Aransas Pass Progress (Aransas Pass, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 33, Ed. 1 Friday, November 26, 1909 Page: 3 of 8
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She was walking rapidly, and she
turned at my salutation with a start,
as if her thoughts had been far from
her surroundings. Her eyes were
feverish and I could see at once that
she was very tired.
“Are you walking home?" I asked.
“May I come along?”
She looked at me, hesitating.
“I don’t think you had better,” she
said. “I am hurried and cross and ab-
sent-minded.”
“I’ve seen you all three and still
found you fairly—”
“Oh, don’t muster out any silly com-
pliments,” she broke in quickly. “1
know that in my present mood I
couldn’t inspire a genuine one; so
don’t try to palm off any spurious
ones on me. I’m not in the humor to
be easily deceived. But you may
come along if you’re sure you don't
mind. Perhaps it’s just as well.
there is—1 have just posted you a
note to say good-by.”
“Good-by!” I gasped. “Where in
the world are you going?”
“We sail for London to-morrow.
Mr. Ankony has been called there by
important business. We are to he
married at noon. It’s very sudden,
isn’t it? I feel as it I had been
caught up by a huge whirlwind
that wouldn’t let me down.”
“To-morrow! You sail to-morrow!”
I repeated.
She nodded. “It was only a matter
of a few weeks at most,” she said.
“But tp-morrow!” I echoed inanely.
She did not reply. Gathering her
skirts out of the way of the fountain
spray that drifted across the asphalt,
she kept her eyes resolutely ahead.
The roar of Broadway was in our ears.
Through Fifteenth street the late sun-
shine poured, and a mist came up
from the bay., River whistles blew,
and here and there an electric light
sprang out. Walking hurriedly and in
silence we crossed Broadway and
came into the kindling shadows of the
side-street, turning presently into
Fifth avenue.
“And your note?"I asked.
“Was only to say good-by and ex-
plain our hurried departure. We are
so sorry to not have you all with us
at the marriage, as we had expected.
Even Dan may not get to town in
time. I wired him at once, of course,
but I’m afraid he can’t make it. And
Bishop Winstanley is away! It is all
so unsatisfactory! I had never
thought to have anyone marry me but
him, you know. I’m afraid it will
seem a sort of makeshift ceremony,”
with a little sigh.
“Suppose something should come up
to prevent your sailing?” I asked, with
an uncontrollable impulse.
She turned to me quickly, an odd
look in her eyes, but in the same in-
stant it faded and she lifted the shield
of an impersonal smile.
“That is quite improbable. I never
think of such things. Some people do,
I know. But in this case we are al-
most quite ready. Mr. Ankony is rush-
ing his preparations through, and I
had even this half-hour’s breathing
space, so I walked through the old
Square for the last time. Does that
sound ghastly?” she asked, with a
smile. “But I dare say it will never
seem quite the same again.”
Her tone was light, but it held the
pang of sadness. Was it only the sad-
ness that a woman must naturally feel
at such a time, I asked myself, or
did it hold all the ache and bitterness
that Henrietta Winstanley still stout-
ly contended that it did? I looked at
her keenly, and, feeling my glance,
she put up a quick, impatient hand to
her cheek.
“It isn’t nice to stare at a bride-elect
like that on the eve of her wedding,”
she said “Don’t you know that? She
is always cross and pale and nervous.
It isn’t fair.”
“Forgive me; but to-morrow—to-
morrow I can’t look at you—nor for
weeks and months perhaps. Oh, I
know I’m hurting you! fm a beast to
do it. But a man can’t mask a thing
forever, And it hurts. God! how it
hurts to think of your going!”
“Does that make it any harder—the
going?” she asked.
“It is the suddenness of it,” I said
dully, and we walked a little way in
silence. It was she who broke it
“I am so sorry! so sorry!” she
said, in the lowest, softest voice, and
the regret and the tenderness in it
touched me profoundly. “If I could
say something, do something, to help
—to make it easier for you! But I
a poor whimpering thing to trouble
you like this now—to let you see.”
