Life — October 3, 1895 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Wife: The Husband (sadly): é e a Be \Z > \\ it ne RETRIBUTION. IF I HAD KNOWN BEFORE WE WERE MARRIED THAT YOU SWORE $0, | NEVER WOULD HAVE MARKIED You, THAT'S WHAT COMES OF BEING A HYPOCRITE, half-back is terrible. I've been on tip-toe night and day all week ; I've been embracing the empty air, and kissing the unsubstantial sunshine and moonlight! My patience is all gone, but my love remains immovable. Why have you let me get so far toward asking you the one leading question in Cupid’s catechism, and then every time pulled me up short — breathless and angry?) Why ?” “T'll tell you,” she said earnestly, interrupt- ing me before I could say more. “The truth is, you've been so nervous about it, so timid, suggesting everything, and saying nothing, beating around the bush, and leading up the point by easy stages, that by the time you were ready to say the word I was so nervous myself and fidgety, I was actually afraid! A sort of stage fright it was. I didn’t dare let you speak. If you had ever asked me straight out I doubt I'd have accepted you long ago.” $ paused only for breath, but I didn't wait. “Will you marry me ?" L asked almost with a gasp. And that was all we said for a long, long time. Clyde Fitch. comicbooks.com