The daily Alaskan., 1913-01-02
An  It Didn't Come or as
 Expected
By F. A. MITcHRL

was starting one morning to attend to some affairs connected with my es- tate when at the door l met a tele- graph messenger He handed me the envelope and the book for signature at the same time, and signed the one before looking at the other, The boy darted away, and, tearing open the envelope. I read the telegram.
 need you very much Do come to me GWEN
 Not knowing any one by that name I began to do what I should have done in the first place-inyesugate. The ad- dress was "A. J. Courtney" My name is Alonzo Jackson Courtney. So far all right. live at 10T Renwick street, and that was the address on the en- yelope, though there was no street or number written on the message, The place from which it had been sent was Tipperton. a city about an hours ride from the one in which l lived,
 My first impulse was to send the message to the telegraph office with the information that the operator had made a mistake In sending it to me Then I fell to wondering who was Gwen and why she needed some other fellow with my name. Singular that the Initials should be exactly the same in both. Was lt, after all, a mistakeE I thought hard for a few minutes, then remembered a girl by the name of Gwen had met at a sumner resort and with whom had had mild dirta- ton.
 "Tve a good mind Co follow the thing up," I said to myself, and l did,
 I took the first train for Hyperion, where. at the office from which the message had been sent, I learned the address of the sender Going to the house. a very respectable residence on a good street, and being admitted, l sent up my card, telling the maid to take 1t to Miss Gweudolin. Word came back that Miss Darlington was not able to see me at present but hoped would call again. The maid however, handed me a sealed envelope containing an admission ticket to the opera, and on a bit of paper was writ ten:
 Box 6. This evening, Don't fail
 This was a trihe more than I had bargained for. was quite up to fac ing a young lady In her own house and asking her why she had summon ed me, but to accept a ticket Co the opera under false pretenses was quite another matter However, was in for 1t. and to repay the obligation l dropped in at a florists and sent Miss Darlington a box of flowers. This re- lieved my conscience. Then I returned home and during the afternoon put on evening dress. diued early and went back to Tipperton, arriving at the opera house before the curtain rose
 I took a seat in the parquet where I could look up at box and waited. During the overture a young lady, at tended only by a maid, entered the box and. throwing or her wraps, took a seat where she was partly concealed by a curtain. saw her long enough to assure me that I had never seen her before.
 I tried hard during the first act to screw up my courage to visit her in her box, but failed. However, when the curtain fell for the first time l gathered sufficient nerve to face her I would oGer the best excuse I could for my action, giving her to under stand that had simply called on her to notify her that her telegram had reached the wrong person. I knocked at the box door and heard a musical voice bid me enter. The lady kept her seat as I did SO, drawing the curtain a little farther forward,
 ''Mr. Courtney, I presumeT' she said.
 You could have knocked me down with a feather. I certainly had not counted on her not knowing the man to whom she had sent the telegram. l had got ready with my excuses, but they were not available. Instead of putting the lady right at once | stood stock still, not knowing what to say. So when she presumed that was Mfr Courtney bowed an assent and, not caring to have an audience witness what might occur, took a vacant chair behind the same curtain that screened Miss Darlington. Before I could gather my wits to speak she plunged Into the subject that was on her mind
 Maud has told me all," she said' "and has asked me to help her, say ing she had notified you that she had placed the management of the whole affair in my hands. therefore tele- graphed you that I needed to confer with you or words to that effect l preferred not to do so at the house, fearing some one would overhear or suspect and your and Maud's happi- ness might be wrecked"
 "Pardon me-
 q beg of you to let me go on. The plan I propose is rather complicated, and shall have to submit it to you in detail that you may understand it; that there may be no link in the chain left out when 1t is put in operation" l ttTN, r,a-v,,1A ,,,, C., any anufafhiuu fn