Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-11-14

said Miss Carter, shaking her Lively little
head. .sAnd his moustache! He's only
thirty SIX, you know, but his moustache
is getting gray already. If there's any
thing I admire, it's white moustache!
With his square chin, too. l nike
square chin. Don't you know 1t looks
so strong and-lovelya"
Kitty Carter laughed, and pulled up
her glove.
Wallace sat in dry silence. Listening
to gushy praise of Mary Henderson's
lover seemed to him to be the last un-
bearable straw. He neither spoke nor
smiled; he looked angrily bored. And
Kitty Carter gave little groan.
ooh, Mr. Oakley" she murmured,
"did you-didn't you-don't you know
how things arei Hasn't anybody told
| yous I've been funning, of course, but
even so, I'd never have thought of say
| ing it if you didn't know-if | weren't
engaged to him."
Wallace gaped at her. Somebody spoke
to them in passing, but he did not hear.
The music began again; he was but dim
ly conscious of it. He stared.
you're astonished, too, Miss Carter
was saying, with rosy pout. Every
| body is. Is it because I'm little? Every
body was so sure he would want to
marry some great, tall, lanky woman
everybody was so certain what his taste
would be. I never heard anything so
absurd, and Dudley says he didn't, SO
there! AS though a man falls in love
with a woman by measurement-by the
Number of inches! Why, Dudley liked
ME the minute he saw me; he says SO;
| and II fell in love with him, and I
don't care who knows it!' said Miss Car
ter, prettily and bravely. eve suit
each other, and we're willing people.
should smile if they want to. Dudley
| don't care, and don't. I'll make him as
good wife as the longest woman he
could find. And little AIice-I shall be
a good mother to her; l will do all that
! her own mother could have done; I will
| be as good to her as dear Mary Herder-
son has been. I'm little, and people
think I'm frivolous; but Dudley knows"
And Kitty Carter dashed her hand
across her wet eyes and buried her face
in her roses.
ssN1iss Carter" Wallace cried-"dear
Miss Carter, congratulate you! I know
you love him-I know he loves you.
And I'm the happiest man on the face
of the globe"
It was we'll for Wallace's reputation
for sanity that Miss Carriers agitation
caused her to lose his last phrase. She
smiled at him.
"Thank you," she said. ''I've been
confidential, haven'tI9 But we're to be
married in two months; it's all the same.
THIS is Mr.. Germans dance, and I see
him roaming around after me. Good
by, Mr.. Oakley"
Miss Carriers gay little pink figure fit
ted away.
Wallace rose. Where was Mary2 That
was the only thought in his bewildered,
aggravated, half-angry mind. Oh, where
was Mary2
And Mrs. Morgan was to blame for it.
Never again would he devote himself to
her on the hotel piazza; never again give
peppermint drops to her offspring!
What mode of stern revenge could he
best compsss?
Where was Miss Henderson? Nobody
knew, and he found himself on the ver-
anda and still frantically cropping.
It was all he could do to keep from
shrieking aloud for her.
''Miss Henderson," friendly young
woman responded-he could never after
ward recall her features. 81 saw her
step indoors moment ago-There!'
Her white draperies were visible in the
hall, and Wallace bounded forward and
pulled her behind mammoth vase, and
kept her hands in his own.
"Mary!" he cried. MARY, do you
know what I've been through2 It's
wonder my hair isn't white. But, Mary9
it was all a mlstake-all nightmare of
Mrs. Morgan's manufacture. I believe
you've been crying, Mary. How glad l
am! Well, I'm not going home this week
nor any week-or only when you go. l
want to marry you, Mary; I want to SO
much that I must! But thought you
were engaged to Mr.. Gilforth. You see,
you're his taste exactly. Everybody has
known that-Mrs. Berdan and Mrs. Nor
gan and everybody. Every body foresaw
it, because it was inevitable from the
first, you know, and it's been settled
thing right along from the beginning
Oh, Mary, do you see?"
Mary, not having superhuman mental
powers, did not see. It took five solld
minutes to make it quite clear
But her face was softly bright before
the story was told, and her lovers was
radiant; for the two great facts were
| ioyfully plain from the tirst-he cared
- e..