The Anniversary Engagement.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 18 August 1904, Page 3

The Anniversary Engagement.

SHORT STORY.

By Juliet Wilbor Tompkins.

THEY were intensely modem. And so, when they decided to break off their engagement, it was not because they tad a lover s q-uarrel, or a third person had made trouble, or they had ceased to care for each other; or for any of the oldfashioned reasons that prevailed in the toolrsh days when 'twas love that made the world go wrong. They came to their conclusion not via tears and reproaches, but by a reasonable and temperate process of analysis, sitting side by side on the studio

ViiJh yC f, r W . iU CU P ncxt wcek -' Mildred sadly, ' and we've failed.' ,l lt , I^' t thafc we don 't st "l love each other, Ernest protested. 'I think, perhaps, in some ways ' * But we've come down to affection and friendship and esteem and things like that,' sbe broke m. 'What wc condemn in people who vc been married several years, we've come to ourselves in one year's engagement. Vvcva grown humdrum, used to each other. Do you know what Aunt Flora said of us the other day?' ' Something unpleasant and practical, I auppose.'

She said we seemed suited to one another, and would probably jog along very comfortably when we were over our first sillmess!'

' The old bird of ill omen!'

'But, Ernest, the worst of it is '—Mildred's voice dropped impressively—' it's true I We've almost begun to jog alrcadv.' 'I know it, Mildred,' he admitted, in a discouraged tone." 'Life without thrills— ordinarv, everyday companionship, with no excitement, no impulses, no complications—oh, Ernest, we couldn't stand it!' she exclaimed. ' We'd fall to such a bourgeois level. When we went on journeys, people would know we were married because we didn't talk to each other.'

I suppose we'd get to sitting on opposite sides of the table and reading all the evening,' he said listlessly. * We'd find it was not worth while to do little things or be clever and amusing just for us,' she went on. ' There would always have to be a third person present to stimulate us.'

' We'd get sleepy at nine o'clock. And people would invite us to chaperon things.' 'And we'd never discuss anything but the children.' Mildred's voice was almost tearful. «We'd be twice as interested in them as we were in each other.*

'I would not call you 'mamma,' he exclaimed, with an emphatic thump at the cushions.

•Oh, yes, you would,' she said sadly. | That or 'my dear.' I feel it. The prose is closing around us. We must break out at any cost. I'd rather give you up than see all the romance duUed out of you.' ' I don't see why you can't make things exciting again,' he said. 'Think of those first six months—whew F I lost twenty pounds.'

'And I had insomnia so that I nearly went crazy.' • We never just sat down and visited, as we do now. We couldn't be together five minutes without having a scene of some kind.'

'Wasn't it lovely?' sighed Mildred. • Everything was so nice and complicated. I don't see how we ever became so brotherand sistery.' •Still, we always Mss each other if there aren't any people in the way,' he protested. • Yes; but if there are, we can wait. We don't sneak off, we don't even telegraph with our eyes. Even though we hold hands, like this, it doesn't mean what it did.'

'We almost forget we're doing it,' he admitted. ' And now, when I see you fooling with some other fellow, I don't feel a tinge of jealousy. I'm even glad that you are having a good time. It's contemptibly tame. I have failed you dreadfully, Mildred.' 3

'We are both to blame,' she answered, and they relapsed into thoughtful silence. ' The worst of breaking it off is the wav peopk wiU talk,' she went on presently. 'They'n think we've quarreled or done something equaUy stupid. How can we let them know that wc parted in perfect friendship?' 'We might give a dinner to announce the breaking of our engagement,' he suggested, after a pause. 'Oh, beautiful!' she exclaimed. 'The very thing. We'll sit together at the head of the table, and you can make a little speech. And oh, Ernest, it's just a year apt Friday since we gave our engagement dinner and announced it!' •A year next Friday,' he echoed

When Ermest came Friday night he found the studio glimmering with wax candles under crimson shades, and Mildred in a pale green gown, with her shoulders bare, putting cards with names beside each place at the table. He stopped and straightened several of the shades, then bent down to kiss her. She lifted, her face for it absently, her eyes still studying the list she held. ' Would you put Helen by ' she was beginning when there was a sound of voices in the corridor and the studio knocker rattled cheerfully. Their eyes met with a startfcd look of recollection. They had kissed each other for the last time!

