HOW ONE MAN PROPOSED.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1628, 13 May 1903, Page 6

HOW ONE MAN PROPOSED.

(By Elizabeth Rose.)

It is now three years since I became the happiest of men, and I will tell you how it came about. Though naturally courageous and possessing great confidence in the few good qualities with which, through no fault of my own, 1 was endowed, I was extremely bashful in. one thing—my desire to propose to Ruth. Had. it been any other girl than this particular one whom I wished to share my unhappy lot, I should not have felt the slightest timidity in making my desire known. But Ruth was different from most girls, and I realised this, even before my sister took it upon herself to impress him with the fact. Winnie and Ruth were chums, though my sister is the elder of the two girls. And Winnie knew how I felt towards her friend; she understood my diffidence and longed to help me. I loved Ruth with all my heart, -and I soon learned that she was no£ altogether indifferent to my worthless self. How beside myself I was Avith joy when Winnie, little traitor, betrayed my sweetheart’s confidence!

“Are you sure, quite sure, Winnie, that she loves me? Did she say so ?” I cried rapturously. “Why, of course she did not!” she answered indignantly. “Ruth would never, never tell, you foolish fellow! But I am sure,” she added earnestly, “I know she cares for you, Tom, and now I’ve told her, you’ll ask her, won’t you, to-night? • Ah, Tom, do!” she pleaded, and to my astonishment she threw her arms about my neck and kissed me.

So I promised. Barring my own inclination in tlio matter, how else could I answer a request preferred in such a way? I wished to do my best, so I cudgelled my brain for pretty phrases in which to couch. my plea, and after considerable thought I jotted down the words as I intended to saiy them. A hundred times that day I repeated my lesson, and I knew it pretty well. In my anxiety to keep it in mind, I failed to note how many times Winnie cautioned me not to forget, my promise. Evening came at last, and I made a faultless toilet, for I wished to appear to tho best advantage before the girl I loved. She had come to spend the evening with Winnie. How sweet she looked as she sat at the piano playing while my sister sang! Knowing that Winnie would leave us together when I joined them, I resolved to have the last rehearsal before the final stroke. I hastened to the little conservatory at the rear of the house, Winnie’s flower garden, as she called it, and seating myself in a low wicker chair, I began to address m;y ardent prayers to a largo rubber plant which stood on a stand beside me. With my heart in my eyes as I bent them upon the unconscious recipient of my devotion-, I began to repeat the formula which I knew so well.

“Ruth, darling,” I said, in low, passionate tones, “I love you with all my heart! I have loved you. since, oh, so long!” I stopped abruptly, as I heard a quaint noise, but it was only the rtastling of the wind through the large poplar tree outside the window, and, reassured, once more I began to plead my cause. “Ruth, darling!” I continued, “I love you with all my heart” —hark —the music had ceased in the sitting room. I must hurry. One more repetition, and it would be perfected. “Ruth, darling !” I resumed rapidly, “I love you with all my heart—l lcve you dearly—l have loved you since—so long—forever—l beg” —a rustle of skirts, clear and unmistakeablo this time, fell upon my ear. I turned quickly and gazed in consternation at —Ruth! “Ruth!” I exclaimed in confusion, as I approached her. “Oh, Tom!” she said, her face crimson, and tears of mortification in her sweet brown eyes. “I am so sorry. Winnie”— and she looked so unutterably miserable that I took her boldly in my arms, and her.“Darling,” I whispered, forgetting the flowery speech I had prepared, forgetting how I had been surprised in the act°of committing this outrage on Winnie’s rubber plant, “I love you. I love

you, Ruth! Do you hear, dear? I love you, and you know it, little witch! I love you, Ruth!” “Yes, Tom, I heard you say so,” she answered softly, with a mischievous smile. “Ah!” I recollected in embarrassment. “You heard what I was saying?”

“Yes, Tom,” and the colour flooded hen* face at the remembrance of her unwitting intrusion. “Winnie sent me in for a book which she said she left here, and I did not know, indeed I did not* know ye;i were here, Tom.” “Winnie is a dear girl,” 1 answered, striving to cover my embarrassment, “but it was mean of her to show me up in that way. But you love me, sweet, and forgive me for taking advantage of yon like this in my own house?” And Ruth whispered “Yes.” So that is how I won the dearest little girl in all the world, and it was easy to forgive Winnie for playing me false. You see, my own experience has not exactly been one to render me competent to advise another in a like situation. But Harry has succeeded with my sister, and evidently she has not betrayed me the second time, for when I laughingly ask Harry how he did it, ho says it is none of my business.