The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1913-06-21
WEALTH OR POVERTY
How Adventure III a Storm
Brought a Girl 10 Her Nor.
NAL Senses.
BY LOUISE oLNEY.

BY LOUISE 0lNEY.
A girl like Nora finds the world full
OF men. She lets them buzz about the
rose Of her enchanting sweetness until
by more or less painful and pro
tracted process of wedding out she
finds the one she wants to marry
Meantime she plays the very mis-
chief
In the case OF Nora there were :hre&
men. The girl was taking tims ant
making trouble while she gradually
found out what she did not want. Hel
mother, cold and calculating but wiss
enough to pretend disinterested sentt
ment, watched the game-and her dt
minishing bank account Nora's mar
rage meant to her mother wealth-ol
Obscure poverty. One must perforce
admire the sporting qualities of the
older woman in spending all that she
had to keep Nora in the midst Of
things during the matrimonial hay;
making season. This meant cottage
at the lake. servants. car, and pretty
dresses and entertaining.
Mrs. Stanton had been patient
Nora was twenty.three and her
chances" had been a matter Of envy
with other mothers. She should have
been married. But she dallied about
the edge of capture, coquetting as
naturally as flowers bloom and waters
run down hill and sun shines. The
sweetness Of her ran riot. She did a
lot of hurting-which made her sorry.
One by one she had sent hearts into
the discard-gently, with regrets. She
liked the hero to go out gracefully to
slow music after a story that had
taken its artistic course from &C.
quaintance through friendship, to the
climax Of love-and to the end Of
vanishment: Her lovers never turned
back to friends.
There is one exception to this. Max.
we'll Dunn, her friend from childhood,
her schoolmate and companion, the
summer before, to his own surprise
and her mothers chagrin, became en-.
gagged to Nora. Mrs. Stanton liked
Max-he was Of solid family and
alone but for an old cousin who kept
his good old country house. But he
wasn't rich. He simply was a rising
architect with love for his work and
tendency to enjoy life as he went
along. Money was not his main OBJ.
ject.
It was after Nora had discovered
that she didn't really love Max enough
to marry him, after she broke the en-
gagement-gradually, weeping at how
1t hurt him, and asking him to be her
frie ID the same as ever-that her
brother Sam, who looked at things
pretty much as they we're, told a
story. He told II at the breakfast Ia.
BILE and Nora was Justly indignant.
Tho Dry dealt with tender-hearted
Teuton, who being obliged to cut of
his dogs tail, performed the operation
an inch at time 80 the dog wouldn't
feel SO badly about it. Sam seemed
to think the story pointed a moral al
to Morals method of Diminishing q
lover. A younger brother has no SEN
ttment except for motors and bull
dogs and his meals.
But Maxwell Dunn gave Nora the
surprise of her life and gained the
eternal gratitude of Mrs. Stanton. He
promptly accepted his dismissal and
reiapsed into the friend he had been.
Nora was hardly able to believe it.
She reluctantly concluded that he had
never really loved her. After this
she was her captivating best, but
never again could she raise glimmer
Of love to his face. He was everlast-
ingly about the place-a comfort and
refuge in time Of trouble, always
ready for the wall-fower. the extra
girl or old lady, always good-natured.
He didn't even mind Thomas Preston
Thomas Preston was in the whirl
wind lover class. He had dallied
about, slipping honey and torturins
hopeful mothers, until he was thirty
five. Having money he had time. He
knew how to make love. And he
really wanted Nora-probably because
she was sincerely Indifferent to him.
Mrs. Stanton was looking favorably
on Preston, the while saying that she
wanted her Nora to marry for love.
and was not in haste to lose her.
Preston understood her perfectly, but
was willing to play blind. If he got
Nora he was willing to pay her moth
er's way to the ends Of the earth for
which she longed.
Meanwhile Maxwell Dunn stood
firmly in the exact center of the
friendship garden where Nora had
planted him, while she shifted every
thing and everybody around him at
her own sweet will.
Besides Preston and Max there was
the college boy, Perry Poindexter.
who had haunted Nora all summer
and whom she had played as an angler
plays gamey fish. He was hand.
some and dangerous enough to worry
Thomas Preston, which, so far as
Nora was concerned, was his only rea.
son for being! Finally she refused
him to the indignation of Sam and to
the great gratitude Of Perry's mamma
who had other plans for her son but