The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-08-09
THE SPENDERS
A TALE OF THE THIRD GENERATION
By HARRY LEON WILSON
Copyright, by Lothrop Publishing Company.


Young Bines knew what he was talk
ing about l haven't lived my years
without being able to tell that after
five minutes with her clever as she is
/ can read her. Like so many of those
women, she has an intense passion tC
be thought respectable, and she's come
into money enough-God only knows
hoW-to crafty it. l could tell it, il
nothing else showed it, by the way in
which she overdoes responsibility. She
has the thousand and one artificial
little rules for propriety that one never
does have when one has been bred to
it. That kind of woman is certain to
lapse sooner or later She would mar
ry Fred because of his standing, be-
cause he's a favorite with the smart
people she thinks she'd like to be pally
with. Then, after a little she'd run
off with German dialect comedian or
something, like that appalling person
Normie Whitmund married."
But the desire to be respectable, my
dear-and you say this woman has it
is a mighty lever. Pm no cynic
about your sex, but I shudder to think
of heir-ah-eccentrici if it should
cease to be a factor in the feminine
equation"
cts nothing more than a passing
fad with this person-besides, that's
not what I've to tell you.''
But you, yourself, were not averse
to Fred's marrying her, in spite of
these opinions you must secretly have
held"
mot while it seemed absolutely nee
essary-not while the case was so
brutally desperate, when we were
actually pressed"
Remember, my dear, there's moth
ing magic in those $4,000. They're
winged dollars like all their mates. and
most of them, I'm sorry to say, have
already flown to places where they'd
long been expected"
Mrs. Milbrey's sensation was no
ldnger to be repressed. She had toyed
with the situation sufficiently. Her
husband was now skillfully dissecting
the deviled thighs of an immature
chicken
Horace" said his wife, impressive
~. "Avice has had an offer of marriage
FROM"
He looked up with new interest.
From Rulon Shepler"
He dropped knife and fork Shepler,
the man Of mighty millions! The I'M
disputed monarch of finance! The
cold-blooded, calculating sybarite in
his lighter moments, but man whose
values as a son-in-law were so ideally
superb that the Milbrey ambition had
never vaulted high enough even to
overlook them for one daring moment!
Shepler, whom he had known so long
and so intimately, with never the
audacious thought of union so stu
pendously glorious!
Margaret, you're jesting!"
Mrs. Milbrey scorned to be dazzled
by her triumph.
Nonsense! Shepler asked her last
night to marry him.
Its beWildering! never dreamed-''
i've expected it for months. I
could tell you the very moment when
the idea first seized the man-on the
yacht last summer. I was sure she
interested him, even before his wife
died two years ago."
margaret. it's too good to be true!"
If you think it is, I'll tell you some
thing that isn't: Avice practically re-
fused him.
Her husband pushed away his plate;
the omission of even one regretful
glance at its treasures betrayed the
strong emotion under which he Ia
bored.
This is serious,' he said, quietly.
Let us get at it. Tell me, if you
please!'
She came to ME and cried half the
night. She refused him definitely at
hrst, but he begged her to consider, to
take a month to think it over"
Milbrey gasped. Shepler, who COM
manded markets to rise and they rose
or to fall and they fell-shepler beg
ging, entreating child of his! DESPITE
the soul-sickening tragedy of it. the
situation was not without it's element
Of sublimity
She will consider; she will reflect p,
You're guessing now, and you're as
keen at that as I. Avice is not on7v
amazingly self-willed, as you intimated
moment since, but she is intensely
secretiEe. When she left me I could
get nothing from her whatever. She
was wretchedly sullen and taciturn."
But why should she hesitate? Shen.
'er-Rulon Shepler! My God! is the
SRI crazy? The very idea of hesita.
ton is preposterous!"
! can't divine her. You know she
has acted perversely in the past.
used to think she might have somt
affair of which we knew nothing
something silly and romantic But i.
she had any such thing I'm sure il
was ended, and she'd have jumped a.
this chance a year ago. You know
yourself she was ready to marry younf
Bines, and was really disappointed
when he didn't propose
(7.,4 L