Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-10-07


Margaret Brockton never for All instant
suspected herself of being Il sentimental
ist. She thought she was modern in every
particular, including heart and soul. She
was charming, she knew, and somewhat
vain, clever and n little mercenary and
thoroughly worldly wise and worldly
minded, and yet there were three years
when Miss Brockton rivalcd any old time
heroine of romance in her sentimental at
titude.
1t happened in this wise: One day, when
she was %. there came to her q certain
stalwart fellow she had known from in
facy and told her what she already knew
that &c loved her and wished to marry
her. Miss Brockton, liking him exceed
ingly well, realizing now pleasant life
might he made with his money, his name,
his devotion to her and his compani0nship
md deciding that the e~cstatic lovo of
which poems and novels treated would
never come to her anyway, accepted him.
The engagement came out duly; the cups
and saucers came in. Margaret liked Jack
Whittlestone a great deal and found the
position of tiancee charming, and all was
well.
Then the villain appeared upon the
scene in the shape of Louis Radcliffe,
Jacks cousin. Louis was a delightfully."-
%unmodern person, who seemed TO have
taken for his model some of the early Vic
torian heroes, He was u combination Of
youthful romanticism, elderly cynicism
and other interesting qualities. He had a
superb scorn Of the conventions, a mag
nificcnt belief in himself and a correspond
ing alniable skepticism in regard to other
people.
He Interested" Margaret greatly, she
said, at first. Then she ceased to say any
thing about him, Jack, not being skilled
in the ways of women, did not worry over
either his betrothed's speech or its absence.
He knew the new woman" well enough
| not to assert his rights and bid her have
| less conversation with his cousin, even
| had he wished to do SO. Liberty being the
law of Margaret's life and unsuspecting
good nature of Jacks, the situation had
every chance to colnplicate itself.
1t did SO promptly. Margaret, who had
decided that tervid and ccstatio love was
not ut all likely to come her way, awoke
| one fine morning to the realization that
the universe had in it just one mani
Jacks impossible, poverty stricken, ire
sistiblc cousin, and Jacks cousin, who
had laughed at Margaret's feminine cyn-
iciSm and pretense of GOODNESS, felt that
she and she alone could be the complement
to his life. They were both unhappy
enough to give them credit for scmc good
intentions, but in the midst of their un-
happiness they were supremacy conscious
rf rho "a frifin ySntSDpx Iytnl Nnr1 III vpI =
the joy of seeing each other.
Margaret knew perfectly in her few sane
hours that she did not wish to marry Louis
Radcliffe. She realized that he would de-
velop into IL thoroughly undesirable sort
of husband, even apart from his poverty.
eff only l could get over this" she
moaned to herself. CAT 40 l should be
wrctchcd with him, at 40 l should be COM
Portable if not madly happy with Jack. II
only-if only l were 40 nowl'-
1t was one day when she and Louis had
sat for an hour staring ahead Of them at
the sea that the clilnhx came.
"Why don't you talkS" demanded Mar
garet, finding her heart beats oppressive.
because l cannot say what l wish to"
he answered. Then, Of course, ho proceed
ed to say the things which he should not
have said, and for a few minutes the sea
and sky reeled before their eyes and they
breathed rs If in q trance, after which,
according to the sacriflcial modern man
ner, they decided to part, and the next
day the community was startled to learn
that Mr.. Radcliffe was going to Europe,
Then it was that Margaret showed how
thoroughly lacking she was In the modern
mercenary spirit she had always claimed.
1t gave her a mournful satisfaction to
think that though she could not marry
Louis, who, to tell the truth, had not
asked her to do SO, she Iced not marry
Jack. So she broke her engagement
promptly and proceeded to indulge herself
in her great grief. She heard nothing Of
either of the cousins fol a long time, for
naturally her course Of action with Jack
had suspended communication between
the families.
Fol- three years she was secretly as rO-
mantle as the most romantic schoolgirl.
She thought of Louis constantly and
pleased herself by imagining that he, in
Egypt or Algiers or wherever he was, must
know her thoughts. She was exceedingly
happy with her grief. Outwardly she
seemed much the same, but inwardly she
acknowledged the sway Of love and its
power.
One evening three years after Louis
Radcliffe had gone away she went to a re-
ception. A little pudgy woman, over
dressed and overgemmed, stood by her
hostess side.
"My cousin, Mrs. Radcliffe, Miss Brook
ton" said her hostess. And then, with
sudden remembrance: You must recall
Mr.. Radcliffe. He was Jack Whittle-
stones cousin, you know"
And then as Margaret cordially inquired
after Mr.. Radcliffe and said how she well
remembered him s~entimentalism for the
first time fell away from her. From that
moment she was the really skeptical and
thoroughly modern" woman she had al
ways claimed to be. Exchange.
Notaries' Records.
The New Mexican Printing company
hos ~ cOln h1oy1 1 v,onOuIa So. Az ~ &c