St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-23

| he had gone in with the assurance of tre-
! quent or of an expected guest
I Poor Harker paced the streets in agony.
What could he do?
To think of having his loved one snapped
off in this atrocious manner CALLED him to
the quick.
Wandering distractedly about, Bill Har-
ker unfortunately did not see his rival
leave the boarding house. or he might
probably have relieved his feelings by put
! ting Fipkin's head sin Chancery." AS it
was, he waited and watched till he was
weary, as well as drenched to the skin by
the rain which had been falling for some
time. Then he raised the siege and YEARLY
trailed off to Camden Town, reaching his
lodgings little before daybreak.
rs this yeurs?" said old B. next day as
he careleSsly picked up lady's glove and
threw it on Bill Harker's desk.
Had he dropped bombshell over the old
fashioned ratings it would scarcely have
disconnected the clerk more than this SIM
pie article did He quietly answered his
employer i'll the negative, but the color
mounted to his pale cheeks and wild light
irradiated his glaring eyes.
''Mr. Fipkins, perhaps, has dropped it,
he said, with more bitterness and meaning
than so simple suggestion appeared to
call for.
Strange to say, Fipkins blushed too as he
repudiated all knowledge of it.
''Liar!" thought and nearly said Bill
Harker as he heard him speak.
Old Bill toddled off to his specifications,
and the glove was left lying unheeded, ap-
parently, on Harker's desk, while he wrote
Oh furiouslY.
Not till he was left alone in the Office.
| Jxy-fx Oft II 1,n fI,n
glove; but then he pressed it to his burning
lips, he noted its dainty sze-unused as he
had once been to remark such matters
and observed that, though now redolent of
tobacco, it had been scented. But, with
joy only to be appreciated by
lover. there, in this glove. flung as
it were in his path by secret rival, seemed
to be the very clew he had been vainly
seeking. The name was written in it, or a
name. Whose should it be but hers
Foussi? That coupled with the half iegi-
BILE F ON the blotting pad he accepted as
conclusive poor feIlow!-little dreaming in
how many gloves he could have found the
same name. So now, then, he could write
| to her. And write he did that same even
| ing at Camden Town. manly though pas
sionate letter. detailing his love, his trials,
his hopes, and last, if not so fully, his posi-
ton.
This duly addressed to ''Miss Foussi. ;"
he posted, and waited with what fortitude
he could muster for an answer.
He had need of patience, 1t was week
before he knew anything and then his own
letter came as returned paid one from the
Dead Letter Office, the envelope playfully
annoted with CRY Fishy." ''Not known"
''Eussy," TRY Leiceste street" ''Rd-and
| so on.
Harker groaned. So near his object, and
yet so strangely baffled.
Oh the agony of that week of suspense!
A whole week gone-lost! And that hor-
rid Fipkins so jubiIant; day by day grow
ing so luxurious in his habits; living on the
fat of the land, if his lunches were fair
sample; talking so vulgarly about letting
| his waistcoat-triumphing in such coarse
| fashion over him perpetually! Bah! he
would bear it no longer. He felt it was
maddening him. He would fly from the
neighborhoed before he was tempted to do
something desperate.
| Bill Harker took commission Oh the
road. He visited the West of England. 1t
was three months or more before he ven
tured tosset foot in London again.
The first time he did SO he encountered
Fipkins, by accident in Grove road, Stock
| well.
The rivals started. Their meeting was
| like the traditional one of the strange cats
in the garnet.
Fipkin's brass. for once stood him in good
stead. He was the first to speak. He held
out his hand cordially. ' .'
How are you, old fellow" he said
frankly, as if nothing was the matter.
"Whoever would have thought of seeing
you in this part Of the world?n
Harker did not strike him, did not repel
his friendly advances. In truth, Time had
smoothed off the raw edges of his wound.
And then, Fipkins looked so happy he had
not the heart to distress him.
They adjourned to the nearest bar and,
in the course of series Of ''refreshers, "
Fipkins told of his intended marriage,
which was to take place the next week at
| st. CHESS church, Camberwell.
1t grated on Harker's feelings TO notice
| that FipkinS in some sort looked upon the
union as sacrifice.
There are property considerations, he
said several times in half maudlin sort of
way-''property considerations. my boy;
and folks can't afford to lose sight of those
| in hard times like these"
Mercenary wretch! How Harker de-
spised him, even while he fraternized with
him! What a strange power the follow
always had over him-he could neither I'M
derstand nor escape from it. He found it
hard to realize, after Fipkins had left him,
that he had actually been weak enough to
promise to be his ''beSt man" at the we'd
ding. But it was so; there was the entry
in his own order book-in an unsteady
hand-that Fipkins had insisted on hi S
writing at the bar. He had not the cour-
age to decline it, and as he had promised,
honor and curiosity both prompted him to
see the drama to the end.
AS the two ex-clerks stood waiting for
the brides arrival on the suspicious morn
ing one might have heard Harker's heart
throb; it beat like drum with intense ex-
element.
But aStonishment overpowered every
other feeling when. as the bride entered the
church perfect mountain of tinery, he
recognized in her the dragon-like, fiery
faced boarding house proprietress, and knew
that it was she that Fipkins had chosen
from property considerations.
Confused as he felt, Harker could under
stand that in her case, weighty as she was,
something in the shape Of bonus would be
acceptable.
He had little time to think of this, how
ever; for the first bridesmaid, he found to
his great joy. was the nameess one
Her white-gloved little hand rested on
his trembling arm as they walked down the
aisle after the ceremony, in the wake of
| Mr.. and Mrs. Fipkins, and before they
reached the hotel where the breakfast was
laid he discovered among other things, that
his fair companions name was FouSSi, but
CaStleton.
Harker still calls his model of a wife
Foussi; but the glove he had treasured did
not fit her. Old B., who picked it up, might
first have dropped it. One thing Is certain
he astonished every one by marrying,
before the year was out, mere child. and
her hand. as it rested in his on her wedding
day, looked small enough to have been his
daughters.
| The Infant Glass.
Life.
Teacher: Jesse, can you tell me what il