The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-08-13

propose and would accept him that
afternoon when he dropped in for
I tea. Priscilla went out to make
calls, and I put on my pink gown
and the expression of an early Christian
! martyr. I had an awful conviction that
was going to funk at the fence, but at
| least I would make a brave start. Jack
didn't come. At G o'clock Priscilla came
| in with a horrible headache and asked
| me just to let her alone and not allow
any one to go to her room. was sorry
for her but felt like criminal reprieved
at the galiows.
'Jack didn't come that night. The next
day I had a note apologizing-rush Of
work, would be up in few days. I
and she did. She was awfully nice to me,
seemed to think was feeling badly, and
rubbed around and purred and made a
doorrnat of herself for me. never knew
her to be SO devoted and humble. She
told me how much nicer and prettier and
nobler I was than she had ever dreamed
of being. She said she wasn't worthy to
tie my shoelaces. She swore she never
had loved friend as she loved me and
that she couldn't be disloyal to me If
she tried. She gave me her best shell
comb and tried to make me take her pearl
loeket. I wasn't used to such devotion.
and it made me tired. couldn't live up
to 1t, and I didn't want to hurt her feel
ings. One day mother came to me ana
asked if I knew what she had done to
offend Priscilla. She said the child
hardly spoke to her and seemed anxious
to avoid being alone with her. Jack didn't
turn UP that week nor the next, and then,
the third week, I met the English war
correspondent, and didn't have time to
think about Jack until just before Christ
mas. Priscilla and had come in from
the theater, and I had a Christmasy
good will toward-me mood.
I'm going to write to Jack Dutton
and ask him what's the matter I said.
Priscilla jumped. oh, wouldn't she
gasped, and then she blushed scarlet.
stared at her.
why not? I asked It's the queer
est thing I ever heard Of the way he has
dropped an old friend My conscience is
clear, and something's wrong, and I'm go
ing to know what it is
! 'She wriggled.
Priscilla I said, sternly, you know
something about Jack-something that ex-
plains the whole thing
! 'She vowed she didn't.
| Priscilla should never lie. OF course,
her efforts are all wrong morally, and
then they are so crude that they haven't
any artistic value.
II took her by the shoulders and fixed
her with an eagle eye She opened and
shut her mouth helplessly and began to
cry.
=" Tt wasn't my fault, she said. never
/ guessed; and it was perfectly ridiculous,
Shed be stringing words yet If an
auroral dawn hadn't occurred in my al
legged brain.
/ You don't mean that it was you all
the timer I gasped.
/ "She was a picture Of guilt. One might
4,I,1 Il !.
pockets.
"She pumped down on the floor and hid
her face in my lap.
I IT was paralyzed for one thounderstruck
moment. Then I howled for glee.
Priscilla looked up at me with a weak,
watery smile and asked me If was angry.
tAngry?-Why / wouldn't have missed
1t for worlds. The more I thought about
! lit the funnier it got. It was such an all
embracing joke.
. Everybody was in it.
Think of Jacks impotent rage when
Priscilla kept sliding out and leaving him
alone with me. Think of mother being
Machiavellian and having her hopes. Think
of Priscilla religiously keeping out of the
way.
; ''And. oh Bobby, think of me, sitting uI
} nights to decide whether I'd better marry
him. and steering him off from proposal
while all the time he was trying to screw
UP courage to- tell me he was madly II
5 love with Priscilla
/ How did Priscilla find out the TRUTH
: asked Bobby with sympathetic chuckle
E Jack met her on the street. He took
: her into the park and uncorked his soul
3 It was volcanic eruption. He had loved
her at first sight, she must know it. Every
! one must have known it. He couldn't
live without her. She was heartless,
cruel.
"she told him she had thought I was
! it-that we had all thought so. That
t stunned him. Poor Jack! Priscilla vowed
t she would never see him again, and then
ran home and cried all night. 1t was
] a tragedy to her. It never entered her
head that would think the thing funny.
I'm glad I'm not built upon proud OF
tragic lines, Bobby.
Il wrote to Jack that night and told
him that would forgive him forMtrifing
with my young affections. and that ii
he'd kindly come up and make love to
Priscilla I'd take the war correspondent
out for walk and try to repay we'll
meant services.
He came. They are engaged.
IF any young man wants me to be-
. lieve he Is in love with me now he has
to swear to 1t before notary I'm not
} STAYING off any proposals Let them ali
, come. don't know whether they are
! mine or Priscilla's until It's all over"