We had reached the steps of her
house, and as we mounted them she
slipped her hand through my arm
with a little pressure, then quickly
withdrew it. ,
“No, no, you are not that,” she pro-
tested warmly; “you are all that i«
oonsiderate and kind and $ood,
and I—”
“If I were yielding you to any one
else—” I blundered.
“Don’t!” she cried; "you have your
own little shrine in the temple of my
heart, and I don’t want you to de-
throne yourself at the last. This is—
is the last, you know. Good-by. I
can’t ask you in, and we shall not
meet again before I go.”
“Yet I think,” said I, “that I will
not say good-by.”
She looked at me questioningly.
“Do you think leaving out a good-
by makes a separation seem less
real?” she smiled.
“This one would set the seal upon
too many things,” I replied.
She regarded me curiously there in
the dim light of the old door-way,
then bent her head distractingly until
I could see only her lips and her
rounded chin. That the lips trembled
a little I could have sworn, but her
voice was steady, although it was so
low I could scarcely hear it.
“The seal was set long ago,” she
said. And for just an instant we stood,
her fingers in mine; then she with-
drew them and went in and left me.
I hailed a cab and went at onbe to
Henrietta Winstanley. I' found her
going over her charity accounts in her
brother’s study, looking miserable and
down-spirited.
“Have you heard?” I demanded at
once.
“Nothing. Not a word. What is
there to hear?” she cried, with kind-
ling excitement.
“She sent you a note, too, I sup-
pose. It must have been delayed.”
“Who sent me a note? Do try to be
a little lucid, won’t you? What has
happened?”
“Nothing yet. It all happens to-
morrow. Ankony is to marry Bar-
bara at noon and sail with her by
the Deutschland in the afternoon. I
have just seen her. How is Mrs.
Dines? Dare we hope—”
She caught me by the arm and
shook it in her agitation.
“Dean has warned him! Don’t you
see? I told Hannah that he was
Ankony’s friend before he became her
agent That’s exactly what he has
done. You see, she sent for him yes-
terday and made him bring a packet
of papers that she went over with
him. Those papers incriminate Ank-
ony. And Dean has warned him. If
he marries Barbara, he knows that
Mrs. Dines will not prosecute him.
He’ll be safe forever as Barbara’s
husband. And so he has the double
motive in carrying her off; he wants
her, and he wants to stop Hannah.
But we’ll see whether he can do it or
not. We’ll see. Wait for me. I
must tell her at once.”
She ran from the room and pattered
up the stairs. I heard the excited
babble of their voices from a room
above, and • her brisk steps as she
paced the floor over my head.
I was as excited as she and impa-
tient of any delay, but they did not
keep me waiting long, and when she
came again her cheeks were burning
like a girl’s.
"She’ll stop him,” she declared, in a
high-pitched voice that trembled in it3
own elation. “She says she can do it
You leave it to her. She’ll attend
to it”
“But is she able? Isn’t she abed?”
She laughed out sharply.
“My dear, if she were dead she’d
send her spirit back to outwit him.
That’s what she’d do.”
“What has she come armed with?”
I mused.
She shook her head, smiling.
“Something that will do the work,”
she declared; “you may rely on that.”
And she put her hands in mine and
smiled a flashing :smile up at me.
With her assurance ringing in my
ears and all my nerves throbbing, I
left her, and weBfc home and tried to
dine, and then to sleep, but could do
neither.
She Looked at Me Questioningly.
can’t, and it—it hurts me, too. Oh, ,
look at me, once in friendliness and
forgiveness!”
A lovely April twilight was setting ,
about us, and in its shadows I turned
to her.
“Can you do me the injustice to be- ,
lieve that I have anything but friend-
liness for you, dear?” I asked. “I am
CHAPTER X.
At an ’unearthly hour the next morn-
ing Ankony sent for me to go over
some last company affairs with him.
He looked as if he had slept as little
as I, and was exceedingly nervous.
“Miss Hemingray wrote you that we
are to be married at noon,” he said.
