The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1915-11-12

A Halloween
Scheme
II Was Well Planned and :
Worked Well

Observation-Disclosures

|
II WISH" said Mrs. Edgarton to her
friend, Mrs. Tisdale, that your Alice
would fall in love with my Frank. A
young bachelor Is so beset by tempta-
lions. II Frank were married should
not have to keep worrying about him
all the time. He Is out every evening
sometimes till morning. l don't know
where he goes or what he is doing.
never go to sleep till he comes In, and
thus / spend hours worrying"
You have no need to worry about
your boy said the other. Frank is
simply doing what most young men of
fortune do at his age-he is enjoying
the novelty of things. When that nov
city wears off he will become engrossed
In more serious matters"
would you object to a match be-
tween him and Alice?"
ION the contrary, should welcome
it. We have little or nothing to leave
Alice, and l should be glad to see her
married to a man whose income would
preclude the probability Of her coming
to want"
Suppose" rejoined Mrs. Edgarton
thoughtfully, 1--WE lay trap to bring
them together. 1t would be useless for
me to say to Frank that / wished him
to marry Alice, and even If he acceded
to my desire it would be equally use
less for you to try to force Alice to ac-
cept him. If we could contrive to
throw them together I would have
great hopes of Frank falling In love
with her, she is so attractive In every
way. But I have my doubts about
Alice. 1t seems to me that she Is too
serious, too thoughtful, too good for a
man Of the world like Frank"
my daughter is very impressionable.
There Is also good deal Of romance
In her nature. II we could bring about
some episode by which Frank would
appear to be hero In her eyes we
would win our point or If it could be
made to appear that fate intends him
for her husband that would have the
same effect"
II have it!' exclaimed the other,
speaking suddenly a thought that
flashed upon her. Halloween will be
here in another week. / will give
Halloween party. l will invite Alice,
and you must come too. We will con-
coct some scheme to make it appear
that fate intends her and Frank for
each other"
Mrs. Tisdale made no objection to
this, though she would have preferred
that the scheme be worked out at her
coming that the man should come to
the woman rather than the woman to
the man. But Mrs. Edgarton pos
sessed a country place especially suit
able to a house party. 1t had been
closed for the season. but could be re-
opened.
Mrs. Edgarton and Mrs. Tisdale were
especially adapted to carry out such
scheme as they had In mind. Both
had been married very young and had
jumped almost from eirlhoOd into a
gay world. Neither had yet passed
out Of the forties, nor had either lost
her adaptation for playing part.
Mamma" said Alice Tisdale, look
ing at her mother through a pair of
eyes to remind one Of a deep pool
darkened by surrounding rocks and
overhanging verdure, do you really
think there is anything in Halloween"
why do you ask, AliceT
well, we are going to Mrs. Edgar
tons country place for Halloween
party, and would like to know before
we go whether the belief or fancy or
whatever 1t is that one may see fu-
ture husband or wife Is all rubbish or
whether there is anything in 1t"
I'VE don't know. dear, where super
stition ends and legitimate faith be-
gins. There are certainly many won
derful things in the world that we call
supernatural. Some of them may be
referable to natural laws of which we
have no knowledge"
Mrs. Tisdale was well satisfied with
herself at this method of Answering
her daughters question. She would
not Intentionally deceive her child, and
she felt that in her reply she had
spoken nothing that was not true.
What she said made marked impress
sion on Alice. She went to the library
and, taking down book on strange
customs, turned to Halloween and
read of girls seeing the faces Of their
future husbands in looking glasses, the
setting afloat of candles ON a river and
other such methods of determining
their future. If she did not believe in
their efficacy she certainly did not dis
believe.
The house party at Mrs. Edgarton's
country place assembled In the after
noon preceding Halloween. They dined
and after dinner sat before the great
fireplace in the hall telling ghost sto-
ries. At 10 o'clock the hostess an
nounced to them that they were ex-
pected to scatter themselves over the
large domain. There was room enough
for all, she told them, and IL 1t was
fated that they should meet with any
adventure TO show them their future
mates there was no reason why it
should not be done on this Halloween.
The girls all obeyed the hostess, but
some of the young men preferred
game of bridge or billiards and de-