Martin's Dark Hour

There were moments when her beauty so thrilled him that he felt moved
to tell her he loved her and wanted to marry her, but somewhere in the
subconscious mind of him must have dwelt the succinct words of the
poster, "When in doubt, _don't!_" So the moments of fascination
passed and the words of love were left unsaid.

"Some day," he thought, "I'll know, I'll be sure. It will probably come
to me like a flash of lightning whether I love her or not. I shouldn't
be so undecided. I think if it were the real thing I feel for her there
would be not the shadow of a doubt in my heart concerning it. A man
should feel that the woman he wants to marry is the only one in the
universe for him. Somehow, I can't feel that about her. But there's no
hurry about marrying. We'll just go on being capital friends. Meanwhile
I can be saving money so that if the time comes when I marry I'll be
able to support a wife. Things look pretty rosy for me at present.
Since Father is fixed with that legacy and the boys are old enough to
take my place on the farm I have time to study and advance. I'm in luck
all around; guess I got a horseshoe round my neck!"

But the emblem of good luck must have soon lost its potency. The bank
force was surprised one day by an unexpected examination of the books.

"What's the trouble?" asked Martin of another worker in the bank.