The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-06

be an engaged man before another
week. Thursday night is the Beldon
bali; I'll settle matters there"
Thursday night came. Dora was be-
witchingly attired in a floating mass of
pale yellow gauze which made her look
| like an escaped sunbeam. Toward the
| close of the evening he manag ed to get
| her away from her circle of admirers
into the conservatory, that paradise Of
| lovers, where he poured out his passion.
What was his astonishment and indig-
nation to meet with a decided refusal.
She was engaged already, she assured
him; her lover was poor and she was
young. and it had been thought best
not to announce it at present. He re-
| preached her with unfair conduct to
himself, and she replied: II am sure I
never dreamed of your meaning any
thing by your little attentions to me.
Everyone thinks you are engaged to
, hiss Ferrars and Mrs. Grytan told
mamma months ago that she was sure
| there was an understanding between
| you and Agnes Moulton."
Chagrined and furious, Mr. Middle
| ton made his way back to the ball
room, where he vented his spite in a
way fatal to his best interests. He
vowed to himself that he would marry
before either of those girls should do
so. Who was his partner for the next
dance? Lilly Edgerton. He would
propose to her as soon as it was over;
she was a nice girl enough, used to be
a great belle, had fiirted desperately,
but what Of that? Marry he would
ard at once. He carried out his inter-
ton; Miss Edgerton was much aston
ished, and she may have had shrewd
suspicion of the truth; but she was too
clever a woman of the world not to
profit by her opportunity. and she ac-
copied him Immediately.
He went the next evening to see
Josephine, before going to place his be-
trothal ring on Lilies finger, and told
her of his engagement. Her face was
study in which sorrow and surprise
were strongly blended. "She thinks
me an ass" he muttered to himself as
he left the house, land she thinks
about right"
Less than a month later the fashion
able columns of the daily newspapers
chronicled brilliant wedding in which
Mr. Augustus Middleton and Miss Lii
liam Edgerton were the contracting
parties There was a trip to the Ber-
mudas, series of receptions in their
new home, and all the feting and at
tention usually shown newly-married
pair.
On one of these occasions Mrs. Mid.
fleton said to her husband: do you see
low devoted Fred Cartester is to Jose.
I,hine Ferrars? 1 hope it will make a
match"
"Josephine!'' he exclaimed, in an an
1oyed tone. ''Impcssible!' He had
come to regard Josephine as his own
especial property. Surely his friend
was not going to desert him, too.
Why impossible?" demanded Mrs.
Middleton, sharply. ''Shc is no older
than and much more agreeable than
raost Of those chits of girls
''She is thirty-two. 1 thought you
were twenty-four.
so l am to the world at large. You
don't suppose any woman out of her
teens tell the truth about her age, do
your
Mrs. Middleton had no intention that
the intimacy between her husband and
Miss Ferrars should continue, and she
spoke her real sentiments when she
said she hoped for the match. 1t was
not made, however, and month later
Mrs. Ferrars and her daughter left
town for an extended trip abroad
Mr.. Middleton, having married in
h;ute, now had time to repent at leis-
ulc. He found that his wife was sell
fish, worldly woman, with not a little
of the shrewd in her makeup. She
cared nothing for him, and for his
home, only that she might exhibit it's
beautiful appoin tments to the outside
world. He missed his old friends, with
whom his wife would have nothing to
do, and he could not endure the fash
io.aable circle with which she surround
ed herself; SO he gave his days to the
law and his evenings to the club. and
sighed sometimes for the bachelor
days when he was free to picture an
ideal home of domestic felicity. But if
Mrs. Middleton did nothing else for her
husband. one thing she did with entire
tkOroughness, she took the conceit out
of him. He was much smaller man in
hs own estimation than when he had
offered his name and his fortune to
LILLIAN Edgerton. He knew now that
he had never loved anyone but Joseph
inc Ferrars; and he felt himself to
hare been an egrcgious fool that he
had not tried to win in his mature man
hood what she had denied to his callow
youth. He did not suspect the truth,
though his wife did, that he would have
been entirely successful.
To end in the regulation way. Mr.
Middleton ought to have found himself
q widowcr at the END of the year, with
a tiny baby girl dependent upon him
for love and care; and Josephine on her
return from Europe, should have been
prevailed upon to be mother to tie
little creature; but things do not end
in the regulation way in real life.
On the contrary, Mrs. Middleton pre-
sented him with n bouncing boy and
WIGS soon in the fun tide Of fashionable
life once more; and he scarcely saw Jo-
sephlne again. She married an AIneri.
can artist whom she had met abroad,
and removed to distant city, while
Mr.. Middleton devoted his life to his
profession and to his children. and
found in them some of the happiness
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