Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-01
Continued from, page 9


Instead he was really distressed. "But,
Dearest" he said, "be reasonable. Surely
it is not double life to use pen name.
And people who wrote me their secret am
billions and troubles had to be protected
from the chance of ever meeting me at a
tea party, and being shocked and embar-
raised. Of course | never intended to cor
respond with any friend or neighbor in dis
guise, and l swear to you that l always an
swered Marcia's letters precisely as if they
were from total stranger. l never even
made use of such direct knowledge as l had
of her. until-until that letter in which she
confded her most delicate problem, and l
suspected for the first time that she thought
l, Henry Parmenter, was attached to her.
Then l could not avoid considering all the
circumstances, and wrote her just the oppo-
site sort of advice from what should nat
urally have done"
what do you mean by that?" l asked;
for my mind would not work fast enough to
reason it out.
a mean that should have advised any
ordinary woman to take flesh and blood
husband, if she could make any show of
loving him, and not let some unattainable
vision stand in his way. But here, you see,
there was you to consider, and Marcia too,
not to speak of myself. So concocted that
rot about the rainbow"
well, you needn't have considered me-
l said, and the tears came pouring out of
my eyes before l could stop them; @for
won't marry the man that my sister loved
before 1 did, even if it was under another
name. So it's all over, and we needn't talk
about it any more.
But of course we did; and after time l
grew more reasonable. as Henry showed me
that it was not really he that Marcia had
odr h,,f ha CHI IF n
dream, as he called it, and someone totally
different from what he could ever be- even
if he tried; so why should all three of us be
made unhappy, when few minutes before
we were all content and nothing was really
altered?
This is no doubt the sensible view for
me to take; but l am still uncertain
whether can ever be entirely happy again.
not because Henry had deceived me, for
see now that he did what was perfectly
right, and indeed both delicate and noble,
under the circumstances, but because [ can
not help fearing that some day Marcia will
discover the truth, and know that, in one
sense, she threw away the chance of marry
ing Sylvester Sharp. No, that is not right,
for she never really had the chance; but
that married-in a sense-Sylvester Sharp,
while she loved him. There have been
plenty of sisters, | suppose, who were rivals
in love; but were there ever any quite as
oddly situated as we?
November IL.
TT is settled think extremely we'll. Hen
ry thought of it in the night, and came
over before breakfast to tell me, when was
in the garden thinking it just possible that
he might have something more to say about
it,. Sylvester Sharp is to die.
at is quite time, on many accounts,
Henry said. "Plenty of chaps-Charles
Lamb, for example have got out of diff
culties that way. It's queer didn't think
of it before. But the main point is that
Sylvester will then be off your sisters mind;
yet he will still have done her all the good
she thinks she owes him..
Of course saw how wisely he had planned
it. So in the next number of "The Domestic
Monthly" the Hints and Helps will have
black lines around them, and there will be
a beautiful obituary notice of Sylvester
Sharp, following the last article he wrote
for the magazine. In the next number a
new hinter and helper will be introduced.
And this will not be altogether fictitious;
for Henry will not conduct the department
any more.
Marcia I can see. will be deeD1v shocked.