The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-03-15
.hich was graduated. lad been for

and forwat., d. The handwriting was
that Of Il Idly, blt unfamiliar to ne.
l opened It .N4th,-, auy thOl.ht
whatever as to who had written it;
but, looking first at the signature. saw
1t was Leona Whitney. 1t was reply
TO MY proposal of marriage.
1t is singular to be transported by
some incident backward in time Hold
ing that letter in my hand. was again
youngster of twenty. in love with a
woman | considered FAR above nc.
Then 1t occurred to me that Miss
Whitney must now he within a few
years of forty, while | was thirty-two,
and old at that.
While these thoughts were 1ashing
through me | began TO read the letter
III told me that the lady had been
touched at the expression of the ten
der feelings ! had avowed for her and
/ considered my proposal, to say the
least, an honor. But there were rea-
sons why she should hesitate. While
j was far more matured than most
men of my age, 1t must he remembered
that in ten or II dozen years | would
still be young man, while she would
be past middle age. She confessed !
that this was her only reason for not |
returning a favorable reply to my pro- |
posal. She suggested that was just
at the beginning of my career and IL
as time passed I felt the same she
would be pleased to hear from me
again.
While was reading this letter was
| of haU vi M
youth to that period where a man be-
gins to feel that young girls consider
him old. I had been much battered
that my recent attentions to n girl Of
eighteen had been looked upon with
favor. l had taken her out a number
of times and persuaded myself that
the tender passion was stealing into
, my aging breast. But I was not and
never had been anything Of butter
: fly. l was and always had beer
y serious man. found it somewhat
irksome to go about as an escort to
y young girl to amusements in which l
= took no interest. The very night be-
y fore / received the epistle from a
- distant past had attended my little
y girl to a ball where she had kept me
= for "just on more dance" till o'clock
: in the morning.
- 1t is not strange that | was affected
by Miss Whitney's reply to PROPOSE
4 ton made twelve years before. The
II dozen years she had spoken of hnc
Il passed and while l was still on thu
II lower side of middle age she had pass
VI ed beyond it. Nevertheless my interes
d in bachelor life-if l ever had any
had died down until its pleasures hal
VI turned to gall My recent attendanc
upon a society bud during the SINAI
hours of the morning was still fresh l
my memory, while the insipid nothing
had been obliged to say and listen
nauseated me.
l wrote at once to a relative Of Mis-
Whitney asking what had become
her, and received a reply that she live
in the house in which she had Away
lived, and in which I had so ofte
called upon her while l was studen
She was beloved and respected by a
who knew her and my correspondent
wondered that though she had recei'
ed many offers she had accepted non
A few days after the receipt Of tn
information I was in Miss Whitney
No. home and sent up my card with Il
letter / had so recently received, ha
ou ing UNDERSIGNED on the envelope 4
,,Id postmark showing the day It was ma
+o~ ed and another giving the day II Y;
bt received.
nix When Miss Whitney came down
elf receive me. with considerable emba
we rassment in her manner and tellta
vas blush on her cheeh' was S"i P' N9'
ext that she did not sh"" Her Ec"'e
Of half a dozen, and there was not Il grl
Md hair in her head. She looked mu'
nv younger for a woman than l for
the man.
However, | had not come to see Il
at for beauty, but in the hope Of =
self newal of that companionship | nS
ov. enjoyed a decade before. She told u
to that she had been ut loss to rnnt
eer stand my silence, for since her lett
I'm. had not been returned to her throut
l the dead letter office she could L
. I doubt that l had received II.
i'll During an hours conversation wi
her her the fact became impressed up
had nv mind that | was not the man
her marry chit of a girl and that
rds would find the companionship need
in Miss whitney. l received promi
ter. that she would correspond with II
wer and since my home was not a lol
rar tourney from hers l made her a nul
me Der of visits But my own mind W
fter made up at our reunion, and fortuna'
for " l had only to wait for the lady
one be satisfied that l would not be ike
TO regret the step | was bent up
taking.
to That Rejecting is one of the NIX
i'm Improbable things in the world
18th manifest in the fact that we have he
Of married twenty years and are mo
my companionable by far than Mt the iii
of of the wedding More than this, 0
and affection has increased steadily. and
lew seems TO me that with us the period
| inv cd