A Romance of the Agony Column.

Southland Times, Issue 19036, 2 May 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Rom ance of the Agony Column.

Neither of them — that is to say, neither Dick Beresford nor Olive Bassett— quite understood how the disagreement which had led to the breaking off of the engagement had come about, but then it so frequently happens that people who are fond of each other quarrel about nothing at all and wonder how they could have behaved so foolishly. Anyhow, the misunderstanding had arisen, and a certain gold ring, purchased by Dick only six weeks previously, had been returned to him by registered post, with a cold little letter that well nigh drove him to the verge of despair.

Another man in the circumstances would have refused to accept his conge, and would have gone straight to his sweetheart's house and demanded a reconciliation on the spot. Hut Dick Beresford was not as other men. Pride was his predominant fault, even as it was the fault of the girl he loved, and pride roso up in his path and barred all return, unions Olive made the first overtures in tho direction of reunion. Thus did it come about that two people were made intensely miserable, and doubtless would have remained so but for the intervention of an extraordinary incident which the lines that follow will endeavor to describe.

One evening, some six months after the cancelling of the engagement, Olive sat with her teacup in her hand, looking intensely woebegone, ncr mother, who was the only other occupant at the table, regarded her with

an anxious expression

" Yo-j look miserable, dear," she said, softly.

" I am miserable," replied the girl. There was a short pause, and then Mrs, Bassatt observed :

" J'lVor since you sent young Beresford away, you have boon anything but yourself."

Olive laughed bitterly

" I wish I wove anybody but myself," sho m.irii-> nnsw^i-, putting down her cup with an abrupt, gesture, " and, better still, I wish I were ilorvl."

" Olive ! "

11 Mother, it's tho truth. I've nothing left to live for, and tho days seem to me like '.vce!;:;."

" It i* yo'ir own fault. You dismissed poor yo-.mg Be record iii a moment of temper, and iow yon arc sorry for it."

" Sony or not, it was as much his doing as ni.ie. He had no right — positively no right —to use the words he did."

" I think you wore bath in the wrong, and f you wore sensible you would write him a lice little note suggesting ft reconciliation."

" I would sooner b: burned alive first."

The girl's cheeks (lamed, and she stamped the iloor with her small feet so passionately fiat Mrs. Hasiott looked up in alarm.

" I love Dick now as I have always loved him," s!ie s.iid presently, " but do you think [ could ever humiliate myself to do what you advise ? It's out of the question."

" iS:ip[)aso ho came back to you of his own ifcoid — how then ? "

Olive shook her head decisively

" Von don't know him as I do, mother nine," she replied quickly. "He used to iay that we were a well-maJched pair, for both of us were as proud as Lucifer, and so .vo are. Each of us wants the other to speak iiv.:, and so we're at a sort of deadlock for !\"or and ever."

" In my young days,'' returned Mrs. Bas>2tt, " ni'.'ii were dilt-irent. If a man loved i woman, he put his pride in his pocket, and lid not pause to consider who should be the ■irst to apologise for a fancied grievance. BuS chat was thirty years ago," she added, with a ijnilo, " and tidies have changed."

Olive made no comment on this reflection. Sho was thinking of the happy days which she h:\cl enjoyed with Diek — of the long, delighUul evenings at the theatre, of the pleasant Sunday afternoons, of the myriad joyous Yv.u's flint go to muko up the courtship of ft ma 1 and a, maid, and for a moment her eyes a ae*v soft with happiness. But soon the dull reality forced its way back into her brain, and she sighed heavily.

That same afternoon, Dick Beresford was lounging iv the smokeroom of his club, feeling intensely denm-sml. Already he had had recourse to several whiskies and sodas to revive his drooping spirits, but these adjuncts to gaiety did not produce the desired effect.

" The stuff they soil at this club grows worse and worse," ho remarked savagely to his chum, Jack Allingham, who sat in the adjoining armchair. " I shall really have to say something about it in the suggestion book."

" Seems all rt^Vit to me," replied Ailingham, in a cheery tone- " There's something troubling you, Diuk, apart from the whisky. Conic, out with it, ami let's see if I can help

you." Boresford was in that melancholy condition when a man seeks sympathy from the nearest •iviilitble source and, encouraged by young .VlliM^liiVin's friendly m.mnor, he decided to reia'u to that gentleman the incident in connection with Olive. He, therefore, proceeded "*> do so after some little hesitation, whilst Jic other man listened with a half-amused

xprcs-uon

•• We'll," slid Beresford at length, when the i-ccitiil \v;i3 concluded, " What do you think >F C.n> bininess ? " ; ' I ill ink you're a fool."

'• Thanks for your candor, but your lemai'k, whiM admirably forcible, is hardly helpful. I w.vii yjur advice, not your objurgations." " Artvioo ! Great Scott, what's the use of asking 'or advice ? Isn't the solution of the ■tifliculty as plain as the head waiter's hint for I tip wuLi) he's given you an extra bad day's ■linner? Write to tho girl at onee — or, better ,-•:, sac her at once, and ' make it up,' as Uie kid.'-. t*ay."

11 Allingham, I can't do it."

" You won't, you mean."

