Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1900-09-27
A LUCKY MISTAKE.

We have all, suppose. in our lives
made blunders-little plumbers, big
plumbers, and so forth, till one reaches
the pitch Of irretrievable blunder-and
I have just escaped from the conse-
quences Of one that for the moment
was likely to prove irretrievable.
/ 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 time | submit that / was totter-
ing on the brink. / believe as a mat
ter of fact, that did propose once or
twice but Of course 7 snew 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. Every
thing will seem to be going swimming
~, 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 kind of glistening twin
kle that makes you feel that you're
a 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 chat
tiers about nothing in particular, and
says funny things which make you
laugh and dresses very smartly. and
even sometimes smokes cigarettes, and
yet directly one 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 laugh
ing at you to herself
Last summer, down on the river,
we got on awfully we'll at first. It
clusion that it would be mistake to
carry matters further, and as she had
just-well, not exactly refused but put
me off for the second time, l thought
II better to let the matter drop
Then l met Laura. Laura adores
music halls. She says that she thinks
the color scheme of the ballet most
instructive and has come to the con-
clusion that it is unconsciously based
on the primitive principles of color
music. / am sure she's right. like
them myself.
l saw a good deal of her after that
dinner, and last week we practically
became engaged. Naturally l wanted to
give her some souvenir to commemo-
rate the day-not the ordinary, vulgar
ring. but something with latent mean
ing it It, Laura is great on latent
meanings, so l knew she would appre-
ciate IT,
On the morning after the engage
ment went to Somerton the jewelers.,
and explained what l wanted. Dick
son, their head man, spotted the idea
at once.
"You want something with a pretty
sentiment in it-something original"
l couldn't think of anything myself,
but he showed me a design which he
declared would be just the thing. II
was a sort Of brooch. with two hearts
one a ruby and one a diamond The
ruby was supposed to be mine, be-
cause Dickson explained that 1t signi-
fed passion and devotion. The two
big stones were bound together with a
true-lover's knot in diamonds-a copy
Of an old pattern. he assured me, and
very pretty it looked. ! gave him my
card to slip into the box when 1t was
sent home.
what inscription, sir?" he asked as
/ was leaving the shop.
OF course, directly he asked me that
/ was stuck. So just told him to put
on the usual sort of thing and to send
IL to the young lady at once, together
with my card.
Two days later among my mornings
letters | received note from Miss
Strangerford asking me to go to tea
/ had intended going TO see Laura, but
on getting a telegram to put me off,
decided to go and see Phyllis.
/ 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 fleeting
second | almost wished-that Laura
smoked.
Also, IL Laura has fault-which,
mind you. am not prepared TO admit
still, IL she has fault. II Is that she
has quaint ideas on the subject Of hair