The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-08

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so far as lay in my power.
| Afternoon tea occurred on the lawn. BY
that time Forbes and Lane hal arrived.
Then Mrs. Trevor piloted Miss Collins from
| the house. She was a pretty and rather
shy little girl, and felt sorry for her, and
Lane. She turned somewhat red, and
he made several irrelevant and idiotic re-
marks to the female dean with whom he
| had been discussing the question of indis-
criminate charity. 1 was talking to Forbes
at the time, and he, in blissful ignorance
of the future. laughed softly.
Mrs. Trevor's put her foot in it this
time" he said.
What do you mean?" I inquired
why, the engagement between Lane and
| Miss Collins was only broken off about two
months ago." ne said. "but 1 suppose Mrs.
| Trevor's marriage has made her forget
that"
Dear me-" I said, this is certainly very
! awkward"
ITS quite a dramatic situation" he
went on.
| Quite" L agreed.
The irony of it is" he said that they
can't bolt. They'll have to pretend they
neither of them care. 1t really is rather
funny
1T has its humorous side,'' 1 admitted,
but
was interrupted by soto voce impreca-
ton from Forbes, and, looking up 1 saw
Mrs. Trevor going to meet Miss Howard.
How many more of US are there going to
be?' he gasped.
Whats the matter?" inquired with as
sumed innocence.
Don't you see?' he said. Miss How
ard-you know all about it. You haven't
broken off engagement recently have
your"
mo, I'm safe" I answered, 'but it GER
| tainly does seem an odd coincidence"
| Coincidence" he returned with sup
pressed fury. ITS nothing of the kind It's
| confounded practical joke"
TRY to remember it really is rather fun
| n.y. 1 suggested
/ 1T isn't" he said. It's devilish."
Forbes came through the ordeal less sue
cessfully than Lane, and in answer to Mrs.
| Trevor's smiling inquiry answered, as far
as could be gathered from his stammers,
that he had never had the pleasure of Miss
| Towards acquaintance. Afterward he en-
| gagged in polemical argument with the NJ
| z. and stepped violently and rudely on one
| of his pet hobbies. Certainly the situation,
| as a situation, had it's points. Each of the
| four victims understood that they had been
| invited of malice aforethought and talked
| at random with the tail of their eyes on
| their three fellows.
When tea was over 1 took Forbes and
| Lane out in the punt to relieve the tension.
! Neither of them said anything for about
| ten minutes and then Forbes only opened
| his mouth to say Damn with concen-
trated vigor.
What are you going to do?" Lane in
quired after another five minutes.
"Do?' Forbes replied. Face the, music.
1 suppose. There's nothing else that we
| can do, is there@"
Nothing, unless we shoot Mrs. Trevor"
| Lane said gloomily.
May 1 make a suggestion? % inquired.
There's nothing to prevent you," Forbes
answered.
What I would suggest" said, lis that
you might look at the thing with little
more common sense. If you've ceased to
care about the young woman what does it
matter? And if not you ought to be CRATE
| full to Mrs. Trevor for giving you another
chance"
Don't talk rot about what you don't un-
| derstand," Forbes replied acidly
| "Of course said, with some irritation
| at his rudeness, you may be merely
lamentng the young women's agony at the
renewal of their hopeless pursuit"
You'll be lamenting your agony in a
minute if you try to be funny" Forbes
said savagely.
Il know what shall do" he exclaimed
after another long pause. 81 shall insult
all Mrs. Trevors guests
81 gathered as much some time ago." 1
replied.
| oh didn't mean you, Inglis," he an
swered. I'm sorry. It's almost enough to
make a man lose his temper, isn't it?'
Perhaps it isl admitted.
We smoked silently in the backwater until
it was time to get back for dinner Neither
| that meal nor the rest of the evening were
successes from the point of view Of any
one except perhaps Mrs. Trevor. The two
| girls and Lane were politely monosyllabic,
| but Forbes's discomfort of mind took the
| form of belligerent fooling. He invented
| a number of recently discovered manu-
scripts to refute the dean in a discussion
| or the only councils of the church. He re-
duced the political economist to state of
! incoherent Indignation by contending that
| the only possible remedy for the currency
was an international copper coinage, and
| assured the M p that the cure for agricul-
! tural depression was the cultivation of the
| summum bonum potato. All of them he
| graVely accused of entire ignorance or their
| subject From some points of view his per-
| Torrance was brilliant, but it made every
| one uncomfortable. Poor Miss Howard got
| redder and redder, and Trevor made fero-
| cious but futile attempts to check him.
| Mrs. Trevor, / could see, was shaking with
| inward merriment and apparently regarded
| her plan as successful beyond all expecta-
lions. After dinner, however, Forbes re-
| Taxed into sulky silence, and we were ex-
ceedingly dull. Mrs. Trevor's proposal of
an adjournment to the river did not meet
with approval, and the evening passed in
small talk and music.
The dullness continued for the next few
DAYS with but slight diversity. Most of the
elderly persons drifted away. Lane and
Forbes, who had subsidized since the first
evening spent a good deal of time clone on
the river and, when the necessity for some
show of sociability arose, sculled an elderly
lady or two about with hypocritical eager
ness. Trevor became moody and discomfort
ed, thinking, I imagine, that his wife was
failure as a hostess. Mrs. Trevor made sew
eral efforts to wake things up, but to no
effect In spite of her strategical efforts, a
picnic merely resulted in the wrong people
travelling by the wrong boats on a damp
afternoon, which laid the two remaining
elderly ladies up with rheumatism. once,
with an approach to clumsiness, she tried
IL. ,Nof.. al.