The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-03
THE WORLDS WAY.

perpetual spinsterhood, and signed the
agreement in trde Draconian fashion.
Their names were Marion Gray, Annabel
Summers and Susie Lee, and the docu-
ment which they drew up on a winters
afternoon, when they ought to have been
writing an essay on the reign of Henry
1 VIII, was as follows: :
1--WE, the undersigned, being fully con-
WINGED of the degeneracy and inferiority of
/ the male sex, and being assured that the
! friendship of each of the two others for the
| third lit took them a long time to bring
this idea into SHAPED will be amply suffi-
Gent for our wants in life, solemnly under
! take never to marry, but to stay by each
| other, admitting no fourth party TO our
circle, and when we leave school to live all
together happily in a little house until
death do US part"
| Then each of them pricked her finger
and scratched her initials at the foot Of the
page 1ney could not do more, for the
/ supply of fluid ran short, and you see they
did BOT want to hurt themselves more than
was absolutely necessary.
/ Marion and Annabel were the leading
| spirits in this conjuration. Marion had an
elder brother who delighted in ferreting
and shooting rabbits, and said that Tenny-
son and Mrs. Browning were all rot" so
her contempt for man is Ineligible. An
mabel, who had no brother, based her mig
anthropy on grounds of pure reason. But
Susie. the youngest, who thought that if
all men were only half as nice as her father
they could not be altogether vile, wavered
for moment before signing She had only
just lately been building up for herself out
of surreptitiously read novels hero COM
pounded of all the salient qualities of all
the heroes of romance and history. 1t was
very hard to give up this wonderful being,
as she was conseientiously bound to do if
she entered into the compact, especially as
he had already condeseended to allow her
to worship him and seek the protection of
his strong right arm. OF course she did
not tell her fniends this, but they noticed
her reluctance. Annabel overpowered her
with metaphysics and Marion came out
with the much more practical argument:
IF you don't sign you don't care little
bit about US, and we will live in the little
house without you"
So Susie, finding that two solid girl
friends unbalanced one imaginary hero,
however weighted he was with noblest at
tributes, signed him away in a little red
scrawl, though it seemed to be her hearts
blood she was sacrificing instead of her
thumbs.
Now naidens at school may propose
unto themselves all kinds of delightful
plans, but when they go out into the world
they find circumstances too strong for the
execution thereof Thus it happened that
years afterward, not very many, but
vaguely long to these maidens, when
fingers were no longer inky, and oranges
were no longer eaten, with delicious sense
of wrongdoing, in their bedrooms, and
when Henry VIII himself was mere dim
impression, they thought no more of the
little house, that miniature Castle Ada
mant, in which they were to lead Their
idyllic existence.
Marion, who was rich, lived in a great
country house in Pertbshire; Annabel, who
was poor, was making her way upon the
London stage, and Susie was taking care
of her father in little Devonshire town.
They corresponded voluminously, as is the
way of maidens who have sworn eternal
friendship, but since that dark and fearful
day when Marion left school the three had
never once found themselves together.
But at the beginning of one August, aft
er dancing through long London season,
Marion found herself among the pines and
larches and the glories of the Perthshire
hills, together with Annabel and Susie. OF
the three Susie had changed least; she was
the same quiet plain frocked little maiden
she had been Mt school; but Annabel had
the actress tousled hair and daring grace
fulness of costume, and Marion was the
fashionable young lady with taste for
satire and epigram.
do you remember this," asked Marion
the day after her guests had arrived. she
was showing them her treasures. The one
designated was an old leaf torn out of an
exercise book, with three faint yellow
scrawls at the bottom of it. Something of
the schoolgirl was in them still, for they
did not laugh at themselves.
81 have not altered my views" said An
mabel, land | shall always hold to them.
The more / see of men, and / see good
deal of them on the stage, the more am l
convinced that they are very inferior lot
i chucked one only the other day"
"What do you mean" asked Susie in
some alarm
II mean that have refused one offer Of
marriage already"
well, so have T." said Marion. "And
you, Susiet Have you nobly kept to your
bond and Taught one these lower animals
his position!"
Yes" sighed Susie. She looked away,
and her eyes filed with tears. Evidently
she did not find the rejection Of suitors so
amusing.
Tell US all about it, Susie"
81 can't; don't ask me about II, please
don't" And rising hurriedly she left the
lawn. where the three were sitting, and
ran into the house The two girls looked
at one another.
Il wonder whether the little goose looks
upon this nonsense as binding" said Ma
rion.
Il think that you and weren't hit, and
she is,' said Annabel smoothing her gown
HIN Perhaps more is learned from
mission than admission" replied Marion
She said no more, but that evening. be
fore she went 70 sleep her fancies were not
strictly in accordance with the tenor Of the
compact. Some one WAS coming soon whom
she could 70: look upon as an inferior an
imal He had not yet given her the chance
of refusing him, il is true, but-aTd al this
but" she staid very pleasantly until she
dropped asleep As for Sslsie, a tender spot
had been touched rather rudely. she lag
awake, too, some time that night She
thought of certain hspasome, pennfiess
scapegrsce, in whose arms she had crlsd
bitterly on thst last day when she had tod
him thRt she eonId not fearr her fatae-
against his will. and had promised 70 v-ss:t
and sit unfIl ne inside name ana fsEssfcr
himself Indeed, old General I-ec lad
threatened 70 hU-Sewaip kim If ever be
dared speak or write 70 his asugkte- again,
saEc s~zErgsEsSs. Dt-Gsg an SnSetagr-t
scar--zrsc-. szsa knowing Ihzt TIE general
was man OF hrs werd- had pruden;ly vaa-
shed into the unknown. taking S1sse's
heart with h:s-