The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-03-08
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Wlgtl q s5n1e
HOW he SAVED HIMSELF.
She Had the Advantage at the Start, blu
ae Was All Right.

She Had the Advantage at the Start, but
ae Was All Right.
Leap year had been On for month
and Ethelind had her net spread fol
Athelwold.
She had loved him long, because she
could not well avoid it, in2smuch as he
was 6 feet in his sock feet.
She would have loved him short, how
ever, just the same.
It is thus with women always.
And Ethelind was woman, and had
been one since the spring Of 1870.
Nor was Athelwold pullet.
Indeed, the tongue of envy had said
be was regular old rooster.
Be that as it may, Ethelind was dead
get not to let another leap year escape
into the irreclaimable past.
"Athelwold," sac said to him on the
evening III which this story opens as
they sat before the great open fireplace
In the oak wainscoted drawing room of
her ancestral castle, don't you think it
is about time you were married."
He started nervously, but there was
no escape.
'Ethelind," he said seriously, 81
thought so this evening when found
four buttons missing from my clothes,
and discovered that my shirt front was
so frazzled with wear that it could be
conbed out and parted In the middle
with d brush.
Ethelind's face was less tender. Athel-
void went on gravely:
again, Ethelind, l thought so when
I discovered that my landlady did not
know terrapin from a mock turtle and
trapped my champagne in a soup plate;
and again when the chambermaid forgot
10 set my slippers out, and went to bed
with my boots or.
The yearn which had erstwhile per-
vaded Ethelind's sweet face began to
hedge.
But Athelwold went on as gravely as
before.
Eyes, Ethelind, think it is time l
was getting a wife. On three occasions
last week was in danger of contract
ing pneumonia by waiting at the front
door for some one to let me in, and it
was only 3 q. NJ, and night before last,
when the boys were playing poker in my
room and became drier than a line full
of clothes in March wind, the landlady
raised a row because we made little
noise foraging around the pantry for
something that was wet"
He mover over nearer her side and
offered to take her hand.
''Ethelind," he said with deep earnest
ness, ~ think it is time was getting
wife to keep things in more convenient
shape about me. WHIP
Ethelind arose to her full height and
looked down upon him.
Hold off, Mr. Athelwold Bumhurst,"
she whispered hoarsely. "Hold off. l
asked you if you didn't think it was
time you were married. You have an
swered me. l believe you. But Mr..
Bumhurst," and her voice grew harder
still, Il don't think it is near time was
getting married. You will find the
front door in its accustomed place.
Good evening, sir"
And Ethehnd went hurriedly to her
maiden chamber over the portcullis
window.
Athelwold found the front door as she
had said.
As he stood upon the other side of the
moat he looked toward the moss grown
walls of the grim gray castle and saw
the Pickering light in the portcullis win
dow
Truth crushed to earth may rise
again, he sad, as he turned ave., "but
a bachelor, never"
And the light over the pOrtculis sput-
tered ana went out.-Detroit Free Press.