1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



51 



ever. 1 a'Ji v.'ith the Lesters so iimcu or 

 the time that I am, to all intents and 

 purposes, a nien;b r of the househoid, 

 and thismuy entitle me to the privilege 

 of joining in the invitations. You may 

 remember that May 8 will mark the 

 third anniversary of their marriage. I 

 am arranging to give a little dinner in 

 their honor, but I \\ ant to make it a sur- 

 prise to them. As you are Mrs. Lester's 

 most intimate friend, it Vv'ould be almost 

 a calamity if you were not present at 

 the dinner. You will understand, of 

 course, that I could not have forwarded 

 this information through the agency of 

 Mrs. Lester. Don't tell her that I have 

 written to yon. I do not want her to 

 learn of the dinner, and there are other 

 leasons. " 



The letter closed with a final plea for 

 pardon, and Joe mailed it, in the con- 

 Bciousuess that he had done a very 

 clever thing. He believed that any 

 young woman, no matter how strict her 

 seminary training had been, would have 

 to answer that kind of letter. He was 

 not mistaken. The reply came three 

 days later, and it was in a bald and 

 peaked handwriting, in which both ink 

 and space were lavishly wasted. The 

 letter called him "Mr. Barnet" and said 

 among other things: 



"Under these extraordinary circum- 

 stances I suppose I am justified in writ- 

 ing to you — a stranger, No, not a stran- 

 ger, either, for I have heard so much 

 about you (through Kate) that I suppose 

 I can already claim a half way ac- 

 quaintance. Alas, to say it! I cannot 

 come to Chicago for your little dinner, 

 which will doubtless be lovely. We are 

 in the throes of preparation for a wed- 

 aing here (my consm), and until sne i(f 

 safely away on her wedding tour I shall 

 be deliriously busy. It's too bad. Per- 

 haps next month I shall be in Chicago, 

 and you may be sure \ will be prepared 

 to feign proper surprise and embarrass-- 

 ment when Kate presents you. I would 

 not for worlds let her know I had writ- 

 ten this letter. " 



"Say, siie's all right." This is what 

 Joe Barnet told himself a? he read her 

 letter and grinned like a vealy boy over 

 his first love note. 



Joe studied the letter again and con- 

 cluded that the young woman had not 

 been seriously offended. So he wrote 

 another letter, setting forth some of the 



June attractions in Chicago and boping, 

 rather more fervently than in the first 

 letter, that she would accept the Lester 

 invitation. He received an answer ex- 

 pressing regret that no absolute promise 

 could be made and incidentally sug- 

 gesting that the writer would be pleased 

 to learn some of the particulars in re- 

 gard to the little dinner in honor of Mr. 

 and Mrs. Letter. Joe construed this as 

 an open consent to kf^ep up the corre- 

 spondence, and in one short month 

 thereafter his letters began, "My Dear 

 Miss Rhodes," and she addressed him 

 as "My Dear Mr. Barnet," this being 

 the set and accepted form, although not 

 commonly used between young people 

 who have never met. 



In the meantime Mrs. Lester contin- 

 ued to show the photograph to Joe and 

 lecture on t!;e superlative merits of her 

 classmate. In her letters to Louise she 

 eulogized Jce. 



All this was preliminary to her sub- 

 tle plans for a matchmaking. 



In July the correspondence had be- 

 come so cordial in its exchanges that 

 Joe felt at perfect liberty to slip away 

 to a night train and go to Flavins, lud. 

 He told tlie Lesters an elaborate lie 

 about going to Indianapolis to settle a 

 tax claim against some property left to 

 him by his uncle. Miss Louise Rhodes, 

 having been advised of his coming, l^^ld 

 her parents an unblushing falsehood to 

 the effect that she had become well ac- 

 quainted with Mr. garnet while she 

 was attending the seminary in Ohio. 



That day at Flavins settled it. They 

 strolled under the maples and went driv- 

 ing along a winding creek road, an ar- 

 dent Flavins couple in the front seat and 

 the overhanging boughs sweeping the 

 canopy top of the Rhodes family car- 

 riage. 



They sat side by side in the big din- 

 ing room while State Senator Rhodes, 

 at the head of the table, ordered the 

 timid hiied girl to deliver immense por- 

 tions of spring chicken to the young 

 man from Chi'jago. 



From that tune on the developments 

 came with the m.-^h of closing chapters 

 in a novel. Joe v/rato almost daily, and 

 after an interval of two weeks he was 

 called to luaianapoiis to settle another 

 tax claim. On the occasion of his second 

 visit to Flavias he proposed, but he was 

 not definitely accepted, with the full 



