The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-10-20
MY ENGAGEMENT.
When a Man Changes His Girl,
He Had Better Notify His
Jeweler.

OSWS40Is ~
:
We have all,.I suppose, in our lives
made blunders-little blunders, big
blunders, and SO forth, till one reaches
the pitch Of irretrievable blunder-
and I have Just escaped from the con-
sequences of n that for the moment
was likely to prove irretrievable.
I was-I had foolishly allowed my
self to be fascinated by Miss Stranger
ford-yes, fascinated is, l think, just
the word to meet the case.
Phyllis is a dear, quite a dear, and
for a time 1 submit that I was totter-
ing on the brink. l believe, as a mat
ter of fact, that l did propose once or
twice, but of course l knew she'd say
mo" She's so sensible. But, for one
awful, terrible moment at the time
I'm going to tell you about l thought
she was going to forget herself and say
"yes."
You see, the truth is, one is a little
bit afraid of Miss Strangerford. Ev-
erything will seem to be going swim
mingly, and you think you're getting
on quite well and being rather clever
and all that, and then you look up and
you see a something in her eyes which
sobers you down again. It's in her
eyes. Somewhere right at the back Of
them there's a kind of g%listening twin
kle that makes you feel that you're q
fool.
Now, Laura is not like that. She is
clever and knows all about books,
music and Ibsen, and she hardly ever
smiles. But Miss Strangerford just sits
curled up in her chair and chatters
about nothing in particular, and says
funny things which make you laugh
and dresses very smartly, and even
sometimes smokes cigarettes, and yet
directly n begins to talk about deeper,
subjects she stays quite quiet and
keeps that funny look in her eyes, for
all the world as if she was laughing at
you to herself.
Last summer, down on the river, we
got on awfully well at first. 1t was
later on that l came to the conclusion
that it would be a mistake to carry
matters further, and as she had just
well, not exactly refused, but put me
off for the second time, l thought it
better to let the matter drop.
Then | met Laura. Laura adores
music halls. She says that she thinks
the color scheme of the ballet most in
structive and has come to the conclu-
sion that it is unconsciously based on
the primitive principles of color music.
l am sure she's right. I like them my
self.
1 saw a good deal of her after that
dinner, and last week we practically
became engaged. Naturally 1 wanted
to give her ONE souvenir to commem-
crate the day-not the ordinary, vulgar
ring, but something with latent mean
ing in it. Laura is great on latent
meanings, SO l knew she would appre-
ciate 1t.
On the morning after the engagement
went to Somerton, the jewelers., and
explained what l wanted. Dickson,
their head man. spotted the idea at
once.
"You want something with a pretty
sentiment in it-something original"
/ couldn't think of anything my
self, but he showed me a design which
he declared would be just the thing.
1t was a sort of brooch, with two
hearts-one a ruby and mi a diamond.
The ruby was supposed to be mine, be-
cause Dickson explained that it signi-
find. no SSfon or1 Hov0%fon - Tl1 %rr2
big stones were bound together with a
true lovers knot in diamonds-a copy
of an old pattern, he assured me. and
very pretty 1t looked. l gave him my
card to slip into the box when it was
sent home.
"What inscription, sir?" he asked as
| was leaving the shop.
OF course directly he asked me that
! was stuck. So I just told him to put
on the usual sort Of thing and to SEM
it to the young lady at once, together
with my card. M
Two days later among my mornings
letters l received a note from Miss
Strangerford asking M to go to tea. l
had intended going to see Laura, but
on getting a telegram to put me off, de-
cided to go and see Phyllis.
l was shown into her boudoir and
found her, as usual, curled up in an
armchair smoking a cigarette. 1t
struck me that she was looking ex-
tremely pretty. and for one fleeing
second almost wished-that Laura
smoked.
Also, if Laura has a fault-which,
mind you. l am not prepared to admit
still, If she has a fault, it is that she
has quaint ideas OIL the subject of hair
dressing. Now, Phyllis is always beau
tifully "coiffe."
For my part felt a little uncomfort-
able, but Miss Phyllis was not in the
slightest degree discomposed. There
was another mar there, and he glared