Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-05-23

ever SO carefully ana L0uQoFly Huu
then took out neatly arranged pile
Of letters. In one pile were the letters
Stanton had written before the engage.
ment and in the other the letters he
had written since that event. These
Polly took to her fire place and burned.
Returning to the chest, Polly looked
with critical interest at an array Of
damask table linen all marked with a
laboriously embroidered S. Just then
Polly's mother came into the room and
listened with nlotherly interest to
Polly's account of her break with
Stanton.
Il WISH said Polly, that had
marked these things with my own
initial the way you did when you
were married; then they would be
good for us to USE But all the girls
were using their fiance's initial. 1t is
the English custom, I believe, and 1
was stupid enough to want to follow
them
TOO bad" said the mother, who
shared Polly's practical temperament.
She looked at the fine stitches that
had been taken in vain, with more
show of regret than she had shown
over the tale of her daughters
broken engagement. "You may as
we'll rip the embroidery OUT she
said. 81 will buy the linen from you.
We always can use more, with big
family like ours. Mind you don't
cut the damask when you take the
stitches out"
Polly thought for moment. Per
haps," she said, and she colored
slightly as she spoke, perhaps l
might need the letter again. There
is one chance in twenty-four that the
name would begin with an S.
80 there isl agreed her mother,
who knew instinctively that Polly was
referring to her future fiances name,
"even more than one chance in twen-
ty-four when you think how seldom
you meet man with name that
begins with an X or 2 or U or q W
So it was that Polly left the SIS in
her table linen and that her brother,
who dotted on his unaffected sister,
when he heard of the arrangement,
leased her numerically about all the
men she had ever known whose name
began with an S, barring Stanton, of
course, whose name was never men
toned. The result was that Polly did
not dare even to speak politely to n
man whose name began with this let
ter for fear of starting fresh volley
of her brothers teasing. Still she did
not rip out the SIS.
Two years passed and Stanton had
practically passed out of Polly's exist
ence and a new petitioner had found
charm in Polly's light brown nair
and dark brown eyes, but her wrist,
except that it was part of Polly, had
gone unnoticed. The present sutton
was a friend of Polly's brother
a Mr., Roberts, whom Polly had first
met when her brother brought him
home to talk over a business deal. He
was bright. energetic, business man,
and Pollys little practical ways, which
cropped out more and more as he
knew her better. seemed 70 him de-
lightfully old-fashioned and piduant
He was in love with Polly and
Polly-well she had let him get to
the point of proposal with none Of the
obstacles that she had put in Stan.
toms way two years and more before.
81 have one thing that I must tell
you, Polly, before ask you to marry
me-" he said one Sunday when ne
was visiting her brother. and her
brother, knowing how the wind blew,
had left them alone for the afternoon.
Polly opened her dark brown eyes
inquisitively. She was practical even
in love and she could not overlook
any possible objection. Tell me all
about it, she said. But first have
something that I suppose you ought
TO know. I have been engaged be-
fore, two years ago"
"My confession is going to be more
amazing than that said Roberts,
laughing, amused that Polly should
have regarded a previous engagement
with such concern. Then he looked
very serious. MY name is not Rob-
erts. That is, it is Robert Smith.
Your brother said before he brought
me out that first time that he wanted
us to be good friends, and that, for
some reason, you probably wouldn't
speak to me if he told you what my
name was. Can it be that you should
be SO prejudiced against the name ?
Come, Polly, don't be ridiculous"
Polly was laughing quietly to her
self, leaving Robert Smith in complete
nlystifcation Her mind had been
working fast. She had already, in her
ina gination, taken out the folds Of
white satin, as milky white as ever.
and now she had all that embroidered
damask arranged in an imaginary
closet somewhere in their new home