Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-03
A PROBLEM FOR SOLUTION

4 ]
| IT have problem for solution, gentle
men," said handsome, weil-dressed trav-
/ cling man to group of half dozen or more
| sitting round the stove in q country hotel
office, the only place of amusement open
In the town that evening. and IL any of
you can give me an answer. l will pay for
| the drinks or the cigars, you may nom-
mate. l am now on the shady side of
| forty-five and though have been married
/ fifteen years, have the best woman on
/ earth and all that sort Of thing, / have
not yet had the courage to submit the
| question to her. Notwithstanding it Is
| purely woman question. Let me tell you
the story which constitutes the problem
and then you can give me your answers"
| When was young man of twenty
SIX or seven l was i'm business in a good
| sized town in York state, and was doing
SO well that I had made up my mind to
| marry. Probably the mere fact OF doing
well would not have decided me, but had
Iauen In love with the belle of our town,
| a very pretty and society-ioving girl of
tWenty-tWo. She had the reputation of be-
| ing a great fiirt, and deserved ii, and she
| was also suspected of being rather merce-
| nary In her affections, but / never thought
/ or those when l found that she had ac-
| cepted me the favored one You know
| man is considerably of a fool when he is
| In love. The fact that was a good look
| i
come to the country from New York, and
that was believed to be the coming bust
ness man OF the town. did not impress me
as having any undue effect upon my fair
| charmer. and | thought she loved me for
| myself alone, as / did her / knew her
| faults. but loved her just the same, and
did what / could to change her character,
| for | thought she was giddy because she
| was pretty and young and had all her life
| been battered and sought after and as
sne grew older could be won from that
KIND OF fooiishness And l was fairly sue
cessful as far as appearances went, for
When We became engaged to be married
| she was quite a changed being
:, The best friend had earth lived in
senior and rich by Inheritance and his own
Efforts He stopped over night once with
| me on ms way west and took him to see
| Miss Hart, or so I will call her, though
| tnat was not her name. and when we left
| ner mouse he was her enemy for all he was
| worth He knew women as few men do,
and he did not hesitate to say that she was
vain ana mercenary. and even tricky. and
| 1t would be the regret of my life IL I let
| her fool me into marriage OF course, /
| DEFENDED her, and. Of course, l went on
| loving her, though / held him in no less
regard for his well-intentioned Kindness In
| my behalf. He was mistaken, that was all.
| and l laughed at him. Ten days later he
| returned to the city and wired me to come
ooWn Tor SUNDAY, as he had something i'm
portant to talk to me about. l went and
| found that the subject Of the conversation
was to be Miss Hart and myself. He had
no further opinions to express concerning
| the character and motives Of the young
| lady but suggested that we subject her to
| test, which, II she withstood, he would not
only withdraw all opposition, but give me
$4,000 as wedding present. 1t looked so
| fair that l forgot 1 was her lover and
| agreed to 1t after he had explained it fully
to me. showing that If it failed she would
| never know anything about 1t. and it would
add that much to her credit as being what
l thought she was.
Monday morning was again In my Of
hce: and that evening was at Miss Harris
| telling her, among other things, Of my
! visit to New York and that my friend
| Norton was singing her praises to the
skies She blushed and looked greatly
| pleased. The next day received from him
| the copy of friendly letter he had written
| to her with a P. s. to the effect that 1t
| might be as well not to mention the fact
to me. At the end of the week he sent me
a copy OF her reply. and for month was
In receipt Of these letters, which, I need
| not add, became more like love letters as
the time went by. kept on calling at
toned anything about Norton's letters,
| and when l would tell her 1 had heard
from him and he had said such lovely
things about her she would pout little
ana say II he thought much of her he
| might, at least, say so himself That was
| ner vanity, you know, for as engaged
girl she had no right to be receiving let
tiers even from my best friend, but I didn't
say so to her. I only said she was a CO.
quettish little fairy and would kiss her.
| AT the end of the month Norton came
| up to spend Sunday with me. and he re-
NAMED a whole week. four days of which
| | was called away on business. and left
| him to the good offices Of Miss Hart to
make him have pleasant time until I
! things after his visit, but 1 was still un-
convinced. and he said the test would
| have to go on to the end unless I learned
| some sense sooner. AS 1 said before.
| a ma ia in ho " ho dad
| upon to do any kind Of fool thing, either
| in doubt Of his love or in faith Of It.
| when Norton had returned to the city
| Miss Hart was nicer to me than ever. and
| she spoke very pleasantly of Norton. and
how freely he had spent his money In en-
| PERTAINING her, and how nice 1t was to be
| rich as he was some day. and she would
help me do it, and we would have great
| time spending our own money, and then
she would kiss me and we would talk
about our wedding day, which was to be
| in June. about three months away. On
| Friday OF that week received a letter
from Norton. and just after noon 1 went
around to Miss Harris and told her l
was called away and would not be home
again until late Sunday night or possibly
not until Monday morning. l was to
leave at o'clock. and / asked her IL she
wouldn't take walk with me for an hour
or so before train time and see me off.
She would be only too glad to. she said,
and we put in very charming hour and a
waving a farewell to her from the rear
platform, and I went to New York, arriv-
ing there about T. Jack Norton met me at
the train and showed me a telegram which
read:
".John c. Norton. New York City:
Obstacle temporarily removed. VIII
be ready at 2 Saturday.
This rather vague message bore my sig
nature, and was from Miss Hart, who
had so signed 1t to avert suspicion at the
telegraph Office in our town, where gossip
is always ready to catch at straws 1t
was in response to q letter from Norton