“We' sail by the Deutschland. This
business which is taking me will ad-
mit of no delay. It is awkward, com-
ing just at this time. There are sev-
eral affairs I shall have to leai7e un-
settled here, hut I’ll explain them to
you, and you can keep an eye on them
while I’m away. We expect to get
back as quickly as possible. I tried
to find you yesterday, but you were
out. However, I have as much time
now as I had then—which isn’t a great
deal, you will Understand.”
“You came to this decision yester-
day?” I asked, looking at him with de-
liberate inspection.
He nodded. “Annoyingly sudden all
round; hut, fortunately, Miss Hem-
ingray can make herself ready to go
with me. Nothing but this very neces-
sary business in London could make
me change her plans so completely.”
I looked at him curiously, and, giv-
ing me a quick glance, he moved to
his desk.
“We must get f;o business,” he said.”
“By all means,” I answered.
Throughout the consultation he kept
looking at his watch and glancing to-
ward the door, as if he feared an in-
terruption and wanted to put himself
out of reach of it. I expected it, too,
but hardly so soon as it came.
“Mrs. Dines and Miss Winstanlej,”
the office boy Announced.
My eyes fixed eagerly upon Ankony.
He went as white as chalk as he
turned toward the door and saw them
there, and his jaw took an ugly set.
Mrs. Dines was as pale as she had
been when she came down the gang-
plank of the Cambria, but she was
quite composed. Beside her little
Miss Winstanley looked like an agi-
tated moth beside a placid robin. I
was nearer the door than Ankony, and
in sweeping me with her glance Mrs.
Dines bowed curtly, then let her eyes
travel on at once to him.
She overlooked the hand that he ex-
tended rather hesitatingly, and, sit-
ting down where I had sat beside his
desk, motioned him to his chair.
“I have heard of your engagement
to Miss Hemingray,” she said at once.
He murmured a conventional reply,
and I took up my hat,
“Don’t go, If you please, Mr. Twin-
ing,” she said, without so much as
turning to me. “We shall probably re-
quire your services, if you will be so
good as to remain.”
The scent of battle wa-i thick in tha
air. Ankony had lost his pallor and
was turning gray; he is always gray
or choleric under emotion. I began
to believe in Mrs. Dines, even as Hen-
rietta Winstanley did. There was that
about her which seemed to denote cer-
tain victory.
Poor Miss Winstanley, however,
looked decidedly uncomfortable, in
spite of the fact that she felt sli§ j?a?
about to witness the culmination of
this engagement which she held to fee
so monstrous. She too was a gen-
eral, and a good one—one whose rec-
ord none could assail—but her mode
of attack differed widely from that
of her friend Mrs. Dines. She was a
stategist, pure and simple, while on®
could see with half an eye that Mrs.
Dines had been born to the hammer-
and-tongs method. She scorned strat-
egy as some illustrious generals scorn
latter-day war tactics.
She leaned toward Ankony across
his wide desk.
“I have come from Africa to tell you
that you must break the engagement
could feel, rather than see, that he
was terribly shaken. Mrs. Dines
turned her chair till she faced him.
“That we may come to an undor-
standing at once, I think I should tell
you in the beginning that I know that
when you were my husband’s agent
some years ago you hypothecated se-
curities that were his—not yours.
You were hard pushed then, and he
knew it to be the crucial period of
your whole business career; so he
waited, believing that his confidence
in you had not been entirely misplaced
and that when you could you would
make good the amount you v had—
stolen. But you did not. And after
two years, when you had become am-
ply able to do so, and did not, he real-
ized that you had grown secure in the
belief that your peculation was no!
discovered, and that you were without
even the semblance of honor. He ad-
mitted- this with singular reluctance,
Mr. Ankony, for I think you know that
he trusted you as not many men trust
their fellows.”
Sihe paused, her eyes on his face.
