Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-06-15

Then he remembered that Dick possibly
wanted to present him, and, dropping the
curtain in great haste, he confronted the
pair. The vision had cold and naughty
look, and Dick was clearly embarrassed.
Spriggs appreciated his awkward position
fully, and with great effort made him.
self exceedingly agreeable. Indeed, in his
AFFECT humiliation, ne was SO devoted
that Dick was led to whisper to his
fianeee: "Your sunny headed friend seems
to have caught Uncle Zeke hard"
When Spriggs went home he sat down
and went over the events Of the evening
The vision was certainly handsome and
could talk as few women were able, but
he shuddered at the thought of her hair.
1t was an unmistakable red. Neyerthe-
less, he had asked permission to call and
it had been gracioGsly granted. Spriggs
called and then called again. In a short
time his leisure hours were about evenly
divided between his investigations and the
fisio--. Spriggs was struck hard, SO hard,
indeed, that when in her delightful pres
ence he almost forgot his hobby. He in
yariably hired a white horse, however
when he took her out driving. Once he
had the temerity to try bay horse, but
he never repeated the experiment. He
was uneasy the whole time, for while his
heart and soul were with his companion
his mind and eyes sadly missed the famil
Tar sequence.
One evening, as matters were approach
ing a crisis, Spriggs found himself seated
in close proximity to his inamOrata. II
mad fully made up his mind to settle the
matter at once and have done with it
There was just enough manly conceii
about him to make him feel assured that
his suit would not be unsuccessful, but it
was with considerable trepidatien that he
approached the subject. The conyersa-
ton had drifted, as lovers talk Invariably
will, to the personal, and Spriggs was ex-
patiating on early struggles and ambi-
tons.
~ had hard time of it when l was
young" he was saying. "My nature was
not one to make friends readily, and fe-
male friends were exceedingly rare In
deed, my mother was the only woman
with whom / felt really at ease. Then,
as my business grew, had so much to
attend to that social pleasures Were al
most unknown"
There was silence for a moment; both
intuitively felt that the time was almost
at hand. The vision was seated facing the
deep bay window with her head just
touching the curtains, while Spriggs sat
so that his back was toward the street.
He generally sat that way when in her
company TO avoid the temptation of look
ing out when he heard horse passing.
Then Spriggs meditatively resumed;
Until lately | thought that I should
always move along in the rut | have
fallen into, but now I am bold enough to
hope for something infinitely better"
As Spriggs in his earnestness leaned
forward, his quick ear heard the distant
pit-a-pat of 3 trotting horse. His first
impulse was TO turn and look out, but
with mighty effort he restrained him.
self, and, leaning still further, he CROPPED
blindly, excitedly for her hand. Nearer
and nearer came the horse, but Spriggs
now had a firm grasp on her hand.
81 do hope for something infinitely bet
ter, and-and"-
''Wel," softly breathed the vision,
while her glorious eyes gazed dreamily
past him into the deepening night.
EAnd-now it all rests on a single
word. Can you-will you-dear Miss
Iucy-is that white horse?"
Dick Spriggs said the other day that if
he did not read the papers for himself
every morning, he would imagine from
Uncle Zeke's appearance that Northwest
ern had slumped off about 600 points.-E.
A. Custer in Detroit Free Press.