The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-09-30

~ don't know which,. she said
"There Is an old saying about mar
s;age being lottery. / propose to In
crease the chances. If you two consent.
! shall carry out at once the scheme
that I have got mp after long and caro-
full thinking"
care we to toss penny" ] asked.
mo This afternoon ] shall write
two notes, one an acceptance, the other
refusal. They will be put in plain en-
'velopes, mixed up, directed and mail.
ed. The one Of you who receives the re-
fusal shall"-
Commit suicid,
Brooks gloomy countenance gave
credence to suspicion that in event Of
his receiving the wrong note he would
resort to self destruction. The girl,
however, speedily crushed all hopes of
such escape from suffering.
lyon shall not" she cried. If You
do, ! shall never speak to either Of you
again."
"katner IT., then, said l.
Brooks bowed his assent to my oh.
servation.
sThere was long silence, and then
Maria looked from one to the other Of
rs and said earnestly, You'll agree to
my plan, won't your"
'There Is nothing else that we can
TO-, said 1.
Nothing" repeated Brooks. "In
fact, the scheme rather appealed to me,
for of late things had not been going so
smoothly as ! could have desired. 1t
had seemed at times as though Brooks
was drawing away from me in the race.
Now chance had been offered. Once
for all the question would be settled.
Then my luck was usually coed. The
plan was not so agreeable to my rival.
Doubtless he felt that he had the advan-
tage of me and in entering into such a
game was gambling to obtain what was
already almost his own. He had no 9th.
er course but to assent, though, and he
did it with rather bad grace.
at seems hard" he said to Maria,
"but you will it, and / obey"
"It is agreed them" said she.
Brooks and bowed. The three Of Us
walked back to the house in silence.
was up early next morning at my
rooms in town. / had calculated every
thing to nicely. The postman would
reach the house at 10 o'clock. The
train for Elmdale left at 8 O'Clock. Pro-
vided the contents of the note that / ex-
pected were satisfactory would just
have time to breakfast and reach the
ferry. Should the note prove to be
wrong certainly would not need any
breakfast and much less to catch a
train.
bad been awake at dawn. Excite
ment had driven sleep from my eyes,
and the dragging hours gave me more
than ample opportunity to figure ont
my chances. 1 revolved over and over
again in my mind the history of my ao-
quaintance with Maria Torrington. j
reviewed my own life and picked out
incidents in it In which luck had play
ed part, and found such balance in
that it was useless for me to worry over
the outcome of the game of chance !
was playing.
Having brought myself to state of
comparative confidence, began to pack
a couple of bags full Of clothes, for l
had made up my mind to make long
stay at the Torrington house while l
was about it. AS stuffed my golf things
into portmanteau pictured Maria
and myself plodding over the links to-
gether.
AS folded up my riding clothes
thought Of the gallops we were to have,
and broke into song, and as / sang /
forgot all about the note that was then
on it's way to me and worked away as
cheerily as though it were but the mat
ter of all hour till Twas speeding to her.
But loud knock at the door called
me back to realities, and when the hall
boy held toward me square envelope
addressed in a small, angular hand l
realized that perhaps after all my joy
had been premature--decidedly prema-
ture. The note was brief, so brief that
in an instant pretended its con-
tents, sank into chair and, tossing the
paper from me, re- Gated the fatal words:
Iiiss Iorrlngton regrets tnaJ owing 70 an
other ensGgo;i4Cnt she cannot accept Mr.
Blank kind invitation TO become his wife.
WHY had ever consented to risk all