FLUSTERED.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 638, 28 January 1914, Page 7

FLUSTERED.

The other day a pretty young matron, swathed in a veil, entered th< car, already nsarly full of passengers where she expected to join her husband, and possibly to find her sister also. The car was dim, and she had not yet put up her veil. She dropped into the seat beside a familiarlooking figure, and entertained hei neighbours by exclaiming, as she did so : "Oh, here you are, dear !" "No, ma'am, I ain't ; I'm somebody else," declared her startled seatmate, turning. 'Do excuse me !" cried the lady, hastily. "Of course, I can see now you're just a man ; but I thought for a moment that you were my hus-1-r.nl." "Is he a lady, ma'am ? Because if he r.in't, that's likely him beckonin' a:, o-t.the aisle, and if he is, that's her flourishing a handkerchief three ssats down. Seems as if one of 'em must he the person you're lookin' for." "Ch, thank you ! They both are !' A frnnier case of fluster occurred lately at a waiting-station,' where a tall young lady, wearing a raincoat of undistinctive cut and colour and a heavy veil, and bearing, as it chanced, the commonest of feminine names and surnames, and therefore the combination most likely to make trouble, was greeted by a strange young man, who suddenly laid a hand on her arm, exclaiming : "Why, Mary Smith ! You darling girl !" Greatly startled, the girl accosted, not quite sure whether she were the victim nf an error or an impertinence, endeavoured by disclaiming the op'.thct while acknowledging the nama to put the effusive youth in his propar place ; but her flurried nerves betrayed her tongue. To her horror, she heard herself announce, in tones of chill'ing dignity : "I am certainly a darling girl, sir; but I am, not Mary Smith." Hastily endeavouring to correct this statement, she only succeeded in turning it round : "1 am not Mary Smith," she stated, icily ; "but I am certainly a dar-' ling girl." Before she could entangle herself further, the young man remarked, politely : "Both facts are quite apparent, madam, and I beg your pardon. I mistook you for my cousin, Mary Smith, who is another." "But the facts are not apparent !" she cried, desperately. "I am Mary Smith, too, and I was trying to say so, only I was so flustered I kept saying something else." "That is what I supposed," he admitted, and he allowed himself a laugh in which she could not help joining.