St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-19


goes on here, which is neither tnat Vi
the hotel, nor of the boarding mousse
nor vet of 1.-THE fiat" but seems some
how compounded of all three. we, lhe
transformers live together and yee
anart. we can shut our doors fast anu
be in our house; yet we go down TO tue
hinge coffee room for our meals ana
mingle with the other mansioners, more
or less affectionately. 1t is perfect
"hive'' and the great "lift' is perpet-
nallv gliding up and down from dawn
till past midnight, carrying the pussy
bees. the drones, and waSps. too, OF the
place and leaving each almost at Its
''cell'; door. -
/ always fancy that Billings. the
worthy person who SPENDS his llre IN
going up and down, his hand on a
rope-a most Sagaci0us. obServant Tel
loW-muSt see an enormous amount OF
the oddities of life, as the current
streams pass him. The mansioners
meet each other regularly in his lift, as
some thoroughfare; though etiquette
exacts that we ignore one another
steadily. Some of us even glare haugh-
tily. All, however, are on intimate
terms with Billings. who seems the gen
eral homme de c0nflance OF the esIao-
lishment and knows more than ne ap-
pears to know, like the concierge OF
Paris house.
AsIwas going up and down in our
lift a dozen times In the day ana nail
a dozen times in the night the whole
population of the place in course OF
time passed before me, the usefal Bill
ings editing" as it were, the volume
of mansion life for me, with NOTES and
commentaries" of his own.
Wasiearly attracted by an interesting:
smiling young creature, with an air OF
amiable good will to all the world, SO
that her natural, perpetual expression
seemed to be an enticing smilewlth arare
occasional lapse into gravity. Iherd
was quite a German cast about her, ane
| saw clearly that if she was to be
"played upon," like one of Hamlet's
"recorders." it would only be by touch
ing the soft keys of affection, love o
sympathy. There would be little room fol-
cold reasoning. With her was to be
often seen a rather hard-looking lady.
THAT'S Miss Polly" said my friend OF
the lift, "and that there's her mother.
A very sweet young lady can tell you,
sir. You should hear her on her planer
Not in the hmamerin' roWdy-doW way, a
all, not she. Not a bit of it. No, thai
amt her line. But all soft and sweet
pipin' and tlowin', just like milk comm
out of the can, sir" and here Bill
mgs moved his fingers up and
down as though he were actually at the
instrument. ''And she does talk SO
mOosical-hke and so modest! That
young thing, sir, know it for fact,
sir, will have thirty thousand poun',
which her own mother can give or take
from her, or make ducks and brakes o.
they've place in the country, and,'
added Billings, dropping his voice, "theil
own maid and man, too. But here's your
floor, sir. What? You'll go up, siri
Well. can bring you down again.
(This often happened when | got to al
interesting passage of this kind in Bill
ings' :revelations.) And so we did &C
up. eyes," he went on. "Miss Polly
Beauclerk's what they all call heires:
"a regular heiress-tnat'S what she IS
and | can tell you, sir. there's plenty
after heroine in partikler, L can tel
you"
At the top we took on board rather
supercilious looking gentleman, whom
| had met once or twice before i'll The
lift.
Morning, sir" said Billings. "Ol
VI 1OOhA III oAiN iiie CIV VII
time o. day."
.'Come, get along, Billings" said thi:
gentleman, shortly: pray mind you
rope, and don't talk so much. l au
always afraid of an accident whel
you go ON eXpiating in this way
Pm IN hurry" Then he took GU
some letters and began penciling. Bill
ingS made no reply, but looked at nj
eXpressively. At the bottom he paSSet
out without word. Now it was stric
etiquette with the manSioners Away
courteously to take leave of Billings.
"That's him, did you see him? That
the one" said Billings, looking afte
him distrustfully. ''genteel, isn't he
Well brought up"
"You mean Miss POlly's one%
said.
"It's Cockburn," he said. "Captai
in the guards fashionable, too-lotS @
money-a good match, they say; and tn
mother likes it,
"But does Miss Polly?" l asked
"that'S the main thing"
The sagacious Billings shook his hea
slowly.
~ don't know about that" he sale
"but, of course, it amt neither here nc
there. nor anywheres. You kno1
there's a way of talking over youn
woman into them sort O. thingS-all fC
their good. you know. Well, see here
sir, don't think it's for her good. Som
folks think that this 'ere lift in whic
you now are, is always going up'ard:
but it amt. 1t goes down just as muc
as it goes up, and allus after 1t goes III
don't it? And that's the way of th
world-down often comes after tn up.
A week or so later we had quite Iii
tie adventure in the lift. just as W
were starting at the top there trippe
in of sudden Miss Polly. who gave he
usual pleased greeting to her friend an
admirer. AS the gates were closing,
good-looking, romantic-looking yOun
fellow, with rather dreamy air, e
tered. There were one OF two Other
who were let in or out at the diffe
ent stages. Our conductor found tn;
his rope did not work at once-a thing
had noUed on one or two occasions
when suddenly Miss Polly exclaime,
in her impulsive way: ''Dear, def
Billings! / forgot, and mamma will
so angry" She rushed out at the hal
closed gate, when the lift had actual
begun to set off on its descent. In 9
instant the young fellow caught h
and drew her back, only just in tim
Just in time, also, our Billings. who, Fl
once had been off. his guard. stoppt
he machine.
tMiss Polly was quite in tlutter. "
were all in flutter.
'Oh, Pm so frightened. But how
how prompt, how clever of you," 81
exclaimed. ''I'm certain, sir, that Oy
my life to YOU"
learned that the rescuer was OF
Edward st. John, pretty man, your
musician-or ''musicianer," accOrdil
to Billings-and composer as we
This, in part, gathered from himse
when he came to me, now and the
as an acquaintance. Miss Polly and
also became great friends; suppose
the sense of having passed through
common danger or an imaginary ola
ger makes the whole world akin, or
least, a romantic young lady and pl
sale young gentleman.
Ipresently found that this sense
deep obligation had led to a most
innate acquaintance. if not friendshi
between the young lady and t
musician, and l could see that
was intensified by the obligati'
: of secrecy imposed by Billings. S
tbou0bt II q mOSt romantic mvSta,