The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1899-03-04
(TAIK about anything you like,
but for goodness sake, don't
tell me you love me, she

-
said holding up her fan to
stine yawn."
"But can help loving you," said the
young man, sadly.
'Then don't show it. q"
The young man WAS silent From tue
adjoining ballroom came the strains OF the
last thing in walz-s It struck him that
after all the Green HungaIians were decd-
eddy overrated.
81 didn't ask you to sit like amummy, ,
abe remarked at length. "lt you have
nothing to talk about you had better take
me back to the ballroom"
81 beg your pardon, am sure, y he be-
gan, "bus you put me in trying position,
Nv mind is full of one suhjsc aud one
subject only, and am not allowed TO talk
about it."
'srhen undoubtedly she gathered her
skirts together-"we had better go back to
the bathroom 70 be depressed i" almost
worse than to be bored. y
mo. please don't 90, he said "as
least not until have asked You one ques-
ton
"What? ?" she said, yawning this time
without any attempt at concealment.
81 wan. to kuoE,' he said, ''ii there is
really nothing | can DO that will make you
alter your feelings towards me
II am afraid not" she said, smile
curvipg her led lips 'You see you are
we'll, YOU nothing could make you any
different, nothing. You are, admit, good
looking, we'll dressed, sufficiently wealthy
to be able to keep me in the state to which
am accustomed but then so are plenty OF
other men, all just as much in love with
me as you say you are. Why should L
choose you in preference to the rest ?
He was silent The hackneyed retort
that he loved her better than these other
men was, he we'll knew, out OF place on
such an occasion. 1t would have only ex-
cited her Iidicule.
"No," she continued, tapping her IAN
against her skirts, you see my argument
is unanswerable. Only il it is any satisiao-
tion to you it applies equally to the others
as to yourself There's no reason why
shouldn't marry any one OF you. On the
other hand there is equally no reason why
I should. Under the circumstances prefer
to remain as | am
''But you will marry some day -
"Psrhaps it depends. II | do | shall
marry a man not in the least like any OF
you. Anyone can be we'll dressed and good
looking and sufficiently lioh. Those three
things are essential but they are not all.
The man | marry muss be all that and
something more. want a man who is g
man not mere tailor's dummy, or even
a reasoning machine. We live in very
artificial age, when people pen up their
emotions and have no higher cravings than
to be always considered good form. The
man would like TO marry should be cast
liz quite different mould. He must have
done something to test his manhood shown
me something OF his strength that is In
him. In an age when heroism is fast be-
coming extinct ! should like to marry a
hero, like that man in India the papers are
so full OF this morning. or that policeman
who held two burglars at bay in some
suburb or other for half an hour. II prize
lighting had not degenerated into mere
method of making the maximum OF money
with the minimum of exertioD, | believe
should have liked TO marry a prize-fghter,
whose stakes had been not belt or purse
or anything Of that Sort but real living
woman
And risked society declining the ac-
quaintance OF Your husband ?"
"Ah, that is the worst of it. Nowadays
it seems man cannot be virile without
being cad and q bullyssatsthe same time.
Brute strength always seems to lead to
brute force Still there must be cases oil
men who have the one without the other,
who are strong without being violent. Alb,
if only could find one Why aren't men
like that now %
at is surely more question OF oppor-
tunity than anything else, y said the young
man, meditatively. Every man does not
get tie chance OF risking his life for the
woman he loves. Plenty Of US would take
such q chance gladly if it occurred"
81 don't know" she said, rising.
"But | am certain OF it, he replied,
Offering his arm.
There is only one thing to do" he
thought, as he walked home two hours
later in blaze of early sunlight, "the OPP
portunity must be found"
A week later people turning out of the
park one sweltering afternoon were horri-
fed TO see hanson cab, the horse OF which
had evidently bolted, dash furiously past
the corner and on up Piccadilly. Follow
ing it with their eyes up the hill they saw
it, after escaping by some extraordinary