The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-12-21
WITH INTENT TO DECEIVE.


/ Edith combatively.
Has it even so much dignity?" said
Rodney submissively.
You won't even take the trouble to
combat my assertion. them" asked Ed
it'll with a dissatisfied little laugh 1T
seems to me that a man who has ar
| rived at your age-30, isn't thought
realize that what they need is little
1 opposition-of the right kind
And from the right man?''
only the right man can offer the
right kind of opposition"
do you mean that the man who Of
fers no opposition can never be the
right MANI"
you never oppose me in anything"
Ergo, am not the right man?''
Exactly"
Then you must suffer from a little
1 opposition. I oppose your views on this
matter completely. am the right
man"
1T is not very modest of you to say
so.''
"Modesty and have never had more
than a bare nodding acquaintance"
| Il should say not, when you assert
positively that it was your face saw
in the mirror. And this in the teeth of
my first contradiction of that fact
THE man whose face you saw in the
mirror was II"
How. do you know even looked in
the mirror?''
Every unmarried woman does-on
Halloween night"
How about unmarried men?"
when they are as much in love as
am there is no need for them to look in
a mirror on Halloween or any other
night to see the face of the woman they
are going to marry-or, l should say,
the woman they want to marry"
How would you go aObut it?"
ut is only necessary for me to shut
my eyes at any time, and can see your
face clearly e-
Really, you are improving: Your
compliments are, perhaps, little blunt,
but they are delivered very nicely"
But to return to the mirror. De-
scribe the man that you saw"
In the first place, he was rather
handsome"
THANK you.''
You need not thank me. have told
you that it was not you whom saw.
He was dark and had those wistful sort
of eyes that you read about in old fash
Toned novels"
WAS it any one whom you ever saw
before?"
Il am not quite certain as to that The
face is strangely familiar and at times
it seems to me that / must have seen
the man somewhere in the flesh. Or,
perhaps. I merely met him in my
Dreams
Truly the description does not seem
to fit me. AS for the handsome part of
the description-well, modesty, even the
small amount Of modesty in my COM
position, forbids me to say. But GER
tainly 1 am not dark, and I don't think
any one ever accused me of having
'wistfup eyes. I have had to keep mine
SO wide open in business that I never
had time to acquire that romantic visit
fulness."
The more Rodney puzzled over the af-
fair the deeper he got mixed up. Seized
with an inspiration. he turned suddenly.
and. looking at Edith narrowly, he
thought he detected a mischievous
twitching of the corners of her mouth
Tell me, did you really look in that
mirror as I asked you to-in dark |
room with only one candle to light it?''
The smile which had fiickered on Ed |
this face grew suddenly to laugh, as
she answered:
mo, I did not look init at all"
i''Then why did you go through all
that long rigamarole about the face of
the man you SAW" -rs
Because you were so dominatingly I
and masculinely positive that I had
looked" -fJ
This was putting another turn to the
matter, and Rodney looked more and |
more puzzled, wondering If all his |
pains in the matter of that mirror were
going to naught.
s'Why didn't you look, if may ask?"
Because the mirror was broken"
Broken! Who broke it, when, and
where?'
you take a great deal of interest in
the matter. RarQOn me, IIdL WAS TuuS
in me, since the mirror was your gift,
you naturally take an interest in 1T. |
You know, the mirror arrived three or
four days before Halloween and care |
fully refrained from looking into it ex-
cept by daylight, as you suggested. |
intended to take a candle and consult
it on Halloween, but my small brother,
Jack, was playing ball in the hall and
his ball flew through my door and
smashed the mirror into pieces"
Va SCa1t RIIt / ". did YOU |
notice anything peculiar about the
pieces"
Anything peculiar about the pieces?
Why should -" This was said with
such an air of innocence that Rodney
was again nonplussed.
II thought told you about the mir
ror in the note which I sent with it
You know the man whom I bought 1t
from said that it had the strange pro-
perry that to her who looked in it, on
Halloween night it always revealed the
features of the man whom she would
marry. This property, supposedly COM
mon to all mirrors, is found only in a
few" he said seriously.
ooh yes,'' Edith interrupted, you
did explain in the note that the mirror
was enchanted. I have the frame left:
do you think, that was enchanted
also?" =
Rodney looked up suddenly and
Edith. meeting his eye, laughed loudly.
ooh, Rodney" she said. you must
have a poor opinion of my mental pow
ers. / would have discovered the whole
thing even il the mirror had not been
broken"
Il was afraid you would, but 1
thought it might impress you bit.
1T did,
Howl
"Ob. pshaw, Edith" he answered
you know what 1 mean, thought
maybe seeing my face that way might
aDDeal to the little bit of superstition
that is in every one and give better
chance"
at didn't appeal to the superstitious
element in my nature.
found out how the thing worked. I sat
for that photograph too"