i work save advance myself and better my condition generally so as to be worthy of her at the very same time i was still able to lee beauty in other women and the delights of those who would never be able to be as good as she i they might be good for me bnt far beneath her whose eyes were too pure to evil a book about in the latter part of er she came to st and me my first delighted sight of her since we had left at this time i was at the toss of my in st louis i was as i now by now also i had found a new room in the very heart of the on near the and was leading a bachelor existence truly circumstances this room was on the third floor rear of a which looked ont over some music hall whose ass roof was below and from whence nightly and frequently in the afternoon issued all sorts of music hall clatter including music and singing and voices in or dialogue one block were the southern hotel s and the in the block north were the and dick s old room which by now he abandoned having in of all his fine dreams of a married a girl whom together we had met in the church some months before � a rider thereafter he had removed to a on the side an which seemed to me bnt a crude and rather pathetic at worthless i like to report here that something over a year later this first marriage of his terminated in the death of his wife later � some two or three years � he indulged in a second most and romance � wedding finally on this occasion the daughter of a carpenter and her name � and a year or two after this she was to death by an oil stove and this was the man who was bent on an in my new room therefore because it was more of a i had already managed to set up a kind of garret which was by dick and peter and a number of other acquaintances no sooner was i settled here whose affairs i had straightened out by getting him a place on the republic put in an appearance and also john who because of conditions in bad come to st louis to bet ter bis fortunes bnt more of that later a about in spite of all these friends and labors and attempts at others it was my affair with w which now completely engrossed me so had i taken this new to heart that i was scarcely able to eat or sleep once i knew definitely that she was inclined to like me as her letters proved and the exact day of her arrival had been fixed i walked on air i had not been able to save much money i had been on the possibly a dollars all told and that since my brothers had left bnt of that i took forty or fifty and bo a new fall suit of a most pronounced if not startling pattern the coat being extra long and of no known relation to any current style an idea of my own to say nothing of as patent leather shoes ties a new pearl gray hat � all in view of this expected visit for her especial although i had little money for what i considered the of � boxes dinners and at the best flowers � still i hoped to make an impression why t it being a newspaper man and an ex dramatic editor to say nothing of my rather close friendship with the present critic i easily obtain tickets although the of my work often prevented as i discovered afterward my accompanying her for more than an at a time chapter on the day of ber i arrayed myself in my best armed myself with flowers and two tickets for the and made my way oat to her s in one of the home streets in the west end i was so that my afternoon prove a barrier to my seeing her that day that i went to her as as ten thirty intending to offer her the tickets and arrange to stop for her afterwards at the or failing that to see her for a little in the evening if my permitted i was so tain of my standing in her eyes so anxious to make a good impression that i was ashamed to confess that my duties made it for me to see her at all after my free days in i wanted her to think tiiat i was more than a mere re a sort of correspondent and man which in a way i was only my were determined to keep me for some reason in the ordinary taking daily as usual instead of my difficulties i made a great show of freedom i found her in a small tree shaded cool looking brick with a brick before it and a space of grass on one side never did place seem more charming i stared at it as one might at a shrine here at last was the temporary home of my beloved and she was within i knocked and an attractive slip of a girl her niece as i learned answered i was shown into a long darkened parlor after giving me time to weigh the taste and of her relatives according to my standards she arrived the beloved the in view of many later things it seems that here at least i might attempt to do her full justice she seemed exquisite to me then a trim agreeable of a girl with a lovely oval face red hair and after the fashion of a head a about myself b dear pink akin long narrow hands a perfect small feet there was 