Bisbee daily review., 1903-02-20

Kate Ward" Kate Wardr' Then, after a pause. Are you her first love?" Well, no, not exactly. There was a | fellow she met several years agO-a measly sort of chap, fancy-whO was so desperately iD love with her that she took pity on him and engaged herself to him. It was broken of, however"
 Did you get all this information from herr"
 By no means. She simply told me that she had been engaged. My infOr- nation came from her cousin, Anita Griffith" Anita Grif5thr'
 You seem surprised. Do you know herT'
 "Yes-no. Did she give you the cause of your fiancee's break with-the other fellow?"
 Well, yes. Anita was indirectly mixed up in the matter. Young Steve Griffith was led into gambling by the other fellow as you call him, and feeced."
 Indeed"
 'I judge from the way you take the information that you know something about the affair yourself"
 "I know that Steve Griffith is a little villain, always gambling, always bor rowing. In other words, he is a dead beat"
 "Of course II this is nothing to me Kate was in duty bound to tell me she had been engaged. The cause of the break was another matter"
 Surely you are not concerned iu that"
 Besides, I was myself engaged be fore."'
 "To whom?"
 Anita Griffith"
 "Phew! And that is how you gol this story. Was she, too, the loveliest girl imaginabIe?"
 "Well, to tell the truth, I was much pleased with Anita, but I knew all the while she cared nothing for me, and that cools a fellow off after awhile'
 "Oh, yes; it cools him of, decidedly or sets him on fire. But how did this change from one girl to the other come aboutE'
 Ut was this way: Anita introduced me to Kate, and when she found l fancied her she nobly left Kate the field When I asked Kate to marry me and she told me that she had been engaged, l was troubled, for l feared that she loved the fellow and was go ing to marry me only because I was 9 good match financially. l confided in Anita, who put me in possession of the facts"
 ':She was very kind to you"
 "Yes. Not many a girl would hay, acted so disinterestedly with man tC whom she had been engaged"
 Did it ever occur to you that sh' might have had d motiver'
 What motive could she have poSsi- bly had?"
 ''Fhe other fellow"
 You mean that she wanted to get him for herself?"
 That's what has occurred 10 me"
 'If you knew her, you would nol have so bad an opinion of her"
 T do know her"
 What? You know discriminatory
 'Very intimately. I am her affianccd husband"
 "What-you? You the man she was in love with all the while? My deai fellow, l congratulate you on being en- gagged to the loveliest woman imag, inable.'"
 Thank you" And the speaker arUs,. and left the room. That evening. by special appointment, Miss Katherine Ward received him in the small parlOr. having given orders that she was al home 10 no one else, not even her tiance.
 Pardon this intrusion" he said: ''but. as wrote in my note requesting an interview, l have discovered cer- tain reasons for your action in break ing with me"
 Not through me. I was pledged to secrecy and kept my promise"
 ''The story that I drew young Steve Griffith into gambling and fieeced him is false"
 T had the word of the girl to whom you, are now engaged"
 II will not accuse her. l presume her brother lied to her to account for money he made away with"
 A pallor slowly spread over the girls face.
 ''To prove what say, here is letter written by Steve Griffith an hour ago denying the whole story"
 T don't want to see it. It is too late. We are both engaged"
 'I am not. My engagement was broken this afternoon"
 "On what ground|
 "Well. since I must tell all or roth- ing, the man who has supplanted me with you inDocently told me a story proving conclusiyely that the woman to whom l was engaged had caused the breach between you and me. As soon as l knew the facts I broke my engagement. You are the woman I love and would marry. If not you, I will die unwedded."
 
 Six months later.
 'T congratulate you on your engage ment to your former iancee, Miss