Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-08-02
A MODERN WOMAN.

Margaret Brockton never for an instant
suspected herself of being sentimentalist
She thought she was modern in every par
ticular, including heart and soul. She
was charming, she knew. and somewhat
vain, clever and little mercenary and
thoroughly worldly wise and worldly
minded. And yet there were three years
when Miss Brockton rivaled any old time
heroine of romance in her sentimental at
titude.
1t happened in this wise; One day,
when she was 23, there came to her GER
tain stalwart fellow she had known from
infancy and told her what she already
kncw-that he loved her and wished to
marry her. Miss Brockton, liking him
exceedingly well, realizing how pleasant
life might be made with his money, his
name, his devotion to her and his compan-
ionship and deciding that the ecstatic love
of which poems and novels treated would
never come to her anyway, accepted him.
The engagement came out duly; the cups
and saucers came in. Margaret liked Jack
WhittlGstone great deal and found the
position of fiancee charming, and all was
well.
llth Ullt NlIllln uppCtIItu upon JuO
scene in the shape of Louis Radcliffe,
Jacks cousin. Louis was delightfully."-
unmodern person, who seemed to have tax
en- for his model some of the early Vic
torian heroes He was a combination of
youthful rOmanticism, elderly cynicism
and other interesting qualities. He had
superb sCorn of the conventions, magnif-
iccnt belief in himself and correspond
ing amiable skeptiCism in regard TO other
people.
He interested" Margaret greatly she
said, at first. Then she ceased to say any
thing about him. Jack, not being skilled
in the ways of women, did not worry over
either his bctrothcd S speech or it's absence.
He knew the new woman" well enough
not to assert his rights and bid her have
less conversation with his cousin, even had
he wished to do so. Liberty being the law
of Margarct's life and unsuspecting good
nature of Jacks, the situation had every
chance to complicate itself.
1t did so promptly. Margaret, who had
decided that fervid and ccstatic love was
not at all likely to come her way, awoke
one fine morning to the realization that
the universe had in it just one man
1'tSh III lJhNNlDlNi lJONNINl NIIlNhCIl, lIIb-
sistible cousin. And Jucll's cousin, who
had laughed ut Margaret's feminine cynio-
ism and pretcnse of GOODNESS, felt that she
and she alone could be the complement to
his life. They were both unhappy enough
to give them credit for some good intcn-
tons, but in the midst of their unhappi-
ness they were supremacy conscious Of
what triilc misery was compared to the
joy Of seeing each other.
Margaret knew perfectly, in her few
sane hours, that she did not wish to marry
Louis Radcliffe. She realized that he
would develop into thoroughly undesir-
able sort of husband, even apart from his
poverty.
"If only l could get over this" she
monned to herself. cat 40 l should be
wretchcd with him, at 40 should be COM
Portable if not madly happy with Jack.
If only, if only l were 40 now!"
1t was one day when she and Louis had
sat for an hour staring ahead of them at
the sea that the climax came.
"Why don't you talk?'' demanded Mar
garct finding her hcartbeats oppressive
because l cannot say what l wish to-"
he answered. Then, of course, he proceed
w 7lN lllN llllIlESS NIlltll llt SIlOulu nOJ
have said. And for a few minutes the sea
and sky reclod before their eyes and they
brcathcd as if in trance. After which,
to the saCrifcial modern man
ncr, they decided to part, and the next day
the community was startled to learn that
Mr. Radcliffe was going to Europe.
Then it was that Margaret showed how
lacking she was in the modern
spirit she had always claimed.
1t gave her moQrnful satisfaction to
think that, though she could not marry
Louis, who, to tell the truth, had not asked
her to do so, she need not marry Jack So
she broke her engagement promptly and
proceeded TO indulge herself In her great
grief. She heard nothing of either of the
cousins for u long time, for naturally her
course of action with Jack had suspended
between the families.
For three years she was secretly rs ro-
mantle as the most romantic schoolgirl.
She thought of Louis constantly and
pleased herself by imagining that he, in
Egypt or Algicrs or wherever he was, must
know her thoughts. She was exceedingly
happy with her grief. Outwardly She
seemed much tho same, but inwardIy she
'OhAONiSuSVu CILc hWdy VI lONC anu lIB
power.
One evening three years after Louis
Radcliffe had gone away she went to re-
ccption a little pudgy woman, over
dressed and overgemmed, stood by her
hostess side.
My cousin, Mrs. Radcliffe, Miss Brock
ton, said her hostess. And then, with
sudden remembrance: "YOu must recall
Mr.. Radcliffe. He was Jack Whittlestone's
cousin, you know"
And then as Margaret cordially inquired
after Mr. Radcliffe and said how she well
him, sentimcntalism for the
lrst time fell away from her From that
moment she was the really skeptical and
modern" woman she had al
ways claimed to be.-Exchange.
An Early War Correspondent.
In 1856 DR.. w. II. Russell was a barrfs-