Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1903-01-09
TheFiTSt Faux Pas

IL
any man in town. But 30 years old.
he was already godfather to a score
of cherubic children of "chumsv and
young women who had once laughed
and gloried in his unselfish compan-
ionship Harry knew how to make
love without going too far. His jokes
never miscarried. He was everybody's
friend and everybody was his. He
was not a 'knockcr' among men,
and he had the confidence of all the
dowagers, young c1atrons and bellies OF
his set. HIS Wit was prUvcrDidl, and
his jokes, practical or conversational,
were the envy of the men and the de-
light of the women. He seemed to be
absolutely impartial in mis- gallantry
Rich or poor. plain or pulchritudinous.
every woman seemed to be queen in
his eyes, and as esquire to any or all
of them he was a unanimous "hit."
Though they never said so, there
were many elderly men of his ae-
quaintance who thought, however, that
Harry would never amount to much"
He was too vacillating, too reckless.
too merry to "cut any ice" Women
with manageable daughters never
took him seriously, because they said
he had nothing" And he was poor.
A clerkship in a bank sufficed to en-
able him to twinkle merrily at recep-
tions and even shine at the head of
cotillions. He danced like a faun.
laughed like Menus, sang and played
like troubadour. A vote of the w0-
men who knew him would have estab-
lished his prominent popularity, but
none of them could think of him as
an eligible parIi." The dullest man
possible rival in love. In a word, he
was delightful tri1er, butterfly of
mankind, a blue-eyed, yellow-curled
dancing. laughing, failure. OF course,
he didn't seem to care a rap-such
men never do-and so it was all right.
1t was his good fortune never to
come into contrast with other men
till Stephen Hatch, his cousin, came
back from college, swarthy, eye
glassed, serious, saturnine, young man,
rich in his own right, ambitious hy-
percritical, with a patronizing, super
ior attitude toward women and a toll
Grant, deprecating air with men. Here,
indeed, was a parsonage whom all wo-
men must regard as all men consider.
And they did so, all except Harry, 10
whom he appeared casually as a mere
incident il the general scheme of en-
joying life. Harry put up jokes on
him, laughed at him, made all the nice
girls acquainted with him, and in time
saw him devote his luminously morbid
mind and ample means to the wooin5
of Dorothy Carr, the fairest, most ami
able, most loyal and enthusiastic of
Harry's many girl friends" AS a
matter of course, when the engagement
was announced Harry was mentioned
as leading man. Stephen had no par
ticular objection, but Dorothy would
hear of no other.rso-f zs.fn-.a
1t was some time afterward.. just
while his cousin was in the absorbing
throes of anti-nuptial business, that
Harry Hatch met Dorothy quite by
chance in the corner of the Alber-
marie Hotel.
1.-THE very man wanted to see," she
laughed. You must take me to
lunch, Harry. Stephen will be down
on the. o'clock boat to take me to
the matinee and want to have a tete-
a-tete with you, anyhow 1t may be
our last chance, you know, Harry"
And so they got into a snug little
corner of the cafe and chatted and
laughed till the conversation turned
upon the tiresome rreliminaries of
weddings, and Dorothy said she thought
the funniest thing about it all was get
ting the license and seeing ones name
in the paper And she said that Ste
phen was worried to death about the Ii
cense, thought it was undignified and
vulgar TO have to go into public place
and handy his name and hers and pass
money for common document such
as pedlers, teamstors, and others might
get for paltry dollar. But Harry
laughed and said he would regard it
as a proud privilege to De able to ask
for and get a license to marry any
good woman, but that if her tDoro-
thy's) name was to appear in the docu-
ment side by side with his he would
consider his glory supreme and perfect,
&c. Ana they laughed as she quizzed
him about how he would go about it,
and laughed again when he dared her
to go with him right then and there
to get license.
Come on. Dotty." he urged. TT
will be a new experience. l know
the clerk and he'll cancel the thing
for ma and toars IS. POI .,
and when you see it done you can tell
Steve how easy it is and how proud |
was. Come. let's try it,"
And they laughed some more and. |
think the waiter brought in a little
silver pail with beads of ICY water up
on it, and golden, green bottle neck
peeping out of the ice, but anyway.
they marched across to the City Hall
and, she blushing and tittering. and he
quite ridiculously solemn-looking. they
asked for, and paid for, ana got H.
cense, and went back to the hotel bub-
ling with enjoyment of Harry's latest
joke" Stephen was awaiting for
tnem, very impatient and important,
and Dorothy thrust the folded license
into her bosom and with a quick warn
ing to Harry went away with her
fiance to the theatre
Then Harry wSEt back to the mar
riage license desk and called the clerk
aside so that he could explain the
joke. and that, of course, he didn't
want the license at all and that it
mustn't get into the papers.
Il just thought I'd come and tell you
to make sure the reporters don't find
1t out. We're going to tear up the iii
cense, and
But it's too late. Mr.. Hatch, !" said
the clerk. s'the afternoon papers have
got the names Already These lists
are public property. and. anyhow, the |!
license is issued. is out and Is bona |
fide until you bring It back"