The daily morning Alaskan., 1901-01-13
.o-o-o-o-o-o o..o~o-o.o.o.e
VANITY
BY BARRY PAIN.

O"O"O"O O~ OeO'"O'eO'eO'e0S'C q am a liar," said my cousin Elsa "No don't speak. You'll try to say some thing funny, as if you were writing one of your penny books, and l hate you most when you're like that. One of these days am going to take holiday. I shall go into some big lonely field and tell all the truth about myself out loud"
 Gan l come too"
 ''No. My whole life here in London is one enormous lie, and I hate 1t. 1 tell lies to influence peoples opinion of me. tell lies to spare the feelings of others. tell lies everywhere and always. 1 bought veil this afteynoon, and l told ssS lies while 1 was in the shop doing .. l count ed them. I'm sick of society and conven- tions and everything. Be thankful you're not woman"
 "I am.'
 "Men don't love the truth, but they can tell it if they like. Women are naturally good, and they adore the truth, but they | are never allowed to tell it. 1 should like | to reconstruct aG our customs and ways | of life. I've got ideas. 1 often think of things that would surprise you. You | think l am rather a little fool, that I'm not serious and that I only care for amusements. A stupid butterhy-that's your idea of me. It's all wrong, of course. | One of these days you may think differ | ently But it doesn't matter-nothing matters"
 "To come to the point, who is he?" | "You can't think how unspeakably tired | 1 am. l don't want to go to this silly theater, do you|
 "Not in the least"
 "Shall We give the cabman the tickets | one for himself and one for his horse 1 suppose they would have to let them in If they had the tickets, wouldn't they That horse would just look lovely sit ting up in the stalls. l wonder if he'd cry in the pathetic passages. Did you ever see horse cryF
 "To return to the subject of discus sion, who is he? And why didn't he ask you to marry him?"
 '1diot! He did, and l refused him. It's quite time l got married. 1 wonder 1 how many seasons I've been through know I'm dead tired of London anyhow. l might have accepted him. We got on beautifully together. He recognized that l had a serious side. He had such a sym pathetic voice, too, and eyes that seemed | to-
 "Omitting his eyes and his nose, why did you refuse him?"
 "How could any girl marry a man whose name is Higgins? It sounds as if it came out of comic paper. It's an i'm | possible name. 1 would sooner be dead or live in the suburbs than be called Mrs. Jiggins."
 Wouldn't he have changed it?"
 T couldn't ask him to do that. He never seemed to notice that there was anything wrong with his name. He had always been like that, and 1 suppose he had got used to it. It must be some thing like being born dead. Even when he proposed to me he never apologized for his name, and it was beautiful pro posal, too-one of the best I have had"
 What did you say?"
 "1 couldn't tell him that l was refus. 1 ing him because of his name, could I? It would have been too cruel. So I told him didn't love him. We were talking and l went on from one thing to another 1 don't know how these things happen for l had never meant to tell him any lies, but l believe l gave him some idea that there was Il secret tragedy in my 1 life. It seemed to suit with his way of seeing the serious side of me-"
 "Did you go into details?"
 q said had been secretly engaged and the man had died in Egypt l almost be- lieved it myself while was telling him it."
 "I don't see what the trouble is. You did not want to marry him because his name was Higgins. Therefore you re. fused him. Whats wrong?"
 "Everything's wrong. His name isn't Higgins any more. An uncle, his moth CTS brother, died and left him everything on condition that he took the name of Langdon, which I adore. And he's done | It."
 And now you want to bring him back again. But you can't explain away that little romance"
 That's not the worst He's going tc marry Adela Price, who's the most abom inable cat know. A man tells his wife everything. He'll tell her the story told him about the man who died in Egypt There was a lot of it, much more than have told you. She will know absolutely for a fact that there was not a word ot truth in it, because we used to be friends | OhSSy anu tueu Shc BOl lO huOW cNSIy thing about me. When she hears about that secret tragedy she will just sit down and laugh till she dies of it, and then she will go round and tell everybody else. can see her laughing now, with a mouth like the slot for newspapers in the post office. The only thing I could do would be to get him away from Adela. But then I shouldn't marry him myself now 1 would have married him if he had been Langdon when he was Jiggins."
 But now there are complications"
 Still suppose I must get him away from Adela."
 'Leave Adela and Higgins Langdor alone You say that a man tells his wife everything. He doesn't. And some oi the things that he never tells her are his prematrimonial failures with other wom en. Your secret tragedy is safe enough Adela Price will never hear of it."
 Elsa reflected upon this for a moment What a mercy it is," she said, "that men are so abominably van!'-Blach and White.
 The Spectacular French Student.
 "The French student who follows the traditions" says an American who has just returned from Paris, "wears his hair in the Venetian manner In heavy masses 1t lies on his forehead and cheeks