" Can't or won't, it's all the same When I wo.* a boy. I was thrashed for ten days fanning, because I refused to admit that I was in tho wrong, and I believe that the same old pride, or whatever it is, sticks tome still." •

" Then the sooner you get it out of you the better, for that kind of pride causes more bother than half the other vices that flesh is heir to. Anyhow, I've given you my opinion, and you must take it or leave it, as oar pawnbroking friends say." " I'm afraid," replied Beresford, slowly, " that I shall have to leave it."

The other man took up a newspaper, and aiid no more, whilst Dick Beresford followed his example. Languidly raising ft, copy of tho " Blade " from the floor, whither it had fallen from the sleepy hands of a fellow-mem-ber, he perused the columns of that journal with anything but absorbing interest. His eyes roved listlessly from page to page, and presently he lighted upon that section of the newspaper known as the " Agony Column." Presently, his gaze became glued to the printed page, Iris heart beat like a steam hammer, and he leaped from his chair with a low cry of delight. " Hallo J " exclaimed Allingham, looking up sharply. " What's the matter ? " But Dick hardly heard the words, and, had he heard them, he would not have waited to answer his chum's question. Racing in the direction of the hatropm, he Hung himself into his overcoat, and then rushed down the club steps at breakneck speed. A hansom, crawling westward, swayed toward him. Dick jumped in, and shouted to the driver to drive ll like Jupiter " to the &&• dress he gave him. All the way, Dick was hugging the CltiM copy of the " Blade " to his heart, and was murmuring to himself m a delirium of new> bori; happiness. " The dear, sweet little girl," he muttered. " How good, how kind of her to make thi first overtures, whilst I, like a stiff-necked ass

have been hanging In the xrtaS, too infernally proud to say a Bingle word of apology." With these and similar reflections, the young man consumed the tedium of the long drive, and, when at length the cab drew up at Olive's door, he leaped out with alacrity, and flung the man holf-a-sovereign. " I hexpeofc Vs backed a winner to-day," thought the latter as he drove off. The maid servant who opened the door in answer to Dick's summons on the bell, was a new arrival, and did not know him. When, therefore, she inquired his name in order that she might convey it to her young mistress, he said abruptly : 11 Tell her simply that— ep— there is a gentleman who wishes to see her at once." This would give Olive a surprise, he refleoted, and would be a more interesting method of return than the formal announcement of his name. With swiftly beating heart he waited in the spacious hall, whilst tho maid departed, but he had not long to wait, for, after a moment's interval, she tripped back and said politely : ' ' Miss Bassett will see you if you will step into the library, sir." Beresford followed the servant toward tha room in question, and the girl having thrown open the door and said simply, " Here is the gentleman, Bliss," retired to the basement. Olive, wondering whom her unknown visitor might be, advanced towards him and then fell book a stop or two.

" My own darling ! " he cried, as he took her in his arms, and covered her soft cheek with kisses. " What joy it is to be with you again. Forgive me for all my folly. " Olive could hardly speak for joy. That Dick should have come back to her now, when she had abandoned all hope of seeing him again seemed to the girl wonderful, and a long pause ensued before she coald trust herself to frame the first words.

" It was I who was guilty of folly, not you," sho murmured, stroking 'his cheek gently. " It was I all the time."

But Dick would not heav of this. Ho vowed that he was the original sinner, and that whatever blame there was in connection with the disagreement, should rest upon his shoulders. Thus did the two foolish mortals wrangle in loving accents, and it was not until the affair had been compromised by each allowing the other to admit that perhaps there was a tiny measure of fault on both sides that Olive asked shyly

" Dick, dear — I — l want to ask you a quea

tion."

" Go on, my own pet." " What was'it that made you resolve to— to come to see me to-night ? ' '

A puzzled expression swept over his features

" I could not very well have done anything else," he made answer, " seeing that you hinted that if I came back, everything would be all right again." It was now Olive's turn to look puzzled.

" Hinted ? — I don't understand," sho murmured. " What hint did I give, Dick, dear ? "

Ho smiled, and placed his hands on her shoulder.

"Why, you little goose," he cried, " surely you haven't forgotten your sweet advertisement in tho ' agony column ' ? "

In the

agony column ' ? "

She echoed the words with pained surprise, and it was obvious that ho was speaking to her in tho language of enigmas.

" Yes ; I came across it whilst glancing at the ' Blade ' at my ciub this afternoon, and you may bo sure I lost no time in coming after that. See, here it is."

He pulled forth from his breast pocket the copy of the newspaper, and pointed to an advertisement, which ran thus :

DlCK.— Pprgire and fofget. Perhaps I was wrong. Who knows ? But let bygones be bygones, and coma ioon to your sorrowing OLIVE.

A mighty flush came into the girl's cheek as she read the words.

" Dick," she breathed, " I — l never inserted that announcement. Until this moment I had never set my eyes on it, and I cannot for the life of me understand how it got into the

paper."

" But I can," ho replied with flashing eyes, as he threw his arm around her slender waist and pressed her more closely to himself — " I can "

" You ? "

11 Yes. The affair is simply the result of a coincidence of names— a blessed and glorious coincidence. Some other couple, named respectively Oliva and Dick, have quarrelled just as we quarrelled, and the Olive of the advertisement, like a good sensible girl, was the first to say ' Come back.' "

Olive nodded sagely. " Yes," she acquiesced ; the explanation."

" yes. That is