Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1896-03-18

W s::sz e::s 9! 9! ~: :s:: :s :sa!::: 2: l.:
gentleman and all around good fellow
he, Charlie Brown, actually in the
meshes of love, frightfully, sentiment
ally, desperately in love.
And with whom? A girl he con-
iessed did not care snap for him
Mary Chisholm, rich, cultured, trav-
eled, cynical and proud.
'Look here, Brown" said Van
Tweet, one day, in Browns room,
throwing one leg over the over and
looking his friend straight in the eye,
something very serious is the matter.
have quietly studied You for some
time and diagnosed your case very
carefully. You are in love. Come,
now, who is she? Out with it.
Brown tried to look surprised, and
then aippant.
"Tut, tut!" said Van Tweet, "you
can't simulate any beguiling non
chalsnce before me; you can't deceive
Van Tweet. If you are in trouble over
an affair of the heart, make me your
confdant. I haven't thing in the
world to worry about. haven't even
q thing to think about just now. Let
me in ON the ground floor. Now, then,
it's love, isn't it"
Brown swept his hand over his fore
head and stretched himself, like man
who is undergoing struggle with
himself, and then he blurted out:
sIt's love! Just think of itl L.
me--.falling in love! Don't you think
trepanning would be good for me?"
And he jumped to his feet and
towsled his hair like a tragedian.
ssSit down, Brown. IT'S o mighty
good thing you relieved yourself of
this secret. The fever has mounted
from your heart to your brain. A few
months more of this suppressing agony
and I don't know but trepa2ning
would have proved the only remedy.
Sit down, I say. Now, tell me oil, and
after I am in possession of the facts,
as we soy in newspaper Office, I'll
help you to do some thinking"
It was the same old hypnotic power
which he exercised over all men and
all women, too, that made Charlie
Brown relinqulsh all resistance to Van
Tweet's appeal.
call right" said Brown, after
moments reflection. ~ trust you with
my secret on your promise of silence.
I have been, like Tantalus, the posses
sor of ravished heart ever since I met
MissChlsholm at the beach last season. "
ooh, it's Chisholm, is it?" said Van
Tweet, interrupting him.
'T don't know what possessed me to
fall in love with her." continued
Brown; "but she provoked me-"
"That's right; the woman IS always
to blame" put in Van Tweet.
"She provoked me by her internal
indifference. There she was, the con-
scious centre of lot of fellows, all
trying to make themselves agreeable,
and she only laughed at them-leugh-
ing at them as o queen might at a
roomful of gibbering parrots. She
thought she was too good for the
lot"
"And most likely she was right in
her conclusion" said Van Tweet.
"What did that concern you? Did
you try to make parrot Of yourself
as wellp"
'Try2" echoed Brown. "Try?
Great Scott, I was the worst of them
all"
"You crouched at her feet and
twanged your Tyre like the rest-you,
Brown?"
Van Tweet was evidently surprised.
sob, not like the rest, said Brown.
"Catch me bearing any woman's train.
No, I did worse, as I an about to tell
you. First, I studiously avoided her.
She must have noticed it, and before
long she seemed not to see me at all.
I knew what that meant. She was 60
Ing to punish me by pretending that
there was no such person as Charlie
Brown on this terrestrial plane.
$50 / laid myself out to be as coIdly
scornful as she. You ought to have
seen us. And so things went on. un.
til We were all in the surf together,
AID it fell to my happy lot to rescue
Miss Chisholm from drowning.
cit was more serious matter than
had reasoned. Expert swimmer as
she is, she completely lost her senses
and she folded her arms around my
neck as impulsively as if we had been
old acquaintance. All this occurred
under water, or I shouldn't have
minded it half as much.
"Anyhow, I rescued her, together
with about ton of salt water, which
made me sick for week, and after
that we were worse enemies than
ever.
81 say we," continued Brown, "but
that is little too sweeping. BY what
process I know not, but from the mo-
ment I held her in my arms and
dragged her limp end dripping to
where her mother and brother could
lay hands on her, felt-felt-"
"You're sure she hates you?"
"Oh, 1 have no doubt of it," said
Brown. 81 called. and that call CON-
pleted my downfall. I have
never had the same respect for myself
since"
Sand you think she hates your"
"By iove, I tell you she is getting
even with me for being the instru-
ment of fate to rescue her from the
waves. That girl would thousand
times rather have died than owe her
life to my efforts"
Van Tweet thought for the briefest
o. moments, and then looked up like
q physician who has reached con-
cIusion at his patients bedside.
'tBrown," he said, "you are either
fool or else you are perversely en-
tertaining-I will not even say be-
guiling-your heart with an interest
Ing illusion, You know that the girl