The Carlisle independent., 1909-06-17


 Settled what?" asked Hall, laying Town his pen and offering cigar.
 Why, l have proposed to her"
 Proposed to whom?"
 "To Mrs. Langston Hang it, man, have you forgotten my long cons.lta- tion with you last Friday" Willett bit off the end of his cigar and struck match viciously. T presume that you have not only forgotten the occa- sion, but that the advice you gave me has also escaped you"
 Advice in regard to what? You are always asking advice about some thing and then following your own head"
 Don't you recall my telling you that l was in love-in love with Mrs. Langston, the loveliest woman that breathes, and that Jim Parsons was as hard hit as I, and while I believed I was ahead in the race l was afraid of Jim because he had such slick tongue?"
 "Oh, yes, and I said that you would best not let any grass grow under your feet because woman who had been married three times already would not stand any dilly-dallying- if you did not speak quickly that she would marry Jim just from force of habit"
 Precisely, but that wasn't all"
 "WL~~ else did I say? You have Interrupted me in the middle of let ter to my fiancee, and my thoughts are bit scattered"
 Well, to help you collect them, I told you I had made up my mind to propose at once, and as I had never been in love before, and consequently had never made proposal, I wanted your advice in regard to the best way Cf doing it. l naturally supposed that man who had been refused by dozen women and had finally succeed ed in becoming engaged to the thir teenth would have acres of good | counsel to give me-"
 And didn't I? It seems to me I told you to follow the inspiration of | the moment"
 So you did, but it appeared to me
 
 ant matter entirely to chance. In case the inspiration failed to inspire l wanted something to fall back upon" Yes, and I called you a fool, and told you dozen ways at least of put ting the question:"
 Good. I am glad to see that your brain is growing clear and your mem ory coming back to you As I was not fluent of speech like that flop Parsons, you suggested that I make the pro- posal by letter"
 And the plan did not please your"
 Certainly not, and for two reasons First. l thought it was cowardly, and second, l could not bear the suspense of waiting for a reply"
 Then I said you might take the fascinating widow boat riding, upset the boat, swim ashore with her, and claim the life you had saved"
 And you knew I couldn't swim!"
 "I knew that nothing I could pos sibly suggest would meet your appro- bation. But since you have proposed and the matter is settled, great Scott man, what is the use of going over our last interview"
 Merely to show you by contrast how much better was the plan adopted after leaving you. By George! it was great performance, said VII lett, smoking away with reminiscent complaisance.
 "To begin at the beginning, a man can't very we'll propose till he sees the woman alone, and for six weeks have never called on Mrs. Langston | that I didn't find Parsons there, or that he didn't arrive a few minutes after l did. So l decided to go to the widows, and if I did not find him to wait till he came and then sit him out; for it would be most embarrass. ing to have him drop in in the mid dle of the business and force me to stop and pick up the threads on an- other occasion. Love is something like champagne. When the cork is once removed 1t becomes stale.
 Accordingly, last Sunday evening I went to see Mrs. L.angston, and sure enough 1 had not been there five min utes when in marched Parsons in grand toilet bringing a dozen Ameri- can Beauty roses. Mrs. Langston greeted him just as cordially as she had greeted me. although he is such an idiot, and, of course, I had to be | courteous, too. She seemed as pleased 70 receive Parsons flowers as the bon bons I had brought. That is a way she has. I was sure 1t did not mean anything. But 1t did irritate me, after she had placed Parsons roses in a lovely vase, to have her open my box of sweets and hand them to the fel- low. Yet the most exasperating thing of all was to watch Parsons devouring my bon-bons and gazing complacently at his roses. It made me wild to think that before the evening was over there would not be a caramel left, judging from the pace Parsons had set himself, while tomorrow his roses would be as fresh as ever, and by their color and fragrance remind | ing Mrs LangSton every moment of