Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-20
LOTTIE DEANE'S MISTAKE.

Mr.. Ross Deane was a thriving young
surveyor in large country t,wn
One day Mrs. Ross Deane was mending
her husband S office coat and singing cheeri
ly over her task. She was a pretty little
woman, with pink cheeks and wavy fair
hair and great blue eyes, sunny and in
nOcent In expression as little child's. If
her mouth was a trife large nobody ever
noticed it for admiring the scarlet lips and
white teeth that CLEANED out when she
smiled which was not seldom, for she was
a merry little body, as sparkling and
sunshiny as if she had never a care in the
world
And really, when you came to think
about It, her cares were very few; and her
pleasures many. Hadn' she the handsom
est and dearest husband in the world, who
petted and humored her to her heart IS con-
! tent? 1t is very queer, the fondness some
! women have for being petted It's rather
a cat-like trait, this liking to be purred and
coddled so much.
Then she had the sweetest love of a
! baby; but that was rather partnership
concern-there were grandparents and
aunts innumerable, who put in a claim to
| baby, to say nothing of the little ones
father; while her handsome Ross was all her
own individual property.
| At least she thought he was, till she
very unwisely undertook to mend that of
flee coat of his. She had bounced upon it
trat morning, when previous to a shop
ping expedition. she had penetrated to his
office at the back of the HOUSEKEEPING III
want of more mOney-and had conhscated
it directly, declaring that 1t was shame
for anybody to wear such a dllapldated
arrangement, and her husband shouldn t
do it another day, so there!
| There was only one more pocket to look
after now, and then the tiresome job
roundeay, she turned it inside out. The
song died on her lips as a tiny, scented
enveIop dropped out and tluttered to the
floor. She stopped to pick it up, and,
noticing the feminine handwriting on the
| outside, opened it. of course, but with an
odd misgiving at her heart regarding the
act. nevertheless.
! Perhaps she had better not have opened
it. won't undertake to say whether it
was best or not; but always believed that
! where ignorance is bliss, 1twas exceed
ingly foolish to become enlightened Of
Your own free will, as this child was doing,
for this is what she read:
, DEAR MIR. DEANE: OF course you will
be at the masquerade tomorrow evening.
| won t tell you what character | shall as
sumo but if you were to wear pink DOM
inc with a white rose in your button-hole,
and you were to meet another pink domino
With a red rose in its hand-how can | tell
who it would be?
BELLE"
! to take it. Mrs Deane knew we'll enough
who wrote-knew that the letter WASH t
half so bad as it sounded. SJill it was
proof that the Irritation = which Mrs
Deane had heretofore believed to be car
ried on chiefly by Miss Belle-was
going altogether too far to be pleasant to
the lookers-on - when the looker-On
happened to be the wife of one of the par
| ties.
AS long as Miss Belle Preston made
eyes at handsome Ross Deane, only to be
careIessly Aattered in return by him, and
afterward laughed at alike by both Mr.
and Mrs Deane, it was very little the
latter cared about it. She called the girl
a goose to herself, was politely cordial to
her before folks, and never gave the mat
ter another thought.
Miss Preston was a goose, of course, but
quite pretty, winning little goose after
all. She was rather dasling in her ways
smoked cigarettes, talk ed slang Of
which Mrs. Deane particularly detested-
and tried to ape the manners generally OF
the masculine half of creation. Of course
she made a failure of it, but men are re-
markably tolerate of bright, saucy, black
eyed failures of the Belle Preston kind;
and so they laughed at her a little, but
fattered her great deal more, and not a
few fell in love with her continually.
DIT Il olo hot ho-
husband should be caught in the tolls of
siren like this; and she was properly in
dignant at finding that the two were on
familiar terms enough for notes to pass
between them-and such notes, too.
The bold thing to ask another wO-
man s hus band to come to the masquerade
to meet her-she ought to be ashamed of
herself.' muttered Mrs Ross Deane angri-
ly. And he, too, after pretending to me
that he thought she was horrid i hate
him." and she stamped her little foot, and
subsidized into fit of the Sulks.
But her nature was too healthy to per-
nit long indulgence in feelings of that
kind; so before long, she found herself
wondering what she would do about it.
Was she going to sit still and let this
woman win away her husband without an
effort en- her part to prevent 1t? Not she.
ShH would go TO TINS masquerade herself.
W hat she would do there she hadn fully
determined upon. She would We ar pink
domino and carry a red rose in her hand;
and f Ross Deane should happen to mis-
take her for the fascinating Miss Preston
why. how could she help it? Any
way. she knew she shouldn't try to help
it. Let him blunder if he liked; she
didn't care.
Her mind once made up, she looked to
see when the note was dated. 1t was
written the day before she found it, so
that the masquerade WAS to be that very
, evening. No time was to be lost, evil
IDENTIFY, if she wanted to attend. They had
received cards several days before, but
Ross had declared himself averse to going,
, and so Mrs. Deane had thouA at no more
about it, Now she saw his decision In a
; different light.
; He didn't want me to CO." she muir
.. INJURED to herself" and be thought he
{ could make some excuse to be away this
+ But we'll see how his plans turn out. m
t very much afraid he'll be disappointed.
!. Well see" and the red lips were COM
t pressed firmly, and the little bands were
t tightly clenched.
q When everything was finished she sat
T down on the sofa in the pretty parlor.
p There Ross found her, sitting soberly
: bending forward little, with her white
!, hands clasped in her lap. She did not
: look up to greet him when he entered.
She was too angry. and she waved him
/ back haughtily when he stooped to kiss