Kansas University Weekly.
131
"I do believe in you," he said slowly. "And I think, that I will trust you and tell you." Then while the girl's brain hammered wildly at her ears to stop the next words, he went on very seriously and earnestly, "She is the only woman in the world for me, and if I live, I hope to make her my wife."
For a moment the world staggered and reeled in chaos before Alice's eyes. Then she rallied bravely. "I, too, have a confidence to make," she said, drawing a letter from her pocket. She folded one sheet back and held it before Fred. In a dashing hand he read. "So I have dared, to day, to ask you, dear, to be my wife. And oh Alice"—
"I sent the answer to day," she said, "and day after to-morrow I shall see him at home."
There was a moment's silence. "Then congratulations are in order?" asked Fred. His voice was constrained, but probably it was only because of the suddenness of the announcement. No doubt, it was that.
Alice remembers to this day how the maple shade flickered over the grass in a sudden zephyr.
"Yes," she said softly. But she did not dare to raise her eyes.
Alice appeared to have an unusually good time at the party that night. She was so full of life and vivacity that she was almost dazzling. In some peculiar manner each man that came near her seemed to be attracted, to be understood and to be subjugated in an indefinable way; for she had gained that night a sort of clairvoyant instinct for doing the right thing in every instance.
Fred watched her in a very bewildered state of mind. Of course, Ethel was a much lovelier girl and in every way superior to Alice, but yet he never had thought of comparing them until now. He did not want to do it, but somehow there would creep into his mind the ugly little thought that if Ethel were there, she would be eclipsed by Alice. He refused to entertain it. He drove it out of his mind again and again, but it made faces at him through the windows,
and rattled at all the doors, keeping his head in a perpetual turmoil.
"What possesed you to be so gay, tonight?" he asked as they were driving homeward after it was all over. "You shone like a great diamond and the other girls couldn't be compared with you."
Alice flashed a look at him through halfshut eyes, as they passed an electric light and it glared in on his face. Then she laughed lightly.
She put her hand in her dress and drew out a letter which she held in the light for him to recognize the bold writing. "I was thinking of this, all evening," she said. Then she put it to her lips and laughed again.
When Alice reached her room, she pulled up a chair before the glass and sat down to, as she said, "talk it over." She shook her hair down around her face and considered herself seriously for a long time.
Then, "I am glad," she said, "that tomorrow is Commencement. I am glad I will have time to have it out alone with you,you old New England conscience. For, after all,it is an ethical question; When is a lie allowable and how far?" FRANCIS CHAPLINE.
Comment.
A few days ago the dispatches stated that a Paris opera suddenly terminated owing to the illness of the Czar, which was occasioned by bad cooking.
Poor Czar, even royalty does not escape the baleful influence of that destroyer of human happiness, the ignorant or negligent cook. The cook affects our happiness more than the rulers of the land, and indirectly has more power over our moral nature than the pastor. It would be no difficult task to find students here on the hill who would testify that a wretchedly cooked breakfast has clouded their minds on the very day that required the keenest mental concentration. On the other hand how many an indolent, malicious and pessimistic mood has been melted into nothingness by a perfectly cooked meal.