The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1885-01-01

girls, but 1t y0u desire to hear it, !
must tell IL. But to explain what say
about being engaged without receiving
Z formal offer, will cite case or two
within my own experience. Ny first
was when I was seventeen. and, as I
then thought, - mucl, . woman Is I
am row. was spending the summer
oh the seashore with my Aunt ,Margar.
ct, and Aunt MaFgaret, .having made :
successful marriage. finapcial1y speak.
peices do .,tbe same, for she. had no
children, and 10 every summer she took
to fashionable places, and every winter
to all the balls and parties. - r. -.
"This particular summer she chose
the seashore, and there I met Harvey
Gray, who, though; seven years my
senior, and who had been travelling for
three years in Europe, was, really, as
innocent as child. We fell in love, as
IL is called. ct first sight, and were in
fatusted with each other. OF course,
out of this grew the usual sweet COM
munings, moonlight walks, boating,
guitaring, singing, and all the newt
able things appertainlng to lovers, ever
since the world began.
aunt Margaret recognized the mat.
ter, and it suited her.too we'll. Is I
afterward thought. Gray was rich,
reproachab1e character, therefore very
desirable match. I say it all suited
Aunt Margaret too we'll, and FIJI ex-
plain that BY ssying thet while men are
always ready to take advantage Of being
left by the parents and guardians 81 The
girl Shsy are in, love with alone and
uninterrupted III their wooing, yet
there is such thing as overriding this,
| 30 as to rather turn him against it. He
would teally he better pleased with q
little opposition. think Aunt Margar-
ct slightly ovcrdid it.
However, the summer passed, ana
we were happy, and felt as much en-
gagged to Harvey as though the actual
words had been spoken, and am as
sure as we can be of anything in this
life that Harvey felt the same way. In
fact We talked freely of what we were
to do in the future, and there was moth.
ing wanting but the setting of the day,
when Aunt Margaret stepped in, which
have always thought was unfortunate,
to say The least Of 1t, for I am decided
advocate of early marriages.. Well, we
were to start for the city early the next
morning, and for what occurred the
previous evening I am indebted to Aunt
Margatet's own recital. I was detained
in my own room packing, but was to
meet Harvey on the piazza at 8 o'clock.
He was to go with Is to the city the
next day, and : left him after dinner
promenading with my aunt. When I
returned at 9 o'clock, he was not there,
and Aunt Margaret made his apologies
by saying that he was indisposed and
had retired. The next day when ne
did not appear to go with us to the city,
Aunt Margaret was forced to IN expla-
nation: She had asked Harvey what
his intentions We're, and he had re-
volted.
II thought my heartwas broken; but
Aunt Margaret said she had done right,
and that the man who after three
months of unlimited courtship, as she
looked upon it, that could not explain
his intentions had better be got rid of.
never saw Harvey again until he was
married, three years after, when we
met, as they say in France, with elevat-
ed politeness. He married one of The
great bellies of society, and in two years
he was living bachelor life iii Paris
and she was living in New York City.
Perhaps Aunt Margaret was in the
right; I do not know"
But the three Misses Tibbs declared
that Aunt Margaret was not right, but
emphatically wrong, and after discuss
ing the matter a while Maud said:
But, auntie, you haven't told us
about the one real offer that you did
have"
Every we'll, said Aunt Jane, laugh
ing, It'll skip the offers I didn't have
then, and tell of the ones did have, if
you say so. You all remember Under
wood, of course. Your grandfather
boughtit, Jennie, when you were baby,
and We all spent our summers there
That's twenty years ago, and I was
then what society calls passe-in fact,
had before that made up my mind to a
life of old maidism.
Zone day had taken fancy to 20
into the kitchen and make q cake. I
did this because everybody except the
hired men and one of the chamber
maids had gone to the city, even the
cook being away for the day, the hired
men off in the fields, and Mary and I
the only occupants of the house. had
begun my cake making when I discov-
cred the want of certain spices, and
Mary volunteered to go to the store to
obtain them. She had hardly goo away
when heard a step. and raised nv ewes
to see man standing at the kitchen
door, which opened into the path that
led to the road.
MY heart was in my throat in an in
slant, and I remembered how utterly
alone 1 was. We were not afraid of
tramps in those days as now, but I
think better specimen of that genus I
never saw. He was dilapidation itself,
and as I looked at him in dazed,
frightened way, he whined:
Lady, I'm very hungry. Won't
you give me something to eat?'
"As scared as was I reasoned. I
would feed him and talk to him until
Mary returned. and would then send
her for the hired men, and so I babe
him come in and sat before him the
contents of the kitchen pantry, with an
abundance of warm coffee from the
stove. He ate like one who had not
seen food for over a month, and as he
ate poured forth the tale of his troubles.
He had been prosperous shoemaker,
having at one time had as much as $500
in the savings bank; but, as he declared,
he had been ruined by bad wife, who
would not bear with his little foibles,
one of which was his conviviality, and
so she left him, and he became a wan
derer.
"Of course I sympathized with him
in his troubles, and under this the
stimulation of the coffee, as soon as he
could eat no more, I found him on his
knees before me, pouring out his ad-
miration. Oh, if he had but such q
wife as was, what a different man he
might have been. A millionaire, per-
haps-Oh. will that girl, Mary, ever
return ?-but it was not too late yet.
1,,:fo u.s. l.