Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-30

"Think SOP" Dick began to dance on his
heels, singing
They're as proud as turkey when they hold
the ready cash,
You ought to 'ear the way they laugh an Joke;
They are tricky an they're funny when they've
got the readymoney-
Ow! but See 'em when they're all stone broke.
Then he sat down to pour out his heart to
Maisie in a four-sheet letter of counsel and
announcement, and registered an oath that
he would get to work with an undivided
heart as soon as Bessie should reappear.
The girl kept her appointment unpainted
and unadorned, afraid and overbold bv
turns. When she found that she was merely
expected to sit still she grew calmer, and
criticised the appointments Of the studio
with freedom and some point. She liked the
warmth and the comfort and the release
from fear of physical pain. Dick made two
or three studies of her head in monochrome,
but the actual notion of the Melancolia
would not arrive.
w hat mess you keep your things in?"
salu Bessie some days later when she felt
herself thoroughly at home. "I s'pose YOUR
clothes are just as bad. Gentlemen never
think what buttons and tape are made for"
Il buy things to wear, and wear 'em till
they go to pieces. don't know what Tor
penhow does"
Bessie made diligent inquiry in the lat
tel room, and unearthe6 a bale of disrepu-
table socks. Some of these I'll mend
now" she said, "and some I'll take home.
Dyou Know. l sit all day long at home do
Ing nothing, just like lady, and no more
notlclnG them other girls in the house than
II they was so many flies? don't have anv
unnecessary words, but 1 put 'em down
quick, can tell you, when they talk to
me. No; it's quite nice these days. I lock
my door, and they can only call ME names
through the keyhole, and 1 sit inside Just
like lady, meuding socks. Mr.. Torpen-
now wears his socks out both ends at once"
Three quid week from me, and the de-
lights OF my society. No socks mended.
Nothing from Torp except nod on the
landing now and again, and all his socks
mended. Bessie is very much a woman"
thought Dick; and he looked at her between
halt-shut eyes. Food and rest had trans
formed the girl, as Dick knew they would.
What are you looking at me like that for?'
| she said quickly. Don't You look reg
lar bad when you look that way. You don't
think much O. me, do you?'
That depends on how you behave
Bessie behaved beautifully. Only it was
difficult at the end OF a sitting to bid her
go forth Into the gray streets. She very
much preferred the studio and a big chair
by the stove, with some socks in her lap as
an excuse for delay. Then Torpenhow
would come in, and Bessie would be moved
to tell strange and wonderful stories of her
past, and still stranger ones of her present
improved circumstances. She would make
them tea as though she had right to make
1t; and once or twice on these occasions Dick
caught Torpenhow's eyes fixed on the trim
little figure, and because Bessie's fittings
about the room made Dick ardentlv long tor
Malsle, he realized whittier Torpenhow's
thoughts were tending. And Bessie was
exceedingly careful of the condition of Tor
penhow's linen. She spoke verv little to
him, but sometimes they talked together on
the landing.
II was great fool" Dick said to him
self. Il know what red nre-light looks like
when mans tramping through strange
town; and ours is lonely, selfish sort of
lie at the best. l wonder Maise doesn't
feel that sometimes. But L can't order
Bessie away. That's the worst of beginning
things. Ore never knows where thev stop."
O2e evening, after a sitting prolonged to
the last limit of the light, Dick was reused
from nap by broken voice in Torpen-
how's room. He jumped to his feet. Now
what ought to do? 1t looks foolish to 20
In. Oh, bless you, Binkie!' The little ter !
rier thrust Porpenhow's door open with his
nose and came out to take possession of
Dicks chair. The door swung wide un- |
needed, and Dick across the landing could |
see Bessie in the halflight making her little |
supplication to Torpenhow She was kneel |
ing by his side, and her hands were clasped |
across his knee.
"Torp," said Dick across the landing.
He could hardly steady his voice Come
mere minute, old man. I'm in troubIe -
Heaven send he'll listen to me!'' There
was something very like an oath from Bes-
sizes lips. She was afraid of Dick, and dis
appeared down the staircase in panic, but 1t
seemed an age before Torpenhow entered
the studio. He went to the mantelpiece.
buried his head on his arms, and groaned
like 4 wounded bull.
What the devil right have you to inter-
fere?" he said, at last.
who's interfering with which? Your
own sense told YOU long ago you couldn't
be such a fool. 1t was a tough rack, ST. An.
thonv, but you're all right now''
Il oughtn't to have seen her moving
about these rooms as if they belonged to
her. That's what upset me. 1t gives a
lonely man a sort of hankering, doesn't
it?" said Torpenhow, piteously
Now you talk sense. It does But.
since you aren't In a condition to discuss the
disadvantages of double housekeeping. do
you know what you're going to do?'' -e'
81 don't. 1 wish did,
You're going away for a season on a
brilliant tour to regain tone. You're GOING
to Brighton, or Scarborough, or Prawle
Point, to see the ships go by And von're
going at once. Isn't it odd? I'll take care
of Binkie, but out you go immediately.
Never resist the devil. He holds the bani
Fly from him. Pack your things and 90"
Il believe you're right. Where shall 7
go?' snail
And you call yourself a special corre-
spondent! Pack first and inquire after
wards"
An hour later Torpehow was DISPATCHED
into the night in hanson. "You'Il prob-
ably think of some place to 90 to while
you're moving" said Dick. go to Euston
to begin with, and-oh. yes-get drunk to,
night" W.
He returned to the studio and lirbted moro
candles, ior he found the room very dark
"Oh, you Jezebel! you futile little Jeza-
bel! Won't you hate Inc tomorrow? Binkie
come here -
Binkie turned over on his back on the
hearth rug, and Dick stirred him with n
Inedtative foot.
Il said she was not immoral. Twas
wrong. She said she could cook. That
showed premeditated sin. Oh, Binkie. if
you are man you, will go to perdition: but
i you are woman. and say that Won can
,ook, you Will go to a much worse place"
(To be continued nett Sunday)
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