SNUBBING A MAN.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2661, 26 May 1908, Page 7

SNUBBING A MAN.

"Now, Clara, listen carefully to what I say." "Yes, auntie." "You are nineteen years old," "Yes." ; "And you are good looking." "Thanks." "And you arc innocent—dreadfully innocent. While I can ti4l what a man is, as soon as I look into his fare, you can't tell a minister of the Gospel from a masher. You are going to see your aunt Helen at Port-Jefferson, L.I. You take the train for New York. If anyone at the depot looks at you, snub him. You will take a chair car. If anyone looks at you, snob him. When you get to Jersey City, take the ferryboat to 23rd Street. If anybody on the boat looks at you, snub him. When you land on the other side take the cross-town car. "And if anyone looks at me, snub him." said Miss Clara. "Exactly. You take the ferry across to the Long Island depot." "And I snub more men." "If thoy look at you. Once you take the Port-Jefferson train you will be all right unless there hapj>ens to be a masher aboard. If there is give him an awful snub. Lot him understand right at the start that you haw been brought up as a girl should be. That is about all. and you may give my love to Sister Helen and all my nephews and nieces." Miss Clara Wilson, orphan, and living at Nutley, N.J., with her ancle and aunt, had been talkjng of the ' Pprt-Ceffftfson visit for weeks. She had not made it sooner l»ecause her careful old aunt feared for her, and it had taken barrels and barrels of argument to flnallv overcome her objections. ft "was not until the newspapers had ceased for a week to publish, accounts of the Black Hands and elopements and abductions' that she gave her consent to the niece going alone and unarmed. A tearful farewell was made, something further said about snubbing, and then the young lady was on her way to the depot. It probably Just happened so. but it happened, nevertheless. that no sooner had she boarded the car than she saw a young man in front of her—a young man with a grip who at once began looking her over, but in a respectful way. "Auntie told me that I must snub all such." said the girl to herself, and at once she elevated her chin and nose and looked past the young man and otjt of the window. She rather exiwcted to see him ccllapse. but he didn't. A glance from the tail of her eye showed her that he was almost smiling. This would ha\e irritated her if the car hadn't arrived at the aepot about that time. .She calmly descended and boldly walked up to the ticket window and l ougi t a ticket for New York. He whs right behind her and bought a ticket for the same place, but she did not give him a glance. She ran for the train iustead. and had just reached it when a voice at her elbow said—"Excuse inc. miss, but that is the train for Philadelphia. The one for New York is just coming in." She was dreadfully hurt, but there was only one thing to do. She turned around and snubbed him. She did it by walking calmly past him as if he was an inhabitant of another sphere. For the next five minutes jhe. fondly believed that • she had crushed him to a pulp, and then she found liim in the chair car. i Worse than that, he had one of the chairs next to her. He at once raised her window for her and sat down like a man anticipating a plea-s-ant chat. This was going too far. He must lie made to realise that he was Ining snubb-d. Not being used » to chair rars, the girl thought she was privileged to take a seat anywhere. There was a vacant chair at the further end of the car. She I id ed up her bag, and walked down and took it. 'that was a glorious snub. A young man ought to be dead within five minutes after receiving such a i Inoc'-out. Miss Clara was smiling to herself and thinking how good she . was to follow her aunt's advice so 1 closely, when a big. bulky man stop- < |>cd In-side her and looked at a ticket ir. his hand and said—"Voting woman, you've got my seat, and I shall be obliged to ask » you to vacate. I always get .this seat if I can." She at once vacated. All tho other chairs had occupants now, and she had to return to her own. She knew that the young man was smiling, but she didn't look his way. y She wouldn't even look at his feet, j .lust let him but ofler to put the window down ! .lust let him say that his watcii had slopped and ask for the correct time ! Just let him ask if she was a |scrnianent resident | of Xutley and knew whether her estate was up or down ! She held j her breath and waited. After a . cpupij oi .minutes he bent forward j. and picked up something in the aisle and held it out and asked—"Heg pardon, but did you drop this purse ?" Yos. it was hers. In changing chairs she had drop|>cd it. Jt contained all her money and recipes for sunburn and face bleach, and its loss would have put her in an embarrassing position. How could she snub a man for restoring her purse ? Her aunt hadn't made allowances for any such event. Shu bowed coldly, but there was no snub with it. Perhaps the young tmin was thankful for his narrow escape. At least he produced a newspaper and turned his shoulder to her and began reading. He must/ have heard the conductor tell her to ? take the fern- to 23rd Street when •lie punched her railway ticket, but he did not supplement it with any ad\ice. He didn't even let on that he was acquainted with the streets of New York. It was as ii he realised the snub was waiting for him when he should offer to carry her bag from the def»ot to the boat. He didn't dare make the ofler. however, and Miss Clara was hurrying to board the boat when the young man dared to to'trh her elbow and say—"Excuse me, miss, but if you wish to go to 23rd Street that is not the l>oat. That goes across to Chambers Street. Follow me, if you I lease." Her boat was 10»> feet further up. He had saved her from making a great mistake. She was angry with herself and with him, but bow could she bring forward that crushing, waiting snub without seeming ungrateful ? She simply couldn't. The mast that she could do was to turn her back to him on the boat and pretend great interest in the scenery.

She truly hoped she had seen the last of him, but she hadn't. He took the same cross-town car. He sat directly in front of her. She was looking over his head and out of the window and spelling "s-n-u-b, snub," to herself when a man rose up to leave the car. At the same moment he picked up Miss Clara's bag from the floor and was cheekily carrying it off with him when the young man rescued it and said something about fracturing his jaw and breaking his head. He also took charge of the bag, and nodded to the girl. There was her golden opportunity, and perhaps her last one, and she had faithfully promised her aunt, but she just couldn't do it. The best she could do was to lower her eyes until they rested on his collar button and try to look uuconcerned. Arriving at the foot oi East 3-tth Street, 'she opened her mouth to make inquiries of the conductor, but before she could s|«cak the young man guided her to the boat. She wanted to go right back to Nutley, but the boat kept on and landed her on the Long Island shore. The young man didn't hang about duriirg the run across, but he showed .up at the right moment, picked up the bag without a word and led the way to the depot and the train. Mist) Clara bit her lips and followed. Over and over again she tried to utter a snub, but the words wouldn't come. They simply gurgled in her throat and stopped. She followed him in|to the train, and expected he would be daring enough to take a seat beside her. i He wasn't, however. He realised the peril and avoided it, although he did raise his hat when he left the train at Huntingdon. She had no warning and was not prepared. The more she has thought of it since the more she is inclined to believe that she almost bowed good-day to him instead of preserving an icy glare. That visit to Port-Jefferson lasted for three months, and Clara hadn't been back at Nut (ley a week when a young man called and asked for her and they talked away like old acquaintances and seemed to the aunt to be much interested in each other. When he had taken his departure she put on her severest expression and said—"Clara, where did you meet this young man ?" "When I was going to Port-Jeffer-son." "0, you did ? Didn't I tell you the morning you went away to snub any man who tried to get acquainted with you ?" "Yes, auntie, bur Charles is one of the kind of men who never takes a snub. He will probably come hero quite often. —Boston "Globe."