Grand Forks daily herald and the evening times., 1914-08-18
The Evening Story
~
HIS MI STAKE.

Copyright, 1914, by w. Werner.)
Five minutes after he asked Kath.
arine Kelly to marry him and she
promptly accepted Marvin Hayes was
conscious that he had made a mis-
take. Not that she wasn't worth mar
rying. She was. She was as near
perfect as a. girl of twenty-nine can
be. That was the trouble. He had
an idea that in time either her per-
lection would dominate him or he
would refuse to be dominated. And
either case spelled trouble.
Katharine was tall and we'll pro-
portioned. She had lovely, clever,
blue eyes Marvin admitted the love
iiness. Int he somehow quailed at
silvery moonlit night n il she hadn't
carried that cluster of tuberosee, a
flower that always affected him SEN
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS scowled the morn
Ing after! And threw two small with
cred bits of whiteness into the waste
basket. The morning after, in the
prosaic trimness Of his real estate Of
flee. there was no moon.
The door of his office was open.
From down the hall came the click of
katharine's typewriter. Katharine,
too, had a real estate office. And she
had two stenographers whom she
paid just as much as Marvin Hayes
paid his. And her real estate business
was every bit as large and as ~cleverly
conducted as his own. No one in town
ever tried to pass a second mortgage
mortgage was all 1t should be. Her
blue eyes sometimes We're more clever
than lovely.
Life" said Marvin eloomily to
himself, will be just one blamed
business deal after another. I sup
pose she want to Join the business
es. And she has that confoundedly
cool way of letting you know that she
thinks her Judgment is as good as
yours"
He stared resentfully at the waste
basket. And a hint of red burned in
his clean shaven white cheeks. Not
very long back there had been a deal
wherein Miss Kelly's judgment had
been better than his own. She had
declined a bunch of securities that he
had soon after dabbled into his loss.
And n had laughed at him. She
had clean, even white, teeth. You
liked to see Katharine laugh-at a
musical comedy. But you didn't ad-
mlre those teeth when they were gay
~ exhibited at our expense.
Then at noon he %repented. Kathar-
inc came in. The night before they
had planned lunch together to cele-
hrate their engagement. And now she
found that she would be busy till
tractive. She wore a white ratine
gown. trim and neatly cut, but with
the air of having cost a great deal.
Katharine had the clear skin that
CLOVIS above dead white. Her hair
was Xix scintillant bronze
Marvin pleaded for her to break the
business appointment. Her blue eyes
grew wide. why, certainly not"
disapprovinsly. Il do things
like that"
There was the dreaded touch Of
er!"
Marvin acduiesced.
During the afternoon he broke an
appointment-an important one-to
mediate seriously on whether he and
she should walk straight ahead to
trouble-or break 1t off. Katharine
was the kind of woman even If she
marry a maj because their business
careers would be bettered by a union.
And he wasn't looking for that sort
Of married life.
AS the days went on his desires
played seesaw. There were times
mostly evenings, when Katharine
wore Y necked gowns-when she was
SO desirable that ne didn't care II she
took his latch key away from him and
doled hin out car fare. At least he
thought he didn't. But there were
other times-these' were the days
when Katharine vas all business and
CURLY disinclined for small talk
when he realized that 2. year, a few
months, of their wills clashing, and he
would hate her.
He wondered sp~eculatively il she
intended to board or get an apartment
when they were married. He broach-
ed the subject once or twice. But