too much to suit
your taste and fancy"
eJohn Brant is well enough so far
as that goes" May reioined, "and 1
do not mind telling you that I like
him infinitely better than I do Harry
Rogers, but not we'll enough to link
my fate with his"
"And why not?D
II can hardly tell. There is some
thing about him that l cannot com
Notwithstanding that is unfath-
enable, and q secret monitor wills
pers to me never to marry him, even
if / should fall in love with him, which
seems not only absurd but impos-
sible.n
n was quite overcome with the pc
N culiar situation of affairs, and saw
I that it would be a waste of time to
volunteer any sort of advice or under
take a solution of the knotty problem.
So / concluded to leave the solution
Ito the fingers of time.
~ Both the young gentlemen contin-
ued to pay their usual attentions to
May. The gossips of the town were
in ignorance of the fact that both had