Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-06-22
A LOVE STORY.


She thought sho was modern In every par-
ticular, including heart and soul. She was
charming, she knew, and somewhat vain
clever and little mercenary and thor.
oughly worldly wise and worldly minded.
And yet there were three years when Miss
Brockton rivaled any old time heroine Of
romance I'm her sentimental attitude.
10 happened In this wise. One day,
when she was 23, there came 20 her a Ger
tain stAlwart fellow she had known from
infancy and told her what she already
knew, that he loved her and wished To
marry her. Miss Brockton, liking him cx-
oeeding well, rsalixing how pleasant life
might DO made with his money, his name,
his devotion to her and his companionship,
and deciding that the ecstatio 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
Whittlestone n great deal and found the
position OF fancee charming and all was
well.
Then the villain appeared upon the scene
In tho shape OF Louis Radcliffe Jacks
cousin. Louis was delightfully."- unmodern
person who seemed to have taken for his
model some of the early Victorian heroes
He was n combination Of youthful roman
ticism, elderly cynicism and other interest
ing qualities. He had n superb scorn of
the conventions, n magnificent belief In
himself and n corresponding amiable skep-
ticism In regard 10 other people.
He interested Margaret greatly, she
said mt 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 betrotheds speech or It's alb
sence. 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 10. Liberty being
the law OF Margaret's life and unsuspect-
ing good nature Of Jacks, the situation
had every chance to complicate itself.
1t did so promptly. Margaret, who had
decided that fervid and ecstatic love was
not at all likely TO come her way, awoke
one fine mornngto the realization that
the universe had In 1t just one man-Jack's
impossible, poverty stricken, irresistible
cousin. And Jacks cousin, who had
laughed at Margaret's feminine cynicism
and pretense of coldness, felt that she and
she alone could DO the complement TO his
life They were both unhappy enough TO
give them credit for some good intentions,
but in the midst OF their unhappiness they
were supremely conscious of what trifie
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 n thoroughly undesira-
bic sort of husband, even apart from his
poverty.
"If only could get over this" she
moaned to herself "at 40 / should be
wretched with him, at 40 / should be COM
Portable if not madly happy with Jack. If
only-if only 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 talkY' demanded Mar
garet, finding her heartbeats oppressive.
"Because L cannot say what / wish TO, ~
he answered. Then, of course, he proceed
ed To say the things which he should not
have said, and for n few minutes the sea
and sky reeled before their eyes, and they
breathed as If 10 u trance. After which,
according to the sacriicial modern man
ner, they decided to part and the next day
the community was startled to learn that
the erratic Mr.. Radcliffe was going to Eu-
rope.
Then it was that Margaret showed how
thoroughly lacking she was In the modern,
mercenary spirit she had always claimed.
1t gave her a mournful satisfaction to
| think that, though she could not marry
Louis-who, to tell the truth, had not ask
ed 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 long time for naturally her
course Of action with Jack had suspended
communication between the families.
For three years she was secretly as ro-
mantle as the most romantic schoolgirl
She thought of Louis constantly and pleas
cd herself by imagining that he, in Egypt
or Algiers or wherever he was, must know
her thoughts. She was exceedingly happy
with her grief. Outwardly she seemed
much the same, but inwardly she acknowl-
edged the sway of love and its power.
One evening three years after Louis
Radcliffe had gone away she went to re-
ception. 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 s
cousin, you know"
And then, as Margaret cordially inquir-
ed after Mr.. Radcliffe and said how she
well remembered him, sentimentalism for
the first time fell away from her. From
that moment she was the really skeptical
and thoroughly "modern" woman she had
always claimed to be.-New York World.