The Brinkley argus., 1898-02-24
HALF AN HOUR.
Bv priseilla heonaro
TT WAS a lovely September afternoon

! TT WAS lovely September afternoon in the year of our Lord 1893. The worlds fair was in full swing and the white city by tbe lake was filled with sightseers from every part of the land. People sundered from each other for long years by the length or breadth of the continent met in the broad aisles of the buildings or on the seats of gon- doia, and Kalamazoo rubbed shoulders with Tallahassee in the endeayor to see the iewelry exhibit or the big locomo- lives. Most crowded and most cosmo- politan of all, as usual, was that ka- Ileidoscopic attachment, the Midway
 Plaisance, where, from the South Sea islanders to the Ferris wheel, the wide highway was thronged with multitu- dinous enjoyment. And Tommy was taking it all in as only small and eageriy-curious boy knows how to do. Tommy and his Aunt Isabel-l put
 Tommy first because that was the or der of things, his aunt having taken
 charge of him that afternoon because 1 he had already tired out his mother had been through a. good deal. They 1 had investigated the Javanese village and old Vienna, the panorama of the
 Bernese Alps and the Eskimo settle ment. and seen the Hindoo jugglers;
 consequently, though Tommy was as fresh as paint, Miss Bernard was sight l ly tired and glad to sit down on the benches of Hagenbach's great animal show, which was Tommy's next ob- 1 jective point. It was good seat, with l a fine view of the ring; which was prob- l0bly the reason why the young man who came in a minute after them took the last seat on the row, next to Tom my.
 Isabel glanced up at him as he took
 his place. Luckily, he was oblivious
 of anything beyond Tommy's seat. She turned quickly away--a movement which naturally brought the young
 mans eyes upon her. He started in his turn with quite as much dismay in
 his face as she had shown, and also
 looked diligently at the stage. Itwas, truly, most embarrassing for both. When two young people have been tdeeply in love. have been engaged, with the consent and approbation of every body, and have broken off with each other in violent lovers' quarrel within six months. itis bad enough to have to meet in ballroom or on the street; but to sit almost side by side in public
 place for half an hour is an ordeal to be
 dreaded, indeed. And especially when man has left New York and gone to San Francisco simply in order to put leagues of continent between himself
 and the girl. and when the girl has
 been hoping and praying that she may forget him and never see him again, it is a little hard for both to seem uncon-
 scious and cordial before small nephew.
 It had to be done, however. for Tom
 my recognized MT. Dick Farquhar at
 once, and, having a great admiration for his own sex and an equally lofty contempt for the weaker one, directed
 his questions and observations entirely to him. Isabel, after smiling politely
 but coldly, fixed her eyes in desperate
 attention upon those wonderful but to her totally uninteresting animals, the
 hounds, the pony and the lion, who were l trotting in some marvellous maneuver before her unseeing eyes. She was yiv- 1 idly conscious, though she despised her self for it, of every word which Dick
 was saying 10 the inquisitive Tommy. l"Yes, he had seen Qbearsyes, he had
 shot one or two--no, he was not living in New York any more--yes, he had the same hofee4eS, this was better than the Ateus. { Hut this last remark was 1 mn 1 palpably perfunctory Iw n deat that he was not
 sbsl hoped 6e sha hopsx ghe was feeling as esnbaSx se l - lerable as she was. He erve 66.
 He ought to have had sense enoNh at
 such place. not to get into tk seat
 next to Tommy He always did go
 straight ahead without thinking she
 knew that-and then, he was near sighted. But that was no excuse. Did
 he expect her to make some everyday
 remark to him? She couldn't doft--- and whether she could or not, she
 wouldn't. No one no girl in her place could be expected to be more than
 icily polite to the man who had pre-
 tended to love her so, and then doubted
 her just because she was ordinarily
 courteous to man he didn't like, and
 commanded commanded her to do
 just his will and pleasure in the mat
 ter.s Nobody ever said "must" 10 her
 --he ought to have known that. He
 ought not to have brought everything to that point and made it impossiblefor her to refuse without breaking their engagement. Of course, she had to
 break it--she would have died rather than do it, but then, she would have
 died rather than submit, too. Her pretty mouth quivered as she thought of the cruel unreasonableness of man. Dick, out of the corner of his eye for near-sighted people see great deal--noticed the rebellious line of the
 mouth, and concluded, that she was as
 wiilful as ever. It had all been her do- l ing. It wasn't her fault at first, of
 course-he owned up to that now. He
 could see that it was just because she was SO innocent and cordial that she
 should have been friendly to thatTery objectionable Englishman who came from no one knew where, and had man. l aged to get into her sisters set. But
 then, Isabel ought to have understood that her lover was the authority on
 such points for her. It was just be-
 cause he loved her so that he intefered
 so decidedly; and if she had one ypark I of real love for him she would have l yielded and not have made point