When everybody had come, and talk was going gaily around and across the table, she took a thoughtful survey of the faces, then turned to him with a smile. * Won't they be surprised when we tell them?' she said. ' We've about an hour and a half more,' he said. ' How shall we spend it ? Have you worked up any last words ?' l Of course not. We're going to be justas good friends and see just as much of each other, areu't wc ? There won't be so very much difference.* ' I don't suppose wc can chase around together anymore. We'll have to think of chaperon and things.' 'What nonsense! I don't sec why—l don't know, though.' She had begun valiantly, but doubt set in and her voice weakened. 'Perhaps it-wouldn't do to take luncheon together—very often.' 'No T "I 1 y °M M ha

I ' It's too bad we can't be merely engaged, without being engaged to bo married,' she i said.

A general silence framing a single emphatic voice made them look up. ' Even if they are in love, they might answer their guests' questions,' some one was saying. Miidrcd colored a little, perhaps from force of habit, and they both plunged dutifully into the general conversation. The minutes went by very fast. She felt as though the big clock behind her were a telegraph instrument ticking off with its muffled beats a message that would shock that laughing throng into silence when it was read out to them ; a message that would make this day one of the few great dates of her life. Once Ernest dropped his napkin, a favorite trick of his when love was new to them, and, smiling to herself, she slipped her hand down where he might kiss it as he stooped. But he, apparently, was intent only on the napkin this time, and came up without noticing the friendly fingers. She lifted her head a little higher and threw a shade more animation into her voice. Salad was on the table before the talkdrifted away again and left them free. ' Mildred, you'll only be engaged to me about fifteen minutes more,' he whispered. ' Please make love to me.' Her eyes relented a smile. ' I should think I could do that even if wo weren't engaged,' she said. ' I used to!' ' But then we knew we were going to be, so that made it all right. Otherwise, I shouldn't have allowed itr for a minute.' His eyes were at their old tricks, shining straight down into hers. His voice had gone back six months. 'l've forgotten how,' she said, though any one could sec she was lying. «What did I use to begin with V ' Two words, very little ones, apropos of nothing at all. As I remember, they were ' He broke off. 'Do you ?' she finished, half under her breath. - 'Mildred, I've had a quarrel with Helen,' some one called out. ' May I "go and sit at the other end of the table ? There's a girl there I like a great deal better.' f The talk closed up around them again, and did not leave them till the ices were half over. Then Ernest's mood seemed to have changed. * Shall I do my speech before the coffee or after?' he asked in a business-like tone. ' Oh, after—don't you think so ?' she answered nervously. ' What are you going to say?' ' Just what we planned. I'll begin with the fact that this is the anniversary of our engagement dinner.' ' Didn't wc have fun that night ?' she said, with a quick breath. ' That though our engagement has been an extremely happy one ' * Indeed it has, Ernest!' 'And we have cared for each other as much as two mortals could * 'More, ever so much more.' 'We have decided to sever the engagement.' 'Tosever the engagement,'she repeated in a little whisper. ' We do this as a protest against the flat monotony of the married state as we have seen it. Wc thought at first wc could record our protest most effectively by marrying and showing the world the interesting possibilities it was missing. But the last year has convinced us—is that about what you wanted ?' ' It's very good,' she faltered. ' I'll teU them we found we were in danger of sliding into the utterly tame and commonplace relationship ' • Worse than that, of—of almost getting to like it best,' she said, tracing the pattern of the table cloth with the tip of her coffee spoon. 'Perhaps,' he admitted. • We might even grow to prefer life without thrills, and comradeship, and affection, and things. I don't say that we'd really come down to that level, but still, you know, we might.' ■ • Yes, we might.' * When all your ideals were one way, «it would be dreadful to find you liked another way best,' she went on, dropping the sugar slowly into her coffee. ' Yes,' he assented. ' We'll—we'll still be very fond of each other.' The coffee spoon shook so that she laid it down again. 'The best friends in the world, Milly.' His voice had gone back twelve months now, and she pressed her clenched fingers against her lips. • 'Let's drink their health, to remind them we're still here,' broke in a voice. The glasses were held up to them, and they laughed and nodded back. ' Speech, Ernest! Speech!' came next. ' Now ?' he whispered to Mildred. She opened her lips, then suddenly lowered her head without answering. He rose slowly. ' A year ago to-night,' he began, ' you were all here in honor of our engagement-, which was announced that evening. Tonight we have invited you again, to announce ' He paused and glanced down at Mildred, whose hands were tightly locked in her lap. 'To announce that we are to be married next month,' he concluded, sitting down, There was a joyous noise, and Mildred turned to him, showing flushed cheeks and wet eyes. ' The minute that knocker sounded, I knew that we couldn't do it,' he whispered, stooping for his napkin.