The age-herald., 1898-10-16
FRED AND HIS FETISH

eff you insist, then. may as well begin by telling you that you have too many weaknesses"
 ''Do you mean smoking and things like that?"
 "No, I don't. Things like that are natural to man. Very few men are with out them, and those that are generally make so much to-do over their strength as to be perfect nuisances. I mean downright chidishness, such as carrying about lit tie fetish and pretending it brings you good luck.'
 "Fetish?"
 "Yes, fetish-that fool pebble you keep in your pocket.'
 Fred put hand into his trousers pocket and felt a small, rough pebble with hole bored in one end. There was one smooth surface to the little stone, and he kept rubbing his thumb over that wondering in a half-amused way whether he really did believe in the virtue of that curiously dis tinct eight-pointed cross which he knew could be plainly distinguished on that smooth surface. Then he began to wonder whether he had been wise to fall in love with a girl who had been to college and had acted as editor of college periodical.
 All this thinking he did in the space of about twenty seconds, while the young woman sat opposite to him, looking out or the window, as if she had already forgot ten his insignificant presence.
 Then he looked at her with an express sion of sadness and said, Well, II that IS the view you take of me, Miss Georgie-
 .View?'' said the girl. 'I beg your par don What did you say about the viewY'
 'I say, if you take that view of my char acter, I'm afraid my case must be nope less'' Then he halted. "Of course, Ill such serious matter as marriage-one wouldn't like to be united"
 Poor Fred was becoming incoherent. The unlocked for masculineness of Georgiana s answer to his proposal had quite discon- certed him.
 "-In such serious matter as marriage one wouldn't like to be united,'" she re- peated, as if reading aloud from an essay. 'Mr. Turner, what on earth are you try ing to express? Do you know?"
 .Im afraid not" Fred said meekly, wip- ing his moist forehead with handker- chief. "Good evening, Miss Georgie."
 Good evening, MT. Turner, and-may l ask a little favor of you? er "You know that anything within the limits of my power would gladly do for you"
 Really? Well, if you should find it with in the utmost limits of your power, I wish you would stop calling me by my nursery name-my name is Georgiana Edwards"
 'Very well, Miss Georgiana, good even- ing"
 Fred went from the presence of her whom he had been adoring for two weeks very much troubled. He had never before made an offer of marriage, and so did not know for certain whether cavalier treat ment like this was what he might have ex- pected. But, judging by all he had heard or read of the subject, it seemed to him that he had been snubbed not only with out mercy but without justice; for was not his proposal the highest compliment he could have paid to this girl? Even if his character was weak and trivial, he thought, she had no right to browbeat and ridicule him in this way.
 The browbeating and ridicule had come so unexpectedly as to stun him temporarily. As he walked his homeward way, and re- covered his senses, he saw more and more clearly how outrageous Georgiana Edwards treatment of him had been, and, fortunately for him, resentment burned up so strongly in him as to entirely exclude any feeling of tender sort
 He actually wondered why he should have fancied himself in love with so un- lovabe a person, and from that he came to criticzng the points in Miss Edwards appearance and manners.
 By the time he was getting ready to fit his night key into his own front door he reached the conclusion that nothing but a breezy, off-handed vivavcity and a novel readiness of speech in the girl graduate had captivated him; that the charm had