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Show HAD BEENPRETTY And Had'Also Seen 35 Summers When the Unexpected Proposal Pro-posal Came. BY GEORGE MUNSON. Miss Agatha Browne was thirty-five and looked older. She had been pretty when she was a girl that could easily be seen from the regular contour of her face, her soft, clear skin,, and the gray eyes which even her detractors allowed would be beautiful if she did not hide them behind those hideous round spectacle lenses. Miss Agatha Browne was professor of economics at . tedham seminary, which, as most people know, receives only selected girl pupils from among the first families fami-lies of the south. Prof. Sampson Boylett instructed the same select young ladies in Roman Ro-man history. He was forty-five and looked his age. He was a short-sighted bachelor who lived for hiB hobby, the customs of the Romans. When he was not thinking about them, he was .usually not thinking about anything. When the professor passed Miss Browne he was entirely oblivious of that fact. If they met face to fa-;e in an exceedingly narrow alley he would discover an obstruction, slowly .aise his short-sighted eyes until they fixed themselves upon Miss Browne's spectacles, spec-tacles, and then retreat hastily with an apology and a timid expression. The select families of the south were not so different, in their individual indi-vidual membership, from families that flourish and die like mute, inglorious wallflowers. Some of the young ladies of Ledham seminary might have been seen with their heads very close together to-gether one evening after the professor profes-sor had concluded his lecture. He 'iad been expounding "The Marriage Customs Cus-toms of the Samnites." "Mustn't It have been dreadful in those days!" said Miss Philippa Clark, reading from her note-book. "Just think! 'Among the Samnite ladles it was not an uncommon thing to take the Initiative in the proposal of a matrimonial mat-rimonial alliance. When gentle glances and hints failed to accomplish their purpose the Samnite woman did i.ot LU kill jS ) A T I f 1 VU "Er Among the Samnites There Existed Ex-isted a Custom." hesitate to address herself openly to the backward suitor.' " "Dreadful?" exclaimed Miss Mary Campbell, one of the most select of the young ladies. "Why, Y think it was grand!" "Well, now just listen to this," interposed inter-posed Miss Millicent Day, who was taking the economics course. " 'The custom which restrains the femda half of the community from takirg the first step leading toward the marriage contract is of economic origin and due to the fact that, in our modern civilization, civili-zation, the male Is the bread-winner. When the earning capacities of both parties are equal this archaic survival should be, and often is, abrogate.' " "Miss Browne said that?", inquired Miss Mary breathlessly. "She surely did," answered Miss Millicent. Mil-licent. "Oh!" exclaimed the chorus breathlessly. breath-lessly. professor Boylett appeared unusually unusual-ly preoccupied on the second day afterward. aft-erward. His lecture on Roman history, his-tory, in fact, was distinctly an absent-minded absent-minded one. "Er one moment, ladles," he began as the class waited its disjnissal. 'Can anyone tell me whether there is n er any attache of this institution whose initials are A. B.?" "Miss Agatha Browne, professor of economics," chanted the class. .nd the professor, after staring speechless ly at them for an, instant, suddenly bolted thrjugh the door. At that Instant Miss Browne was Baying: "A most inBultlng thing has hap- .pened to me, girls. I hesitate 10 'm.n tion it, and should not, did 1 not Tear it is some practical joke engineered by some unworthy member of this seminary. I have received an anonymous anony-mous letter containing in short, a proposal of marriage." "Oh, no, Miss Browne!" exclaimed the class in horror. "Ladies, your attitude docs you credit," said the professor of tooiK'.-mics. tooiK'.-mics. "Er by the way, is theiv unperson un-person connected with this serinury whose initials are S. B.?" "Prof. Sampson Bcylett," shouted the class in economics in unison. Then an extraordinary th:'-g han- ' pened. Behind Miss Browne's larg -spectacles a reddish hue, arising jn the neighborhood of either ear, spread and expanded until it complete'- covered cov-ered her fLiee. "Duar me. tMs is very painful!" murnrired fUs Eror.-ae. "The class, is dismissed." The class, released from its djries, rushed -to the windows and looked out upon the campus. It saw Miss B owne-emerge owne-emerge from the portals of the famous fa-mous institution of learning with a. hurried and yet furtive step, if s-icii a term could be applied to any quality or attribute of Miss Browne. With, her umbrella folded In her hand, the professor of economics picked her v.ay down tha gravelly walk toward the entrance. en-trance. Then -the class and Miss Browne simultaneously perceived a second figure, a bent, irresolute, middle-aged figure approaching the same portals from the classroom in Roman history. And then occurred a peculiar phenomenon phe-nomenon such as had never been known to happen during the memory of -the class. For Miss Browne, instead of continuing upon her resolute way toward the gate, made a short cut across the soggy grass Miss Browne,, whose state of health was alwtys known to be exactly commensurate with the hygienic condition of her overshoes. And, as an immovable body encoui-ters encoui-ters an irresistible force, so Mis3 Agatha Browne encountered Professor ' Boylett beside the portals of the Ledham Led-ham Seminary for Young Ladies. Tha-professor Tha-professor saw her, straightened himself, him-self, and spoke. "Er among the Samnites there existed ex-isted a custom" he began. "I have always told my class," Miss Browne remarked at the same moment, mo-ment, "that the custom which restrains re-strains the female half of the community com-munity " "Which I would be the last to condemn con-demn " "From taking the first step " "When hints and gentle glances failed" "Leading toward the marriage contract con-tract " "To effect a matrimonial proposition. er " y "Oh, professor!" excUiroed Mi?s Agatha, and could say no more. Inside the seminary there was it great bustle'at this moment "Mllly, Milly," cried the voice of Mary Campbell, "I've got a dandy pair of opera glasses upstairs." "Don't need them," shouted her friend. "Oh, Mary, didn't you see? Look! Look! Professor Boylett has-kissed has-kissed Miss Agatha. Isn't it dreadful?" dread-ful?" - "Dreadful?" answered Miss Mary. "Why, I think it's grand. And just think: Next term the classes In economics and Roman history will be-merged be-merged ! " (Copyright, 1913. by W. G. Chapman.) |