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Show A Typographical Error - By JANE LUDLUM LEE h i tm Him i an him n mmmii ! ii in niwinMrM mmimninn n "It's no use, Edna, the Lord never meant me to be very happy In this world. I'll have to take what I can get and be thankful." Edna looked up with a bored expression. ex-pression. "Some people don't deserve even what they get." The two girls were directly opposite types. Eleanor was tall, graceful, high strung, nervous, full of life and energy. Her most attractive features were her eyes, dark and deep set, with a longing, unsatisfied expression. Edna was a type much less interesting, interest-ing, cold, phlegmatic and near-sighted; a much smaller woman, too, with colorless gray eyes. On the bed lay lingerie of the most alluring kind, the sort of things that only women can appreciate. Pile upon pile of lacy stuffs were scattered about the room. Negliges so attractive that one could almost wish for an illness as an excuse to wear them. Surrounded Surround-ed by these pretty things that women love, sat Eleanor Godfrey, who tomorrow to-morrow would be the bride of Tom Grant. "There's one thing I can never regret," re-gret," she said. "I told Tom everything every-thing before he took me. It was brutally bru-tally frank, I admit, to tell your future fu-ture husband that the best love of your life has been given to another." "Poor boy," murmured Edna. "Poor boy, indeed. Don't I have to live with him? Don't I have to see him waste Lis life? And Is it nothing that I have to eke out an existence crushing down my sighs, forcing back my tears?" Walking across the room to where Edna sat, she put her hands on a pair of very unsympathetic shoulders. "How can you judge? You do not know the case. Now listen. Every breath I breathe, every prayer I utter, ever beat of my aching heart is for ' Jack Winston. I've loved him ever since I was a little girl, but you see I couldn't very well marry him because he never asked me." Edna straightened up a bit and the lines about her mouth seemed to grow deeper In an instant. "One question, please, before I ren- E' 1 1 .... - "for canou. y'cuif EKiLl der the verdict. You take upon your soul the wrecking of this man's existence. ex-istence. You will suck the honey from the flower of his life and leave him nothing but the stem. This is easier for you than being an 'old maid.' Then, too, supposing that Tom was in love with some other girl?" "I plead guilty to the charge, judge, and accept the sentence of the court. Your logic is getting stale; so let's go i to be that I may get my beauty sleep." The next morning was colorless, the air heavy; In fact, Just the sort of day . to make a bride look out of the window win-dow and wonder if she really were superstitious. It was about 9 o'clock and Tom was whistling one minute and siriging the next. He walked Into the bedroom where his friend and best man lay peacefully sleeping. "Get up, you lazy vagabond. We can't keep the bride waiting, you know. That's her privilege." The best man rubbed his eyes, growled a bit, and finally crawled out. "Guess I'll take a shower," he Bald. "Need some sort of a bracer to put me through this ordeal. I wouldn't do this for every fellow I know." Tom was practically ready. After working about an hour on it, he had managed to arrange his white puff tie to his entire satisfaction. He had buttoned but-toned and unbuttoned his waistcoat until his thumbs were blistered. He bad pulled It down In front and liuckled it at the back until the seams threatened to give way. "I say, old man," he yelled at th bathroom door, "do you believe In presentiments?" "Bet I do," screamed the best man. "Got one now." "What's that?" shrieked Tom. A shaggy head appeared at the door and amid the soapsuds came this, "I've a presentiment that this Is going to be a Jolly cold proposition." "What, m'y marriage?" "What a conceited aBS you are, Tom. I had reference to my shower." The door closed Just in time to receive re-ceive a well-aimed boot. By 11 the men were ready and on their way to the house. As they near-ed near-ed It, "Tom became more and more nervous. There seemed to be a weight on his heart that he could not lift. At that moment the best man was hanging hang-ing out the cab window, cursing the driver for the snail-like pace they were pursuing. "I say, Cabby, this is a wedding that we are going to, not a funeral. I'll give you an extra half dollar if you hurry." "An extra half, Is it? You talk like a politician. Well, sir, you might corrupt cor-rupt me, but this horse can't be bribed and weddin's or funerals, his gait is all. the same. Rest easy while you can, sir the lady will drive you fast enough once she gets the reins." The best man was about to rail at the Irish as a nation, when Tom said: "If anything should happen " "Jumping Jupiter, Tom, brace up.-You up.-You look as If you had curvature of the spine. Pull yourself together, will you? Any girl that had such a looking look-ing object as you on her calling list would be ostracized by good society and one who would marry you would be declared mentally incompetent." "All right, I'll pull up, but I've a beastly idea that something is going wrong. Jack, old man, I can't do it. I'm .in love with Edna Cross and not with Eleanor. I've just begun to realize real-ize It." "You old poacher, then why did you ask Eleanor to marry you, when you knew that I have loved her all my life, and I have been trying to forget her for months? Night after night I went over and sat with Edna, trying to make myself think I was forgetting Eleanor." "And every night," said Tom, "I went to see Eleanor because you were over at Edna's and I had no right to trespass on your preserves! A nice mess we've made of it. What are we going to do?" "Do? Why, that's easy enough," assured as-sured Jack. "I - am going to be the groom and you can just slide back into in-to my boots as best man. We'll blame the whole thing on the printer. Trust me, old man. I said I'd see you through this ordeal, and I'm going to keep my word." As the cab finally reached the house the men stepped out and were ushered usher-ed into the room where the minister was waiting for them. No word of explanation ex-planation was uttered, and the men took their places by the minister, who was to pronounce them man and wife. The wedding march was played and as Eleanor in her gorgeous robes came forth to meet the man of her choice, Jack Winston stepped forth and offered her his arm. Eleanor was speechless, but too happy to resent, and before the gaping crowd the minister min-ister tied the knot that made them one "till death do them part." Then Jack began his explanations: "Simplest thing in the world," he said. "You see, Tom ordered the invitations, in-vitations, and of course the printer took it for granted that it was his wedding merely a typographical error, er-ror, nothing more." Eleanor's mother stepped in at this moment and with a haughty manner Inquired: "Then may I ask why Tom gave the bachelor dinner why Tom bought the ring?" "Yes, mother," said Jack, with a very proprietory manner. "You see, I was broke at the time, and Tom, ag you all know, is just loaded with mon-ey, mon-ey, so I gave him carte blanche to just go ahead as If It was his own wedding and I'd pay him back In good time. You see, I only came into my inheritance yesterday, and that would have been too late to order Invitations, give dinners, etc. Anyway, how could you ever think that Tom was going to marry Eleanor? Why, he's engaged to marry Edna, and if you don't believe be-lieve me, ask them for yourself. tell you it was a typographical error nothing more." The color that suffused Edna's face, and the smile that glorified Jack'l verified the statement, and the guests were in a flutter of pleasurable ex! citement when, in the corner, Jack was shaking Tom by the hand iud saying: "Didn't I tell you I'd see you through it, old man?" |