Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-26

they HeVeT appeared 10 nave got 10 tIIt
point of fixing a day and date for the GER
emony. The man has been devoted. 1t
seems, to the seller of stamps right along
during all that time, placing flowers on her
desk in the morning taking her to the
cars under his umbrella rainy evenings
and all that sort of thing. Then, too, the
post office folks. especially the young wo-
men empoye3-the young women seem to
nave faculty for getting next, as 1t were,
to these little matters-have been noticing
the two at the theaters, at picnics, and at
all sorts of proper places of entertainment
during all these years They never saw
the man with any other young woman. nor
the young woman with any other escort.
Yet the years rolled along, and the two
never seemed to have made it up between
them about the little stand-up before
minister. Neither of these two thought-to-
be indeterminate people was immune of
course. from the ageing touch of time, and
they went right along getting bit older
In appearance, like all the rest of their fell
loWemuloyes.
They We're both guyed a good deal, of
course, about their apparently resuitless
mutual devotion, and they both took the
SuylnS good-nat uredy.
Say. for heavens sake when is IT
going to happen, old man? the mans fell
low-empioyes have been saying to him
rlght along at intervals for years, and he
mas always grinned sheepishly, told 'em
sood-naturedly to mind their own little
books, and gone ahead with his work. He
was promoted right along, being high
grade man at desk
The girls in the office have haen ,a,t,,,
poklng fun at the girl, too, it seems for
Years past about her apparent Inability TO
land her admirer, but she always told
.nehi thal she wasn't losing any sleep about
ianoihS anything or anybody, and she
TOO, Just went ahead with her little lob
Grew ner lay and kept her own counsel
she took good rest of a couple of months
e'eIy year or So, and always returned to
work with renewed interest and industry.
wen, when | got out to this town the
last time there was considerable speculative
talk around the office about party to
which this young couple had invited all
fands in the post office, the party accord
ing to the invitations, to come off at the
home of some mutual friends out in one
OF the suburbs. just why the two should
unite IN inviting the whole outfit to a party
was something that couldn't be under
stood.
The party's just a blind. and they're
gong TO be married at last and take this
method of inviting us to the ceremony,
was the general verdict
Il went out on the suburban train with
the big crowd of post office people who had
been invited to the party. All had to take
the same train to reach the suburb at he
h ruoappointed The home of some mutual
friends was only about four minutes walk
from the station. When we all traipsed up
the steps of the front porch of as pretty a
Queen Anne house, surrounded by a we'll
Kept yard, as I've seen this year the two
who had never made up their minds were
waiting for us. They appeared to be pretty
much at home, at that, nor were there any
mutual friends around that we could see
1t was q bit puZzling. What was more
puzZling, however, was the presence on
the porch of four pretty children-the cd
est a girl of about eleven, then a boy of
ten, another girl of eight or so, and then
little tad of a boy about four
The two indeterminate people were sml-
ing all over, and the way they enjoyed the
puzzled expressions on the features of their
l think several of us dropped at once but
there Were others who didn't
What lovely childrenv exclaimed one
of the young women who had been foremost
Whose are they?
., Ours replied the fndetermnate' young
woman, looking rather affectionately and
smiiingiy at the man who had been a
standing gag for his apparent lack of de-
termination.
We'll, L fear that some of the women in
the party froze just a trifie then, but the
mother of the pretty children waved us all
into the parlor, and there, garlanded about
with lot of flowers, was the marriage
certificate framed upon the wall. 1t showed
that. the two had been married in the
spring of 1887.
well, you ought to have heard the fun.
Why, you deceitful thing" exclaimed
the women, going up and hugging the smil-
ing woman who had. quite .unbeknownst'
to them, bsen wife for twelve years.
Well, dern your hide for a sly oner
said the men to the husband and father
pounding him on the back until he must
have been sore. And you've been having
the merry laugh on the whole bunch of us
all these years..
We'll, 1t seems that they had both been a
hit afraid of losing their positions in the
post office, when they had first decided to
double up, IL the information of their mar
fiagc leaked out. There's nothing but an
unWritten law against a man and wife be-
ing employed in the same government out
tit, but they had decided, anyway, to keep
their business to themselves. The wife
had intended to resign her position after a
couple of years but when she found that
this wouldn't BE- absolutely necessary, she
CT ntinued on in the employ of Uncle Sam,
so that on the night of that party the two
rot only owned their own pretty home but
as they informed us with quite natural
pride, a row of well-rented houses in the
city.
sc L just wanted to transfer the laugh
onto you folks before resgning my post
tor tomorrow, said the wife and mother
amiably. when the supper vas about fin
ished, and then she had to kiss all the wo-
men all over again.
She did resign her position the next
day, and the men in the office have been
mauling her husband around ever since
for his protracted foXiness."
She Changed Her Mind.
From rit-Rits