The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-09-27
A Wedding That
Could Never Be
Bv Helen Atherton
BY Helen Anterior

The announcement had been in the
morning paper, but she had had
long and busy day with shopping,
calls and afternoon parties. And so
the little paragraph had escaped her
notice. Now, as she came down into
the drawing room to await her moth
er preparatory to starting for ball,
she idly took up the paper.
1t stared her in the face. She read
1t and smiled to herself; it seemed
something that she had often read be-
and knew it was impossible
and knew that it was true.
A marriage had been arranged :.
She had often seen it in her
dreams, the well-known navc. the
regiment, the son of bit the
girls name. that had never appeared
in the dream fancies no one
she had ever heard of before. =.
Was she still living, or had she
gone out of the world, this very
strange world, altogether? Could peo-
pie and things be turning in the same
brilliant social kaleidoscope when this
the unexpected-had happened?
Could such things be?
And then the girl smiled at herself
again, sRiled as her mother came
into the room, pleasant, dignified, be-
jeweled, looking with somplacent
eyes at the daughter who had never
failed to do her credit. The bells of
hn al tr;a
ed below, and the girl still smiled
smiled all that evening as she danced
to the echo of five words beating
time in her heart and brain, while
she listened to the comments on the
engagement, and met with splendid
composure the inquisitive eyes that
asked questions and received no an
swer from a bravely smiling young
face that told them nothing. Yes, the
world was still going on merrily
even though marriage had
been arranged.
And now she must write to him. 1t
was four months since she had sent
him timid little note at Christmas,
letter which, to the eyes that could
read it, contained another letter writ
ten between the conventional lines. 1t
had been answered in the same
they had not met since-and now
was writing to congratulate him.
Dear this isn't true. They
may say so, that you are going to
marry some one else, girl called
Daisy, whom ! have never heard of,
but, until you tell me SO yourself,
won't believe 1t. Oh, know it's In
the papers, but they dent count, do
they? You and l know.
You haven't quite forgotten last
July? I don't think you have, any
more than l have myself, up in Scot
land, that day in the glen, you and l.
We had always been such
friends coming down over the
stepping stones-how wet and slippery
they were!-I knew you for some
thing more. Oh, didn't you guess?
felt, yes, felt that you cared, and
you never said word, Is 1t my
money, my hateful money, that stands
between us? Surely God never meant
a girl to have the millions that I shall
have (and you know it, all her own,
Was that the barrier! It cant be
that you didn't-don't-care. shall
never believe that until you tell me
so yourself not through the
papers.
do those three weeks all count for
nothing? Three weeks nearly a year
ago. Months in which I have lived,
and suffered, and waited-for this
Months out of my life which give to
you, JACK and then you hurl
this at me. Wouldn't it have been
kinder not to let me think r
expect that it was my fault. Well, I
can only wish you luck. quite the best
of luck, even with some one else.
Good-by, Jack, write and tell me If
you can that it isn't true.
"MAJORIE."
But this was the letter she sent:
Dear Capt. Atherton: l am writing
to wish you all good luck. Don't both.
er to answer this, as am sure you
are bored to death with congratula.
lions. Yours sincerely,
"MAJORIE MANNERING."
Little girl. little princess, what are
you thinking of me, l wonder, il you
are thinking at all? You have seen
the announcement in the papers, and
your gray eyes will stare at it, and
you will smile, that brave little smile
OF yours know so well, and probably
go of and dance at somebody's ball
and forget all about it, Not
tonight, 1 think, Marjorie, will you
forget
And all the time you are asking
yourself. what does it all mean?
I ask myself that question.
too did you care, or was |
mistaken? You did not let me see.
thought so, but if had been sure
Well, God knows how hard it is foC a
man without penny to speak to the
daughter of a multi-millionaire. All,
those three weeks that eve
ming In the Clen and tbo,n