The Washington critic., 1886-10-30
MASQUERADING.

threw aside the paper she had been
leading with an expression of extreme
disgust on her usually merry face.
"Why, what has your sex been
doing?" asked her brother Walter
looking up In surprise from his writing
desk.
isn't this enough to make any
modest girl blush ?" said Mabel, TAX
ing up the paper. Such an adver.
tisement And they are getting quite
common, too-just listen:
"'A young lady not much over
twenty, handsome, intelligent and mod
erately wealthy, wishes TO open a cor
Iespondence with a young or middle
aged single gentleman. Object mutual
improvement and perhaps matrimony.
Address Annie Laurie
"Well, what harm Is there in that?'
said Walter. "'A young lady not
much over twenty wants II husband.
No doubt she has exhausted the means
that are usually employed to obtain the
article, and the newspaper is her last
resort. | wish her success, and think
the time Is not far distant when hus
bands and kitchen maids will be adver-
tised for in the same column of wants"
IL don't" said Mabel, "and protest
against a woman's advertising her
heart for sale as she would her house"
81 think the idea is q good one,"
said Walter, "much more honest ana
sensible than to plaster her yellow face
with cosmetics, pile several ounces of
false hair over her own scanty locks
nd Col
posal, who, sooner or later, finds him
self engaged to one of these self
made young ladies; and for the life of
him he cannot tell how it all came
about"
"Few women are obliged to resort to
such measures, and even that is not so
bad, when the men are silly enough to
fall into such traps, as to come out in
o glaring advertisement. So you see |
am going TO make an example of
Annie Laurie, provided you will help
me-"
What shall I do? Answer the ad.
vertisement and follow it up with
correspondence that will end, as the
writer suggests, in matrimony?"
"Not exactly. will answer the ad.
vertisement. pretending to be man, of
course. You see, she is an old maid,
and no doubt her heart is pretty we'll
calloused by previous disappointments,
and not likely to suffer much from
another, when she sees her adorer-for
/ will appoint place to meet her, after
awhile, and give her lecture on wo
mans rights-and wrongs. / want
you to mail the letters and be with me
at the denouement. Won't 1t be fun?'
Walter Lee, fresh from college in.
trigues, entered readily into the practi.
cal joke, and Mabel, opening her desk,
wrote, In large, masculine hand, the
following:
Miss ANNE: am widower of thirty
five, good-looking and industrious, with a
well furnished house. But | am very
lonely since the lily Of my heart dropped
into the dust. My sainted Mary Ami How
/ miss her sweet presence! Aud unless
some other fairy form will come to fill the
aching void left in my heart its walls will
certainly cave in with the pressure of grief.
believe in second love. Does the candle
flame go out because another has been
lighted from it? Then why should the
flame of love go out with the light it has
bestowed upon another
The first consolation that came to me In
the dark hours OF my bereavement was the
thought that the golden gates of matrlmony
would again open at my bidding. The fact
that SO dearly loved my angel, Mary Ann,
is proof positive that could love with
equal fervor one equally worthy.
Now, my dear yoang lady, II you receive
another answer to your advertisement that
impresses you more favorably than mine,
you need not answer this, and will seek
elsewhere tor one to heal my wounded
heart. Until then i am yours, truly,
ROBIN ADAIR.
This letter Walter carried gleefully
to the postoifice, and three days later
startled "Robin Adair," who was stand
ing before the mirror pulling at mass
of golden brown hair, that insisted
upon taking Its own natural wave in.
stead of the fashionable French one its
owner was trying to produce.
MY dear sir, here Is letter for
YOU" said Walter, holding toward her
diminutive, rose colored envelope.
"But hadn't you better take my hat
and cigar case. and try to look little
more masculine?" he added laughingly.
II fancy if Annie Laurie were to see
you now, she would sell her matrimo.
nia interest in you for little or moth
ing"
"I'll make her willing to add a pre-.
MUM to the price of nothing" said
Mabel, as she tore open the envelope.
The letter was written In small, stiff
looking characters, as though the au-
thor aimed at being neat, but only sus.
ceeded in being prim, 1t ran as fol-
lows.
MY DEAR SIR: received no answer to
my advertisement that | valued as | do
yours. | am somewhat bashful, aud half
regretted writing the notice, fearing the
gentlemen would think me bold and un-
maidenly. But on reading your letter my
regrets all vanished. The same sentiments
which 1t breathed have slumbered for years
in my own heart-though they have never
yet been awakened by the possession or loss
of companion. ! appreciate your great
love for your wife, which, as you say, only
proves your capablllty of exercising that
emotion.
/ am not a bread and butter school girl
but a sensible young lady, with settled ideas
OF life and its Responsibilities. never write
poetry-neyer indulge In rhapsOdies over
the moon; but | understand all the details
OF housekeeping-hay good education
and can adorn both the parlor and the
kitchen.
/ believe woman's sphere is home. She
is the sun of the solar system OF domestic
life, and there her light should shine.
My tastes are thoroughly domestic. !
have long wanted to be the Ivy for some
sturdy, shattered oak. Hoping, kind sir,
that you may be my long sought oak,
am Yours truly,
ANNIE LAURIE.
Mabels red lips curlod as she llnishel
reading this letter aloud
= ITS mystery to me-" she said,
That SO many good qualities as this