His muttered reply was not coherent,
i and she went on at once:
“When he saw you at last as you
I really were, he determined to prose-
1 cute you; but there came his last long
| illness and hie death, and afterward
! my heart had softened a little to you
I and I had not the mind beside to put
’ shame and sorrow upon your mother,
{ so I did nothing. But when I heard
I the aib.azJng news that you had pro-
| posed to marry a girl U&e Barbara
Hemingray. I came back to America
to tell you that you must give her up
or the delayed prosecution will begin
at once.”
j Then he spoke. “You understand
i what this is you ask of me?” he said
thickly.
“Perfectly,” she nodded, and her
tone was less unkindly. “If I did not
know just how sweet and lovely and
| full of grace and innocence she is, I
might perhaps have stayed away and
left you to your wooing.”
There was a long silence.
“You demand large interest, 'Mrs.
Dines,” he said.
“Accumulated interest Is' always
large,” she retorted. “But I do not
wish to humiliate you any more than
is necessary. You must, of course,
Adventure of a
~ x Jonah’s Experience
Sunfish ^££Ss
“The aggravating independence of
the black bass in Sand pond up our
way,” said Hon. Thomas James Ham,
editor of the Citizen at II-, “is ex-
ceeded only by the cool impudence of
the pickerel in those waters, unless it
may be by the tenacity of life of thin
sunfish. Judging from a little Jonah
and the whale sort of play by one
of those pickerel and a Sand pond
sunfish that I witnessed, I don’t know
but what the sunfish is entitled to
ranking place.
“In company with a friend, I had
gone to Sand pond with the intention
of coming home with a few of those
aggravatingly independent black, bass.
We depended on catching our live
bait from the schools of minnows in
the outlet of the pond.
Fishing with tiny minnow hooks
tied to black linen thread for lines,
we had nearly filled our pail with
bait when my companion hooked a
sunfish. As he was drawing it slowly
in a large pickerel darted out from
somewhere among the thick weeds
at the margin of the outlet and made
a vicious strike at the sunfish just as
jt was pulled out.
“The Splaph of the big fish’s tail as
it turned after its unsuccessful strike
threw the water almost into the boat.
The sunfish was quickly dropped back
into the pond, we both being curious
to see if the pickerel would have
the gudacity to make another rush
for it.
“Thq little fish had gone scarcely
two feet from the boat, with the hook
in its upper jaw, when the pickerel
promptly showed that it had all its
impudence with it. It shot from its
lair among the tiny pads, where it
had disappeared, and seized the sun-
fish.
“The momentum of this second dash
carried the pickerel ahead with the
sunfish jn its jaw three or four feet.
Will H. Vernor
Advertising
Specialist
ARANSAS PASS
TEXAS '
Printers’, copy’pYep’arecf loi book
lets, circulars, magazine 01 news
paper advertisings
t
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:l; >1
*1 The pulling power of your /v'P-feV " ;
tjsing will be greatly increased
properly prepared i
displayed
I
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! Would You
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j Visit the Home-
i folks Xmas in
> that old suit
?
bring to an immediate end this unfor- j deliberately madfus prepare
Mrs. Dines Turned Her Ghair Til!
She Faced Him.
at once,” she said, making no pretense
at lowering her full, steady voice.
Over the gray of his face a dull red
spread and his lip curled slowly into
an ugly downward curve.
“The1 statement is amazing, :as 'well
as amusing, madam,” Ire observed,
meeting her eyes steadily enough.
But she refused to skirmish. Her
attack was to be open and direct, with
no foolish beating about in the
hushes.
’“You know precisely wiyy I make it,
ami' how I can compel you to comply
with it,” she said.
He answered her with a smile of
ihravado.
“It has been a long time -since this
thing happened to which I refer, Mr.
Ankeny,” she went an quickly; “but
’the sense of injury is not short lived.
5 may seem to have forgotten, as did
my husband, no doubt. But he re-
membered, and so 4c I. Shall I go
further?”
“We must speak in private,'” he
said.
Miss Winstanley and I arose ,s£t
once, but Mrs. Dines motioned us to
remain.
