The Press., 1914-11-04
|AnEmbarraSSing 5 Mistake
 5 Consequent on a Foot
 } ball Game
By OSCAR COX

'CuCnDorC!
 Cuthbert Brown lay abed, obliviOus to the call and the shaking he received simultaneously. He had been playing right tackle with his team in a cham pionship game of football the day be- fore and was ready for a twenty-four hour sleep He had taken six of the twenty-four when his sister entered his room and tried to awaken him.
 "Cuthbert, get up! You're wanted to go on an errand."
 Whats the matterY
 "Our next door neighbor is dying. They want you to go for clergyman"
 There was something sufficiently i'm pressive In this to awaken Cuthbert. He lay for a moment gathering his fac ulties, then sprang out of bed, put on bis clothes and while passing out asked:
 "What clergyman shall go fOr?"
 "Any one. Make haste!'
 Cuthbert Brown, now thoroughly in possession of his faculties, hurried along the street till he came to St. Marks church, with the name of Da- vid Hathaway, pastor, on a board on the wall. He stopped at the rectOry beside it, rang the dOOrbell and was Immediately admitted by some one whose figure he could barely distin- grish to be that of q woman. for the light was turned low. He was usher ed into parIOr without an inquiry as to whom he wished to see or any other question for that matter and was left alone in room still darker than the hall.
 That's Queer," he remarked to him. self II suppose she's the maid and knows that no one would call at a clergyman's house at this time of night unless he wanted to see the parsOn himself"
 few moments came down again and said that the doctor would be down soon.
 Cuth' ert settled himself in an easy chair and sat wondering what it all meant. Presently he fell asleep.
 Then he dreamed that some one shook him: that he stood upon his feet.
 
 nd like parts of the marriage service: he felt a delicate hand in his; some one thrust ring upon him and a finger was slipped into it: he dimly saw the figure of a woman leaving the room.
 Was this n dream or reality? He remembered nothing more of it or how he got out of the house. home and into N.s. OIv4r the next day. when the events of the night were much blurred in his mind. His sister awaking him. the walk to the rectOry and his admission to the house he remembered with tolerable distinctness. but the rest of it was very misty.
 : He called his sister, took a round about course to find out from her what he had done and discovered that some one else had procured minister for the dying man. The rector of St. Marks church had not responded. There remained that singular dream of marriage, or whatever it might be. of which his sister was not SUD- posed to be cOgniZant. and Cuthbert It. had Teen sure that it was a dream he might have told her of it. but he had a feeling that it was not a dream; that while sitting in the rectory some thing like it had happened, that some body had been married. and he could not divest himself of a consciousness that he had been mixed up in it.
 1O having nothing to do. thought continu- Ously of his singular experience. A dozen times he resolved to put it out of his mind. It would not stay out. Then he thought that he would go to Dr. Hathaway and ask him for an ex- planation. But the matter seemed too ridiculous to warrant an inquiry. Ask a clergyman if he had taken part in marriage when half asleep? Absurd! Y
 There is nothing SO worrying as that which needs an explanation. Cuthbert Brown fretted over the matter for three days: then one afternoon he called on Dr. Hathaway. He was received. in the doctors study, and, being un- known to the clergyman, the latter waited for him to speak
 Doctor" he began, "I have come to ask''- He stopped short. He was gO- ing to ask if the doctor had married him, but, not caring to be taken for a. lunatic. he desisted. He began again. 'Last Saturday night about 12 o'clock I came here to ask you to go to the house of dying man. was left in Y1O hvvo tired. fell asleep" s=1.
 From the start the doctor pricked up his ears. When Cuthbert got this far he interrupted him:
 ''SO, you are the party!'
 Party! What party"
 "Why the party that came instead of the right party. What object had you in stepping in between a bride and a groom in that despicable way? You have rendered yourself liable to criminal prosecution"
 "Will you kindly tell me what T,have done?"
 Done! Why, you married a young lady who came here to marry some one else."
 Great Scott!'
 Didn't you know what you were de- ing?"
 "NO."
 Had you been drinking?"
 "NO. had been tired out by a biz game of football. l was awakened in the middle of the night and came to you on an errand. was left in your parlor by your maid and fell asleep. | l dreamed something about a wedding  Wedding ceremony! Man, you were marriedv' q married!' Certainly. I received 8 telephone 1 call on Saturday, asking If would | marry a couple late that night. II agreed. You came in and were SUD- posed to be the groom. The bride |