The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1902-01-11

| hastily, seeing the look of embarrass
| nent OF his face. "It would ease my
conscience If you told mo, that's all"
We'll. then, at the risk OF being
thought impertinent. 1 will tell you
Those strawberries gave me an cppor
tnaity Of maxim, your acquaintance
which l. should have otherwise d.,
SPARED Of
That was an answer l had not e1
nectad. The idea that any one, par
ticularly young man. should 60 ou
Of his way to wish to make my &C
t quaiEtance was so novel to me thai
every other feeling gave way to ono
of astonshment.
What on earth did you want tc
make my acquaintance for:' I ex
! claimed.
If l gave truthful answer to that
| question:" he said. you would have
i right to be very angry with me-"
! Whereupol l discreetly held m7
+, tongue.
'That reminds me-" he continued
presently. I'VE have made enc anotl
ers acquaintance in such Gn Lncon
yen:iOnal manner that we haven't even
introduced ourselves. NJ name is Rob
| ert Armstrong;
"And rhine is Jessie PoeN.7
| Peel! Surely you're not the Mis-,
Poeil-I beg your pardon, but do you
know a n.n called Charlie Bour-
Ch.er!"
Charlie Bourchier. Why, Of course.
I do" J cried. Il ought to know him,
considering he's engaged to"
l stopped abruptly, catching sight
of my COMPANIONS face. Never had
I seen any one LOOK 50 utterly crest
fallen.
Whats the mattor?" 1 asked.
"Oh, nothing" lie replied. hurrieCly.
'It's a curious coincidence. Charlie
Bourchier is an old chum OF mine. l
haven't seen him for years, but he
wrote to tie not long ago announcing g
his engagement 20 Miss Poell. And
now I find that you are the very per-
GOAs SOAlSsS tlC NlGSObSAJ Ano SuA
en- me by surprise"
"But you didn't let me fnish," I in
terrupted. Il was going to say Cha--
lie Bourchier is engaged to my sister,
Emmie."
THANK the Lord"' calculated MI.
Armstrong in a deep voice.
"You seem pleased at Charles en-
gagement," I remarked.
ut isn't thatr he cried. "BoCr-
CHER might be engaged to fifty girls,
and I shouldn't care a rap one way
or the other, as long as you wercn t
one Of them
What could be the meaning Of that
impetuous speech? Surely not that
I found myself turning scarlet at my
own thoughts. They were so prepos-
ferrous, so far from the truth in al
likelihood. I don't know whether
looked more uncomfortable than felt,
or felt more uncomfortable than l
looked.
I was glad that my companion re-
lieved me from the necessity Of re-
plying to his words by adding hash.
ly:
"I'm very grateful to Bourchier
though. Now that we have discovered
q friend In common we shall be able
to make one another's acquaintance in
quite the orthodox fashion-at least,
if you don't mind"
II shall be delighted" said, and
parted from my companion in some
confusion as the bus pulled Up at tie
bottom Of Chancery lane.
Not many days later Robert Arm
strong and 1 came to be introduced on
conventional lines, and one day-I
don't exactly know how it happened
I found myself engaged to be married.
And Emmie wasn't half SO astonished
rs I was myself, for Emmie didn't
hear what Bob said to me.
II shall never understand why you
wanted to make my acquaintance"
I told him in the carly days OF Cur
engagement.
"Are you really 50 norbidiy modest
as all that, little girl:" he asked.
Don't you know that a man can fall
in love at first sight?'
mot with an ugly girl"
mo, perhaps not. I never said
that"
But you fell in love with me-"
"And you are the most bewitching
girl in the worldw
1t isn't Of the least use arguing with
Bob.-Woman's Life.