“Miss Winstanley is equally inter-
ested with me in the establishment of
justice,” she said £o him, “and Mr,
Twining may be required to distin-
guish for you between the illegal and
the merely dishonorable. They must
both remain. I should have been glad
to spare you this, as I think my .con-
tinued inaction in the matter must
prove to you. But you have forced me
to act. You have violated all sense
of honor and right, and you have
brought upon your head precisely the
thing you would most eagerly . have
averted. If you thought I would stand
by and see you marry Barbara Hem-
ingray, knowing you to be the sort of
man ygu are, you greatly misjudge
me. But I am inclined to believe that
you did not think me to he my hus-
band’s confidante, and that you felt
yourself secure, your ignominy buried
with him.”
Ankony arose and held open th®
door into the inner office.
“I must insist upon discussing this
matter in private,” he protested hotly,
in a voice that quavered.
Mrs. Dines sat still, an imperative-
hand held out detainingly to us. “The
time is past for that.” she told him;
“if you had sought me out long ago
it might have been very different.
But understand that I mean to make
no public disclosures if you accede
to my demand. It remains with you
to decide whether or not the very un-
pleasant facts go forth.”
He continued to stand across th®
room from her, his hand still upon
the door. He did jjot reply, and I
tunate engagement-—! believe you
■were to have been married at noon,
were you not?” She glanced at the
clock. “.You have not much time.
Some part of the truth Miss Hem-
ingray must know. But you may make
; your own -explanation aside from that,
i I only exact that she shall be made to
| understand that whatever sense of
obligation she may have entertained
for you is dissipated.”
Ankony oolored painfully and made,
i no reply.
“I shall not intrude upon you fur-
! ther',’J she said; “but I desire you to
I understand that I am prepared to do
all that I say I will do in case you
| do not yield to my stipulation. I have
■with me the papers which leave no
room for doubt as to your guilt. Shall
I give them to Mr. Twining, as your
.attorney?”
“I am the attorney of the company
tSf which Mr.. Ankony is the president,
snadam,” I said; “but in no case—”
' “It is not worth white,” Ankony in-
terrupted.
Mrs. Dines bowed. "“My -own attor-
ney, Mr. Dean, has 'examined the pa-
;pers, and he will tell you—
““if he has not "already done so,”
Miss Winstanley ventured, -as her one
little shot.
■' That 1 am able to ca’rry out my
ypfens,” Mrs. Dines finished. “But I
'think you will see the wisdom in fol-
! lowing the less aggressive course.”
“You leave me ne choice in the mat-
ter,” he said bitterly. ‘T am the un-
der dog in the fight.”
“The under dog is often to blame
for the fight,” she said, tersely.
She approached the door, and I
held it open for her.
“Do you sail alone by the Deutsch-
land, Mr. Ankony?” she ;asked, turning.
He smiled grimly.
“I shall sail alone,” .he said.
(Con f i r> ’ i
NEXT JOB.
Knicker—Dr.. 'Cook says lie plant-
ed the flag on &e north pole.
Bocker—Now if he could Wnlv
plant the pennant on the Bole
groupdS’!—Xew Y ork Sun...
MAGNIFYING TRIFLES.
Some men do splendidly when
they have the encouragement of
good business, the tonic of good
times, writes Orison Swett Harden,
in Success, but when business is dull
and goods remain on the shelves un-
sold, or they have any little discord
in their homes, they are lift; upset.
They are like children; they need
t© be encouraged all the- time, for
they cannot work under discourage-
ment.
“I have seen men lose their tem-
per- and waste energy swearing at a
knot in a shoestring or something
else just as insignificant. The fool-
ish or ill-tempered have no range in
their scale. Small, irritating things
come to and ‘tag’ us all; but the
only way to conquer them is simply
to smile and ‘pass them up.’ ”
Everyone owes it to himself to
live a real life, whether he is rich
or poor; to be, and not to seem. He
owes it to himself at least to be
genuine.
tions for gorging its prey, giving us
purposely, I verily believe, an exhibi-
tion of its processes as well as of its
utter disregard for our presence.
