Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1914-08-19
She Backed
Out
BY EUNlCE BLAKE.

Abraham. Indeed, 1t would have been
impossible for him to pretend to be
anything but plain merchant whose
word was as good as his bond and
whose note had never been protested
Abraham was well enough born and
had been educated. His plainness con-
sisted in not putting on any airs and In
sort Of stolidity that made him re
spected, IL not admired. | was going
to say not beloved, but there We're per
sons before whom this stolidity. this
matter-of-factness. had suddenly drop
ped like mask and revealed a re
markable tender heartedness.
When Abraham turned forty he had
become very well OFF, and 1t seemed to
him that he could afford to bring
wife into his house as well as into his
heart, and he looked for one. Forty
Is about the age when a man takes
leave of his youth. but not willingly.
He Is not likely to take a wife near
his own age, but must needs reach
down for some young thing with
whom he might have mated twenty
years before. He fixed his eyes on a
girl of eighteen, Anne Hastings, who
was much in love with young scape-
grace who had just returned from
the Spanish-American war. Ben Bon
bright was as dazzling In outward APP
pearance as his name. with a rough
rider uniform and rough rider modesty.
So far as attractiveness to a young
girl Is concerned. Abraham had no
more show with him than a private In
the rear rank would have had with a
drum major.
But Abraham knew nothing about
his rival, and Anne's mother. who knew
a good deal about Ben. didn't propose
that Abraham should ever hear OF him.
She knew that Abraham was man
of sterling worth and would give her
daughter a good home.
So Anne was led like lamb to the
slaughter though In reality the man
she married was the one to be pitied,
for he was selling his love for a mess
of pottage. His heart was not yet old
enough to CONCEAL or young enough
not to make much of the fact that he
was Tor supposed he was) beloved by
girl of eighteen.
He had been married three years
when suddenly an old friend of his
wife of whom he had never heard
appeared. and the two seemed to be
much interested In each other. This
old friend was none other than Ben
Bonbright, who had gone west the day
Anne was married and had stumbled
by sheer good luck into a fat mine,
which enabled him TO return rich.
One day when Anne was hysterical
through some Temporary ailing and
consequently had got out of patience
with her husband she out with the
whole story about how she had loved
Bonbright and had married Abraham
Instead because her mother wished her
to do so. She had no sooner spoken
the words than she regretted them first,
because she knew they would cause
her husband infinite pain. and, second.
because after three years absence
from Ben she was not quite sure that
her heart gushed for him the same as
it had gushed when she was girl
With infinite melancholy Abraham
told her that he would not have been
party TO such transaction had he
known 1t, and since she loved Bonbright
1t not only became him to give her up
to the man OF her choice. but he loved
her so we'll that he could not stand In
the way OF her happiness.
Abraham went away and hired a
smart lawyer. who made quick work
Of getting a divorce. All the while
Anne went about wishing to tell her
husband that she had not meant all
she had said, but she didn't think he
would believe her denial, and she was
too proud to make it No one can ex-
pect another to believe two sides of a
story coming from a single person. So
Anne made no opposition to the di-
vorce, trying TO make herself think
that she loved Ben the same as she
had once loved him and that happi-
ness with him would be hers after all.
But she had lived long enough with Il
worthy and a refined man TO appre-
ciate the difference between him and
an unworthy and a coarse one. She
stayed right in the same house with
her husband to the last minute He
suggested that she go to her mother.
but her mother wouldn't receive her.
and her husband told her to stay right
where she was
1t was all arranged that she should
marry Ben the day the decree of d.
vorce was obtained. and Abraham
helped her all he was able with the
preparations and regretting that he
was not woman so that he could do
more. for her mother would have moth
ing to do with her or her preparations,
and she had only Abraham to rely on.
When all was ready Abraham slip
ped a check for $4,000 in her porte
monnaie- About that time carriage
that had been ordered for her drove
UP to the door. and Abraham made a
motion to show her TO the door.
Rut she fhrayy both arnnc around hic