Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-03-01
Ser Mistake.

chedpenlnS the butcherI' SAYS Belinda,
with her laugh. "Or shopping in
waterproof? Am l your idea of the
person who would take an interest in
houSework, and darn your socks in the
evening as recreation? My dearest
Jack, if you think anything so absurd
you must be even a greater fool than
take you fOrT'
And you are SO clever-So confOund-
eddy clever, you know, Belinda" says
Jack, looking at her curiOusly through
his half closed eyes.
Belinda has taken the chair oppO-
site to him-a great deep chair which
acts as a frame to her fair assured
beauty and the rich softneSs of her
costly dress.
"Tm honest" answers Belinda, land
romap'U too. That is, as romantic as
most people. Theoretically romantic
you knOw-and in practice, practical.
My dear Jack. l may have been-I
don't say that L have, you know-Senti-
mental enough to fall i'm love with a
clerk, but l shall not be fool enough
to marry him"
THANK you,'' says Jack, still look
ing at her indolently.
Il am glad you are grateful" an,
swers Belinda. You ought to be. l
am sparing you a great deal. What
would you do with wife who wanted
about double your entire annual ip-
come for dress allowance"
Jack is understood to murmur lazily
"a ho
to make a good many sacrifices.
"Sacrifcesi' echoes Belinda. How
bourgeois and high-minded we are! My
dear Jack, the influence of the country
clergyman, your papa and your
mamma, is painfully apparent even
now! If people are not to marry to
better themselves, why in the world
should they marry at all?'
"Effete persons in the country, Be
linda" says Jack, leaning forward and
looking into her face with an odd in
tentness, occasionally marry for love"
do you offer their example for my
benefit" says Belinda, laughing lit
tie. Perhaps she laughs to cover some
slight and unusual nervousness. A
faint color fiickers for a moment in her
cheeks, and dies away and leaves her
pale.
Il have the audacity to do so,' says
Jack
Its absurd, and Quixotic, and ride
ulouS, of course. / don't think [ eX-
pect you to follow it. The instances
in which women have found affection
capable of making life more tolerable
than do a town house and country
house, and a first rate dressmaker, are
uncOmmonly rare. Yet they have been,
Belinda
Have they?" says Belinda. is
there any proof that the women who
have married for affection wouldn't be
ready to barter it at the end of a year
or two for those other advantages. The
birthright for the mess of pottage,
you would say. But my sympathies
have always been with Esau'
Suppose" says Jack, with some
thing that is eager and strained under
his light manner, eve come to the
point. Do you care for me, Belinda?"
81 am going to be honest in every re-
spect," says Belinda, with the color
coming and going in her face. go
yes"
"Will you marry me, BeHnda"
There is a pause.
NO" says Belinda, but as if it hurt
her.
''Why not?"
Honesty again." answers Belinda
lightly. She feels, perhaps, as if that
ightness were a sort of safeguard.
'"To put it brutally, I don't consider
that love and a cIerkship are enough
to live upon"
'Is this fnal?' says Jack, still very
intently.
"It Is so final" she answers, that I
must ask you never to mention the sub
ject again I have my feelings, too,
you know. I wish, perhaps, they were
strong enough, as some women's have
been, to let me do as you wish. But
they are not. Spare me as much as
you can. When 1 am rich and pros
porous I shall, no doubt regret you.
But if I had you, I should spend my
life regretting the richness and pros
perity. L choose the lesser of two
evils
"And suppose, Belinda" says the
man, ''that you had been fortunate
enough to fall in love with a rich
man.?
ST can't suppose anything so absurd"
answers Belinda. "That sort of thing
does not happen outside novels"
"Somatimas he answers Hthorph
rarely. Yesterday 1 was a poor man;
today, through the death of a relative,
I am a rich one"
She looks at him suddenly. The
color burns into her face and dies out
of it. She reads contempt in his eyes
"a scathing contempt for her.
81 leave here early tomorrow morn
ing" she says at last and very steadi-
~. II will say goodbye to you now"
He opens the door for her. and as
she passes him their eyes meet for the
last time