The Opelousas courier., 1886-11-20
Romance of a Hat Mark.

airy, slipped on some Ice at the top OF tn
marble steps and slid rapidly to the bot
tom. On his way, however, he encoun
tered a gentleman who was leisurely de
scending before him, whipped hin
briskly from his feet and brought hin
down by his side to the pavement below
This unexpected introduction was &C
companied by a prompt removal of theil
respective hats. Philips rolled down tt
the curbstone, and the strangers whirled
along the pavement to be stopped and re
turned by an opportune bootblack. For.
tunately no bodily damage was done to
ether of the embarrassed young men,
who instantly picked themselves up,
with mutually unnecessary apologies {.
Philip, perhaps, had some raison d etre,
as he had been the aggressive party, but
the same haste to catch a train that had
occasioned the rendering of the apology
made it naturally very brief. He barely
took time to assure himself that his fell
~low-voyager to the sidewalk was not
hurt, then clapped his hat on his head
and rushed onward with the same speed
that defeated itself a few seconds previ-
Gus.
We state that Philip clapped his hat
on his head, but the truth is, he clapped
On a hat in every way resembling it, yet
as unlike it as a hat that we have never
worn is unlike the hat of our everyday
wear. Philip had not gone a block
when he realized that he had made a
mistake, and exchanged hats with the
stranger, whom he had otherwise incom-
NODDED by hurting him down stairs. 1t
would seem that Destiny had been gra-
tuitously unkind through Philips I'M
meant agency to this u~nofensive way
farer, and for no apparent reason but her
W wilful fancy. However, it would
probably be useless to return t the scene
of their r%encontre. even if Philip had
had time. So he contented himself with
examining the hat as he sped up by the
Elevated to his train at Forty-second
street, and was glad to find in it a h t
mark, the initials w. w. c., neatly en-
broidered ON o band of dark garnet
silk and oruamented with sprays of floss
silk vine. No one had ever embroidered
a hat mark for Philip, and the rightful
owner of the Incorporated head-cov-
ering became at once invested with a
sort of romance in Philips mind. The
hat of itself was anything but romantic,
being n of those hard, stiff DerDies,
that seem to have been invented for no
other purpose than to counterfeit any pos
s BILE good looks on the part of the owner.
aW. w. G." Philip pondered not a
little over these cabalistic signs of
feminine care and interest; he examined
them SO closely, indeed, that, after the
manner of ardent explorers, he made
an ~unlooked-for discovery. Under tn,
little silken band wal tucked firmly a
slip of folded paper. Thinking it
might contain perhaps the full com
plement of the initials, Philip opened
and read it. A great flush passed over
his face, and his heart quickened with
sympathy. On the paper were written
these words, in a delicately feminine
hand:
"WLL-n you care to preserve this little
souvenir, you viii some time know that /
love you; too late, perhaps, for happiness,
but not too late for truth. God grant that
you may safely cross the ocean,, and cross
back again to me-
That was all. Philips ardent soul
with tenderne 5 as he re~verently
replaced the little scrap Of paper ID its
hldlng-place, and continued to look
down at it, like one in a dream How
could he put it on again, with this said
secret lowering above his brain? Ii
seemed Q sacrilege that he, a stranger,
be crowned even Temporarily
this burden of an honor into
which he was not born Of course
necessity compelled him to wear ii until
ne could procure n of his wn, but the
of those few yearning words gave
him no peace. Even when he had ceased
10 be conscious Of their actual proximity
his curly dark locks, ard was again
his man, at least to the extent of a
Derby, he was not rid OF their
haunting spell. The advertisements he
paid for in behalf of aW. W.. c. would
have purchased half q dozen hats. but
they brought him no 5 IN nor token
from the missing owner; and as time
on. the strange hat with its pathetic
lay hidden in o box in Philips
wardrobe, and became a thing of the
past.
Meanwhile Fate, spinning her web OF
many tissues. spun for Philip, among
1ther things, a hallmark Of his own. Ii
was very, very pretty, and very, very
and Philip felt like q king who
for the first time crowned with his
.oyal inheritance, when he knew that
was ad judged worthy to wear fhe
Of slender lily fingers whose light
ut touch had thrilled ssl.:a like d concen-
Of electric h~stteries. Fate's
anne, % this occasion, was Myra Browne.
ne was Iair and iight.hairsd, with pretty