St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-23
might have done with beer, not at all like a
gentlemanly sutton for the hand of the

might have done with beer, not at all like a
gentlemanly sutton for the hand of the
nameless one.
What could be the meaning Of this? Was
it clandesdine meeting? Scarcely so; for
he had gone in with the assurance of ire
quent or of an expected guest.
| 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 Fipl1in'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.
lis this yours?" 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
employer in the negative, but the color
mounted to his pale cheeks and wild light
irradiated his glazing eyes.
Mr.. Fipkins, perhaps, has dropped it, !"
lie 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.
''Liarw 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
on furiously.
Not till he was left alone in the office,
nearly two hours after, did he touch the
glove; but then he pressed it to his burning
lips, he noted its dainty SiZe-unuSed as he
had once been to remark such matters
and observed that though now redolent of
tobacco, it had been scented. But, with
a JOY only to be appreciated by
Ia 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 fellow!-lttle 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, VI
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 OWL
letter came as returned paid one from the
Dead Letter Office. the envelope playfully
annoted with ''Try Fishy," mot known. u
''Eussy," Try Leiceste street." ''Rd-and
so on.
Harker groaned. So near his object, and
yet so strangely bafaed.
Oh the agony of that week of suspense!
A whole week gone-lost! And that hor-
rid Fipkins so jubilant; day by day grow
ing so luxurious in his habits; living Oh the
fat of the land, if his lunches were a fair
sample; talking so vulgarly about letting
his misunderstanding 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
something desperate.
Bill Harker took a commission Oh the
road. He visited the West of England. II
was three months or more before he ven
tured to set 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
I'm q fro of % OF re
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?"
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 a series of ''refreshers, u
Fipkins told of his intended marriage,
which was to take place the next week al
st. CHESS church. Camberwell.
1t grated on Harker's feelings TO notice
that Fipkins in some sort looked upon the
union as a sacrifice.
There are property considerations, he
said several times in half maudlin sort OF
ay-''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 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. BUTT was so; there was the entry
in his own order book-in an unsteady
hand-that Fipkins had insisted on hi
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 fol
| the brides arrival ON the suspicious morn
ing one might have heard Harker's heart
throb; it beat like drum with intense eX.
citement.
But establishment overpowered every
other feeling when. as the bride entered the
church a perfect mountain of finery, he
recognized in her the dragon-like, fiery
le'CCo UOdluili iiOuoC ploplit1tlCSo, dllu hliGN
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 bt
acceptable.
He had little time to think of this. how
ever; for the first bridesmaid, he found t.
his great joy, was the nameless one!
Her white plOved little hand reSted M
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 wa;
laid he discovered. among other things, tina
| his fair companions name was Foussi, bu
Castleton.
Harker still calls his model of wifi,
| Foussi; but the glove he had treasured die
not fit her. Old B., who picked it up, nigh
| first have dropped it. One thing Is certain
he astonished every one by marrying