Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-12-16

ana yet you went an6aO ana asker
her just the same. You thought she
would give you a different answer.
You know you did.
Il hoped" began Kendall cor
rectingIy.
Precisely. You hoped she was not
averse to you, and every one else
thought so. | thought so. The course
OF true love progresses with ideal
smoothness up to the point today, and
then everything suddenly goes to
pieces without warning. There must
be some reason for this, and l can
think of only one that is supposable:
you must have done it wrong"
Done it wrong?" repeated Kendall
stupidity Done what wrOng?"
The asking, Of course. You must
have gone at it in some senseless way
that spoiled everything. l haven't
doubt Of it myself and Hope smiled
bIandly at some one she knew in a
cart that was passing, and looked as il
she were saying she had made a bowl
ing score Of two hundred and fifty.
But, protested the young man,
reused by various considerations and
differences to indignant cOmbativeness,
granting what you seem so sure Of
that | have made fool of myself you
don't mean to tell me that a moments
stupidity. a casual blunder, would up
set a girls entire opinion of man?
That is little too much, Miss Hope,
even from you'll"
1T does seem queer" Hope admit
| ted candidly; but you know we girls
aren't always swayed by reason, but
often by that indetinable thing which
/ is called by all sorts of names, from
! intuition to impulse. 1t is an awfully
serious matter to say the words that
mean one is going to marry a man,
you know; and the moment before she
| says them a girl sees all the cons a
great deal more plainly than she ever
did before in her life. And, if just at
that juncture, man doesn't act and
speak in exactly the way that appeals
to that particular girls nature, why.
! it's all up with him and with her, too,
before they know it. l haven't a
GOubt that you did it quite as you
shouldn't have done it for Madeline.
. For instance, you probably intimated
10 her, more than once, that you
We're utterly unworthy even to open
her coupe-door for her; didn't you?'
We'll, naturally, since it is true
And that she is the only girl on
earth you have ever looked at, or ever
will look at, or that you can imagine
! for all timer"
why shouldn't l have said so? She
probably knew it anyway"
| And that the reason for this is
| self-eyident, because she is SO superior,
SO thoughtful, SO deep, so literary, so
transcendently different, in short,
from all the rest of human kind?"
"She is all that and a great deal
mere, and I'm glad | told her my
opinion"
And doubtless you added that with
out her your future would be empty
and colorless, your life complete
wreck, eternity itself a matter of in
difference to your
Now look here" said young Ken
dali, growing unpleasantly warm even
! in the sharp air of midwinter; 81
don't know how you can guess all
this unless you have had it tried on
| yourself; and I'm not saying it is
what happened at all. But whatever
| took place is over and past, and all
there is now for me is to brcae up and
set used to it. THERE'S nothing to be
gained by talking about it any further.
Shall we walk on?"
oh, yes, there is use" said his COM
, l.t--IOn sWeGtly. 1T ISN'T every man
| that is fortunate enough, when he has
made d mistake, to have a girl to help
him out OF it. 1 mean to help you,
Jack. | want you to go around and
do it again"
DO it AGAIN." he gasped, feeling
all his powers of oratory reduced to a
W eak repetition of her words. do it
| again, HOpe?"
yes; in the right way. Now let me
tell you your mistake. You we're too
| subseryient. You made her everything
and yourself nothing. You deified her
until she couldn't help thinking there
must be something in it, and wonder
| ing if, perhaps, she might not be this
creature of fire and soul you depicted.
You made her lose her perspective, and
then, instead OF erecting your own
image in corresponding statuesque
| proportions, you actually made light
| of yourself. You were not strong
enough; for, don't you see, a woman
doesn't want little or humble person
/ to be the one to whom she gives so
much. She wants him to love and
revere her, it is true, but he must be
! head and shoulders above her at the
same time. Probably, also, you were
nervous and embarrassed and awk-
| ward. You ought to have been calm
and Self-pOssessed and dignifed. No
! thing conveys the idea of weakness SO
much as nervCuness; and a woman
will forgive anything sooner than
! W eakness. In a word, you should
| have offered to take her, instead of
! pleading to be taken by her Do you
| see? You were in the wrong part. You
were not true to yourself nor to real
manhood, and she OWNED it with
! that something in her wOman's nature
! which Will act as an attracting or