The record-union., 1897-08-06
A PROPOSAL.

made up my mind to do a really
awful thing when I went to the Hay
Thesiger's ball / am only the daugh-
ter of one of the richest commoners in
England. I came out two years ago,
and 1 had not been out very long before
1 began to have offers. 1 once read a
book called How Men Propose .
Some day I shall write sequel to it
am competent to do so. What's more
could add a chapter to say how wo-
men do it, too, when they are driven
10 desperation, though that part is a
great secret.
1 ann not exactly a beauty, but I dc
know how Do dress. A woman who has
that knowledge and the means to Use il
needs no more. I think can say with
out vanity that my eyes are good. They
are gray and sparkling and long, with
very curly laShes. Yet there are plenty
of jealous people who say that it is only
les beaux yeux de ma cassette" that
make me popular. do not care any
more. l am idiotically happy because
/ know perfectly we'll that in the eyes
of one man L should be just as charm
ang if the 'Bellfield patent" had never
'revolutionized the cycling world
1 quote an advertisement, but though
We advertise, We are not vulgar. In
deed, grandpa was younger son, and
did not work for his living, preferring
TO drag up his family on a small allow
ance. Papa's tastes were different
luckily for me. He being merely a
younger sons younger son, the family
dignity had dwindled and brady SEEM
ed worth while supporting at such
pains
So Savanna Bellfield is catch and
might have married a lord-two lords
and knights eldest son, though that
is beside the mark. My admirers said
l was cynical, for sometimes I laugh
ed at them. I couldn't help it. 1 de-
cided at 10 that l had no heart, and
that l would accept the first really eli
gible parti that came along. 1t sound
ed easy. 1t was easy, until went into
the country to stay with a great friend
of mine, married to a clergyman who
was an honorable-as well as merely
reverend. I was sick of being the Miss
BeIfield. I persuaded my friend to let
me be a first cousin of hers down at
Cherrington-on-T arn. She is a good,
easy soul His reverence had gone
away to a conference 1 overpersuad-
ed her, and-well, had a lovely time as
Miss Kitty Bent.
1t was such an innocent sort of name
7 took no maid, and dressed the part
of perfection in pink bingham and mus
lins. Cherringto Tam is very
quiet spot; the season there consists of
two school treats and a flower show.
AT all three I met the one man.
He was a doctors SON at home on a
holiday, and he fell in love with me di-
rectly, I thought He is tremendously
clever; they think all the world of him
in hospital. He is good looking, I think.
He did not propose to me, though there
We're opportunities. Jessie was alb
sorbed with a baby, and she had no
idea how often Miss Kitty Bent met Mr..
Hugh Maydwell.
At first I did it for fun, but when I
got back TO London and Major Peile-
F'arquharsOn began to be attentive,
then knew how much happier Kitty
BENT was than Savanna Bellfield.
did not give way to my feelings. I
rather hated to realize that had any.
House surgeons of big hospitals don't
go into society. I daresay they f1irt
with the nurses-horTid things!-but
that is all.
Then Major FarQuf1arSOn came on my
horizon, very young to be a major at
all, and very handsome His manner
to me was perfect. Luckily 1 found out
how utterly selfish he was; otherwise,
as DR.. Maydwell had apparently en-
firely forgotten Miss Bent.
Mamma is a. dear, kind-hearted thing,
and when I announced that 1 intended
TO go to Mrs. Theisiger'S with that hOr-
rid little Mrs. Ewart Vane, she let me
do it. 1 todd Major Farquharson to be
there; then told mamma he was go
ing. It was naughty, but one day l
got Mrs. Hay-Thesiger to give me a
blank card for a friend of ours, and
sent it to DIR. Maydwell. I wanted him
no see me in my glory, and wanted still
more to see if I should like him in a
ball room as much as at CherTington-
on-Tarn. I went warily to work. /
wrote a short note with the invita- ton
said I should be there, signed it K.
Bent, and wrote ON plain paper with
no address.
Very bold and unwomanly. but what
was i " 10. hilCW Ic 1LACu INILAS
sc Kitty, why not Saranna Catherine
It was an awful pride and independ-
ence dreaded. He had told me very
nneaningly that he would never ask a
woman to marry him till he could give
her a comfortable home. He never APP
sparently contemplated the possibility
THAT she might have means to supply
rhat.
There was a lovely rose at Cherrin-
Non in the vicarage garden, Reeve dor.
i used to wear the buds in my white
gowns. [ wore one in my hair, quite
I'm the old heroine style that has come
back again, and I had a very simple
posy to match, instead of carrying Ma
jor Farquharson's big, rather vulgar
erection of orchids.
There were not five people who were
in society at Mrs. Thesiger's. But the
.3ball was thoroughly well done, and, ex-
lcept Major Farquharson, no one APP
peared to be at all sensible of the fact.
There was a, girl there who lived quite
Snear his mother in the country; the two
families We're intimate, l knew. This