Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-09-30

make an end Of an escapade which was
just beginning to el0y.
As he grew serious he reelected up
ON the folly-~fo1ly2 Perhaps it was
mean of me-" he thought, and this last
idea held him SO that he went home
and wrote an honest, manly letter to
the girl, in which he strove to exoner-
ate himself. He knew she would for
give him for returning her photograph,
he said, and for asking her to forget
the whole episode, which, he hoped,
had given her as much harmless merrl-
ment as it had given him. The tone OF
this letter was SO modest, SO sensible
so self-deprecating, and so completely
disiIlusioning that Dan thought as he
dropped it in the mail box:
Dad would have liked that letter. I
would never have written the others If
he had been with me-"
That was Monday. Thursday was
Thanksgiving Day, and as Dan Kent
was to be the guest at banquet that
evening, he resolved to get bite In
his favorite cafe. The place was CROWD
ed with diners, and he looked in vain
for a familiar face. The head waiter
found place for him at a table at
which sat a woman alone. She was
modestly, but quite fashionably, at
tired, young-perhaps twenty-at ease,
with an odd mixture of confidence and
shyness. Her black eyes shone with
the light of a brave and quick 1ntelIi-
gence. Her swart hair dropped about
her small ears in smooth glfstening
tresses. Her red mouth
Dan had got thus far in his sub
conscious catalogufng of the beautiful
woman opposite him when she darted
one angry glance at him in which
there was an unanswerable reproof for
lis fascinated stare. 1t vanished as
quickly as it came. She drew from her
reticule parcel Of papers, read clip
ping, and then unfolded his letter to
Kate CoIvin with the same photograph
of the Oldsburg school teacher that he
had mailed on Monday! He started
looked again, stood up, and betrayed
his curiosity by leaning forward.
She glared at him, looked frightened
for an instant, and then flushed with
anger.
@How dare your was all she said,
but the emphasis of her low voice
helped him.
81 beg your pardon, madam" he an
swered, sitting down. Il wrote that
letter myself to the girl whose picture
you have there, and it startled me to
see it in your band, I am the Dan
Of that letter, Daniel Kent
He stopped short. Her face was
wreathed in smiles.
"Why, Dan," she commenced, in that
same Sweetly singing voice. mo! Are
YOU Daniel Kent? The picture! Any
how, if you're Daniel Kent, or just a
friend of his who helped him try to
make a fool of a country girl: you're
both mistaken. I'm Kate Colvin."
She began the sentence with a coo
and ended it with a rasp.
Dan was dumbfounded, but he got
out his card and gave it to her.
well, you might have known
wasn't the kind to borrow money from
man I had never SEEM she said,
smiling, and her bruno cheeks red.
''You might have known I wasn't fool
enough to write drivel to an utter
were a downright idiot until 1 got that
last letter. That rang true. I came
down to Chicago to pay you the 81 1
owe you, and to
: But, Kate" asked the delighted
Daniel, what prompted you to start
the-foolishneSsT
HOh, I didn't like your sending that
money, and-well, I didn't want to be
pitied, either. I imagined you We're
we'll, it was dull in Oldsburg; it's al
ways dull there"
"And now we've met and found each
other out, Kate?''
They laughed like children, looking
frankly into one another's happy faces.
Its Thanksgiving, Dam" she said
"I'll give thanks that this lholding
out the picture of the pudgy blond)
isn't you," he laughed.
"And I'll give thanks that you
couldn't look like this - And she held
out the picture of the dashing barber.
And they dined so merrily together
that Dan forgot everything but Kate,
and Kate nearly forgot to pay back the
$2.-Chicago Tribune.