Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1908-06-11

could experiment with him and yet
be tolerably sure he was not going
to be bother and make love to me.
We got we'll acquainted the evening
he told me all about his broken heart
and blighted life"
What was he doing with those
| things if he was unsentimental?" de-
manded the girl on the floor.
I'm just quoting his estimate of
his own emotions" explained the girl
with the long eyelashes. In reality,
he wouldn't have known broken
heart from a house and lot, but he
| seemed to extract mournful JOY
from imagining that he possessed one.
He referred to it jestingly, but you
could tell he was as proud of it as if
it had zen gold medal or S1,000,000
he had made himself, and wanted to
be admired for having it.
He began" explained the girl with
the long eyelashes, "by saying he had
had such an unhappy experience just
| before he came to Chicago Then he
explained that his best girl had sud
denly married another man.
THAT was too bad sympathized,
lamely.
1t was blow he admitted I
was mighty fond of that girl. OF
course | had not been to see her very
frequently of late because / had
big contract on hand and couldn't
waste the time; besides, | didn't think
| it was necessary. | thought she I'M
derstood my feelings and, anyhow, l
supposed she'd last for another year
without saying anything"
Well" gasped the girl sitting on
the floor We'll! Hadn't he even pro
posed to her?"
Il couldn't quite make out what he
called it," said the girl with the long
eyelashes. He seemed to think the
fact that he had given her what spare
time he could snatch from the really
important business of life such as
| contracts and golf, should have
aroused f1uttering hopes in her heart
sufficient to cause her to hang on pa
| tiently in trusting anticipation of
something better.
He hadn't really asked her outright
to marry him, but he said in grieved
| sort of way-can you imagine man
who weighs 200 looking grieved ?-that
he had supposed she understood.
"Oh, he really was hopeless! So
agreed with him. | said it was awful
the way some girls trified with the
affections of man and that most of
them never knew one minute what
they wanted the next, and that lack
of stability was the great flaw in the
character OF the modern American
woman!"
WELL" gasped the girl on the floor
| III helpless rapture. Did you really?
Did he tell you that you were like the
rest of them?"
The girl with the long eyelashes
smiled. Il should say mott" she re
piled. "He looked at me admiringly
and said | had common sense and he
wished there were more like me- Then
he modified it on second thought and
said he was glad there weren't more
like me and that he was selfishly re-
joiced that | was the only one of my
kind and that he had found me-"
"That sounds as if he were little
bit sentimental" argued her friend
Not in that kind of man." said the
girl with the long eyelashes Ills
| joy on discovering my charming at
tributes was precisely what he would
have bestowed on a bargain in a ten
acre lot or on a clever deal in wheat
He went on to say that the more he
considered the tragedy which had
overtaken him the more bright spots
in the dark clouds were to be dis.
covered. He said such fighty dispo-
sition as that girl had shown argued
that she would be the sort to stay late
to afternoon card parties and forget
to be home at dinner time to welcome
her husband
Il responded that any true woman
was perfectly content to stay at home
all day, dreaming of her husband when