The Prescott daily news., 1920-06-03
TWO MANS
By MILDRED WHITE.
tcopyright 1920. Western Newspaper Union.


 I sat in the attic beside the long closed trunk which held Aunt Nan ; girlish fnery. I could not remeinoei Aunt Nan. She had gone away "nen was a child, and later she died. bui it seemed that the memory of this oe- parted aunt, with her name besto"eu' was to be my continued warning against friyolity and light-mindedness. had been brought up by Aunt Nil nerva in loneliness and severity. II was mothers cross, and hers, that l should resemble Aunt Nan to u marked degree; bringing back con stantly recollection of sorrow and hu- initiation. It seemed that Aunt Nan had brought this suffering into Aunt Minerva's life and to many others oy her charm of attraction, thoughtiess- ness and-so her sister said-by utter heartlessness. But ever in my dls- ciplined childish mind was a sneaKlng admiration for this same witch or an aunt, who with her small brown race had triumphed in love. And as she could not keep all the love bestowed I reasoned, what could she do but cast it back again? I used to study the painting of my mother and her two sisters and ponder over it.
 "You see," Mans twinkly eyes seemed to say, I'm more sinned against than shining. It is my elder sisters who enjoy the advantages; II I happened to win love here and there. can help that?"
 The pathetic curve of Mans lips begged the question. Startled, turned to the glass to see another small face with the same twinkly eyes, the same lips dropping in the mirror grieved with life as it was. The resemblance was remarkable;" as had heard mother and Aunt Minerva so often re mark; and because of that resem- blance, I lived until the age of twen- ty-five the secluded life of cloister. Aunt Nan's unforgivable sin was the winning of a heart-which had been duly given and signed to Minerva. Aunt Minerva's f1ance had not hap pened to meet the elusive Nan until after he was publicly betrothed to Aunt Minerva. But as soon as he did know the queer little creature It was all off with Minerva and he told her so honestly. He could care for no one else Thereafter, he said, but the little girl who had bewitched him; and though Aunt Nan would have nothing to do with the man after that, he fingered only long enough to learn of her affair with David, then he went away forever. David Burnie was the only son of the old Scotch doctor whom everybody loved; and David was studying medicine In the city that he might soon fill his fathers place. David had played with Nan when she was schoolgirl. He'd loved her throughout high school days; and though Nan laughed and treated him in her charming impersonal manner, still David's hope was to win her for his wife when he should be through with his college, and take her to his fathers home to dispense happiness there as its mistress. Nan allowed him to think that perhaps this hope might come. Then as David was about to graduate Nan wrote him from Cali fornia, where she had gone to visit. that if he'd throw over the doctor business altogether and go out there where there was wonderful opening for him in her uncle's business con- cern, she might marry him there. David threw over his career without a regretful thought and went to her and the old doctor, who was getting too old to carry on his practice longer, closed his office door in silence and closed his heart to David And when David reached California, Nan was married. She ''had not meant to be-" she told David tearfully, but this man who loved her had felt so terribly when he learned of David's coming. And this was the Nan who had been held up to me in warning. David never came back. No one knew what became of him. There were stacks of David Burnie's letters in the trunk which Nan left so long ago here in her home. loved to read them on long idle afternoons and I pictured David to myself man of noble sympathies, the hero of every book I read. There was a picture of David, too, and I liked the fine seriousness of his face. And on this particular afternoon I drew from the trunk a muslin dress covered with lavender roses and fanci- fully l tied its violet ribbons about my waist, then standing before the mirror I parted my brown hair as