Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-10-12
MARY" he said, could you marry


"Will you marry meY
Both her hands leaped to her cheeks
she grew red and then white. She
rose slowly and moved backward from
him, staring at him, at first incred-
ulously, then with an intense perplex-
ity more and more luminous in her
wide eyes; it was like a spoken ques-
ton. The room filed with strange
aess In the long silence-the two were
SO strange to each other. At last she
said:
What made you say that?"
He did not answer.
"Bibbs, look at me!~ Her voice was
loud and clear. what made you say
that? Look at mep'
He could not look at her, and he
could not speak.
what was 1t that made your she
said. II want you to tell me-"
She went closer to him, her eyes
ever brighter and wider with that In
tensity Of wonder. you've given up
to your father" she said, slowly,
''and then you come to ask me" She
broke of. gibbs, do you want me to
marry your"
Eyes," he said, just audibly.
Nor she cried You do not. Then
what made you ask me? What Is it
that's happened?"
Nothing"
wait" she said. "Let me think.
It's something that happened since our
walk this morning-yes, since you left
me at noon. Something happened
shat" She stopped abruptly, with
4remulous murmur OF amazement and
dawning comprehension. She remem-
bered that Sibyl had gone to the new
house.
Bibbs swallowed painfully and con-
tr1ved to say, Il do do want you to
marry me, tf-if-you could"
She looked at him, and slowly shook
her head. Gibbs, do you" Her
voice was as unsteady as hls-little
more than a whisper. do you think
Tm-in love with your
No" he said.
shamefacedness lowered them no more.
LET me tell you what you want to
tell me-" she said. "You can't, because
you can't put it into words-they are
too humiliating for me aHd you're too
gentle to say them. Tell me, though.
Isn't it trueP You didn't believe that
To tried to make you fall In love with
me"
Never! Never for an instantp
''You didn't believe I'd tried to make
you want to marry me"
mo, no, nor
II believe it, Btbbs. You thought
that | was fond Of you; you knew
cared for yOu-but you didn't think /
might be-in love with you. But you
thought that might marry yoS with
out being in love with you because you
did believe l had tried to marry your
Brother, and"
Mary, only knew-for the first
dme-that you-that you were"
Were desperately poor" she SAID.
@You can't even say that! Bibbs, 1t
was true: did try to make Jim want
70 marry me. didr' And she sank
down into the chair, weeping bitterly
again. Bibbs was agonized
Mary" he groaned, 81 didn't know
you could cryr'
Listen" she said. Listen till get
through-I want you to understand
we were poor, and we weren't fitted to
De. We never had been, and we didn't
know what to do. We'd been almost
Ftch; there was plenty, but my father
wanted to take advantage of the
growth OF the town; he wanted to be
richer, but fnstead-well, just about
the time your father finished building
next door We found we hadn't any
thing. People say that, sometimes,
meaning that they haven't anything in
comparison with other people Of their
own kind, but we really hadn't any
thing-we hadn't anything at all,
Bibbs! And we couldn't do anything.
You might wonder why didn't try to
be stenographer'-andI wonder my
self why, when a family loses Its
money, people always say the daugh-
Sers ought to go and be stenographers.'
dts curiousI-as il wave of the hand
made you into stenographer. No, I'd
been raised to be either married COM
Tortably or a well-to-do old maid, II
chose not to marry. The poverty came
on slowly, Biobs, but at last 1t was all
there-and l didn't know how to be q
stenographer. l didn't know how to
be anything except a well-to-do old
maid or somebody's wife-and
couldn't be q well-to-do old maid.
Then, Bibbs, did what I'd been raised
TO know how to do. / went out to be
fascinating and be married. / did 1t
openly, at least, and with a kind of de-
cent honesty. l told your brother
had meant to fascinate him and that
was not in love with him. but let him
think that perhaps l meant to marry
him. | think did mean to marry him.
had never cared for anybody, and
thought 1t might be there really wasn't
anything more than a kind of excited
fondness. l can't be sure, but think
that though I did mean to marry him
never should have done 1t, because
that sort of q marriage is-its sacri
lege-something would have stepped
me. Something did stop me: 1t was
your sisterin-law, Sibyl. She meant
no harm-but she was horrible, and
she put what I was doing into such
horrible words-and they were the
cow Ehn q