“The pickerel had seized the sun-
fish tail first, but by a series of quick,
jerky movements of its big jaws it
turned the sunfish until its head was
where its tail had been. Then the
pickerel gave a gulp or two, and the
sunfish disappeared somewhere in the
depths of the big and impudent fish.
“The sunfish seemed to be about
three inches long. After swallowing
its prey the picker®l remained motion-
less a few seconds, as if gloating over
its captive and illustrating its con-
tempt for our presence. Then it
turned and started for deep water.
“The hook was fast in the sunfish,
and the sunfish was a foot or so down
in the pickerel’s interior, and we could
see no way in which the pickerel
could reach the point it had started
for unless it gave back the hook and
the fish, took them and the boat along
with it, or gave itself up to the fish-
erman. The first we believed quite
impossible. The second we had our
4oubts about. The third we hoped
for.
“When the line drew taut the pick-
erel seemed to be for the first time
aware that it had got itself into a
situation that might make trouble
for it, and for a time it seemed that
the big and now disturbed fish had
some intention of taking the boat and
us along with it after all. The linen
line was small, hut very stout, but as
wire snells are not regarded as any
too formidable tackle to have next to
a pickerel when he takes the hook,
the prospects for the line holding out
against that big fellow until he was
.captured were by no means assur-
ing.
“My friend and I understood pretty
well the handling of light tackle, and
.if the pickerel had persisted in retain-
ing fhe sunfish and in his efforts to kid-
nap the boat and us he certainly would
have been our meat. For two or
three minutes the big, strong fish was
so .handled that the slight minnow line
defied his attempts to snap it in two,
and he was hauled from the water and
almost landed.
“At that critical moment in the pick-
erel’s fight he must have concluded
that it was better for him to give up
his breakfast rather than lose for-
ever the opportunity for getting an-
other, for he set his internal arrange-
. ■••flients to work disgorging the sun-
Better come now
and let me have
your order for a
new suit cut and
made for you.
A fine line of
samples to pick from
and fit guaranteed.
J. H. Harwell
J. D. McBride
ARCHITECT
'm
| Plans and Specifications
I furnished for “buildings or
l improvement of any kind.
First class references.
| Office in the Bay View
f Hotel. v
Aransas Pass,. Texas.
1 '
fish, dropped back into the water, and
went his way.
“The sunfish, still fast to the hook,
had rim the gauntlet of the pickerel’s
spiked jaws and had been a good
while in its stomach. Such an expe-
rience, it would seem, should havo.
been enough to satisfy the ambit! a: -
of any ordinary fish. So we thong ;
at any rate when we released it iru...
the hook and tossed into the water,
as we supposed, dead.
“Well, this fish wasn’t an ordinary
fish. It was a Sand pond fish, am.
wasn’t so easily satisfied as all that.
It lay on the water stiff and motion-
less and badly scared for a few sec
onds, and then began to shiver and
wriggle about. Presently it dived be-
neath the surface, swimming strong,
but like a cripple. It was quickly sms ■
rounded by scores of full grown sun-
fish, which escorted the wounded lit-
tle fellow tenderly away until they
were hidden among the rushes.
“We got quite a few of those ag-
gravatingly independent black bass,
before we left the pond."
World's Steam Power.
The steam power in use in th
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000 horse power.
Just
eceived
from the northern mark-
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Furniture and Hardware,
and are in a position to
give yon as good quality
as you can buy anywhere
in the country, and will
save you money.
To our Aransas Pass
friends, we will refund
your railroad fare, give
you a good dinner, and
at the same time save
you money on every pur-
chase of S25 or more.
Come and inspect our |f
stock befyre 3 ou buy.
Md.
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IIS
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Stef
W. F. SPARKS
Furniture Store
ROCKPORT, TEXAS
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Aransas Pass Progress (Aransas Pass, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 33, Ed. 1 Friday, November 26, 1909, newspaper, November 26, 1909; Aransas Pass, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth973549/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Ed & Hazel Richmond Public Library.