Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1898-03-18
If HE HAD KNOWN.
BY HELEN RAY KENT.


THE young man stepped from the
platform of his private car, and
turned back, asking his valet for an
,overcoat, the wind was so chill. Then,
with a few words, he dismissed the
smart carriage that was waiting for
him, and strobe off after it up the
country road, swinging his stick. The
late autumn air was invigorating, and
the young fellow threw back his Shout
.ders and drew it in in long breaths as
he used to do before football match
in college. Not so long ago, that was,
and the pleasures and pastimes OF the
great world had not yet put their in
effable vet unmistaka BILE mark upon his
face and figure.
For half an hour he walked briskly
along the path, thinking over the events
of the past evening, and saying to him
self that when his great house-party as
sembled on the morrow he would take
the first opportunity offered to ask her
to marry him, and they would keep
their engagement a secret until the last
evening, as fitting climax to the fort
nights jollity. That she would accept
him he had no doubt, although he was
not a conceited fellow or over-certain
of her love for him. But the last year
they had been much thrown together,
and she had shown in many ways-lit-
tie, indefinable, perhaps, but none the
less convincing the day he chose
to lay his heart and fortune at her feet
she would accept them; not eagerly, not
rapturously, not passionately, but with
the exquisitely good breeding that
characterized her every act. He even
smiled as he remem bered that the men
had nicknamed her "the Gibson Girl"
because of her likeness to those beauti-
full, aloof, seemingly self-sufficient Gre
>ations. The night before they had been
discussing the possibilities of ''Soldiers
of Fortune" as play, and the CONVEX
-sation had been led from that to a
standing argument as to the attractive
ness of the story's two heroines.
II don't think Harding Davis knew
what he was going to do when he be-
gan that story" she had insisted. He
meant to make Alice beautiful and
lovely and sweet all the way through
as she is, for that matter. But Hope
grew to be too much for him-emo
tiOnal, sensitive people are always too
much for those around them; he didn't
know what to do with her; so Alice was
sacrificed. Not that the sacrifice hurt
her in my estimation. She is my favor
ite still. But you men all like the
other one best-on paper, at all events.
And she is charming, naive child, I
~ oi
why or how, but Alice is a finer char
acter in every way to me-
1That is because you are more like
Alice one of the men had said, teas
.iIgly; and then the conversation had
passed into ba tering and compliments.
But he rendered that the same tel
low had said to him later over cigars:
81 had her there, didn't I? The truth
is, all our society girls are 'Alces.'
Nice, sweet, refined thoroughbreds, but
with blue, or at the most pale pink.
blood in them. No red, passionate cur
rents in them. 1t isn't good form, you
know. Hearts, emotions, impulses,
brains, everything regulated by be-
havior. Perhaps it's good thing, but,
on the whole, I'd rather be Clay and
have Hope than the other, wouldn't
you? It's all very we'll as long as
things all go smoothly; but if great
crisis or-or anything, you know, came
into your life, wouldn't you rather have
q girl like Hope to go to with it, than
the other?"
The young millionaire poked a dead
leaf out of his path energetically as
he recalled that he had answered:
"But the trouble is to find the Hopes.
We don't know any. And how arc we
to find them?'' And Lis friend replied.
lightly:
.>un, there must be plenty in the
world. if we only knew where to look
If! The young man smiled as he
thought of the three years of travel
ended few months ago. Girls. the
girls he would know, were much the
same the world over. And the one
he had determined to marry was excep-
t;onally attractive to him and to So
,c1ety.
To society! Aye, there was the rub.
Did he want charming cha telaine;
beauty to sit at the head Of his table
and dispense favors with a boundless
fond of in the worlds way, the social
world all about him? He would be
counted indeed a lucky fellow if he
could win ali this to add to the for
tune he had inherited.
Or did he want very different wife?
One who would pour out upon him all
the intensity of a young girls enthusi-
astic love for her first sweetheart?
One who would be radiant in his joy,
and full of sympathizing grief in his
sorrows? One he could seize and
crush to his heart in passionate affec-
ton; who would run to meet his re-
turning footsteps with an eager, joy
Gus welcome. and watch him depart |
with suspicion of tears about the
eyes? If he could find such one
Suddenly his reverie was arrested by
the sound of heavy wagon rumbling