The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1900-02-01
A Moment of Weakness
'VXTHAT on earth are we to do?"

n
w cried pretty Lydia Darrell al
most tearfully. 81 won't marry old
Tiebel-Jones-not if all the aunts in
the world told ME to-"
Marry me and defy the old cat"
Eyes, that's just what l should like
to do, but one must consider things"
''You mean money!"
Eyes, l mean money. You see, ii
Aunt Judith had any rational ground
for obleeting to our marriage, if she
said you drank, or were already mar
ried-of course l know you're not
but l am supposing a case"
Don't you think you might suppose
something little less uncomplimen-
tary?"
NO, certainly not. What does it
matter in supposing? Well, then it
would be different, and l should feel
that, however wrong she might be, she
really meant well. But when she can
only say that you are one of the most
arrogant opponents of all the noblest
and purest aspirations of our sex
which means that she suspects you of
/ know that it is not me that she is
thinking of, but herself all the time.
And she wants me to marry Fiebei-
Jones because he flatters her to the
top of her bent, and calls her pioneer
and all sorts of nonsense"
do you think that punching his
head would do any good?"
"a
I should have told you to before this.
But for all that, Aunt Judy can do
what she likes with all my money I'M
til I come of age, and if marry with
out her consent before l am 81, all my
property goes into trust with her as
trustee, and she can allow me as much
or as little as she likes. If Aunt
Judith were an ordinary aunt, one
might expect that she would come
round, when she found out what a
dear you really are. But know she
would be only too delighted to get
che money for her movements and So
cieties, and / should never get pen
ny. So we must wait till l am 81.
'If / could only get round her IN
some way. If this was in novel
there would be dozens of ways. l
should drop on her in railway acct
dent and soothe her last moments
with my brandy flask"
you forget that she is a teetotal-
ler."
''Or ] might be in the way when her
horses bolted."
only she doesn't keep auy."
"She would in q novel. And 1 should
stop them at the risk of my life, and
she would fall on my neck and call me
her preseryer."
81 should like to see that" cried
Lydia, with a delicious trill of laugh
ter.
"Lyddy, you have no Imagination"
said Bob Falk, with dignity. 81 am
sure the scene would be most dra-
matic-especially if Lady Judy hap
pened to be in boomers. And her re-
morse would be so great that she
would give me her consent written on
visiting card-or perhaps my shirt
cuff, to prevent mistakes"
How can you talk such nonsense.
But you have given Inc an idea.
Couldn't you save her when she is out
bicycling?"
What from? And how am to find
her at the right moment?"
swell, really, should have thought
that a man could have arranged all
that in minute"
Seems as if the surest plan would
be to arrange the accident. One might
bride tramp to attack her, and allow
himself to be driven off by me-and
then he would probably blackmail me
for the rest Of my life. Or one might
get generous friend to do the tramp
part in isguise-only | cant at the
present moment think Of any man who
would be such a jay. Besides your
Aunt Judy is just the kind of energetic
female who would insist on seeing the
villain safe in Jail after the rescue
Then | should have to give myself up
TO save him. The plan is not SO bril-
liant as it seemed at first"
mo, it isn't. Very far from it. But
listen to me. On Monday Aunt Judy
starts on a bicycle ride to Scotland
alone. She wishes to show that one
woman in boomers can go through the
lenpth Of England without oopinp "a