The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-08-03
pERFlDv UNVEILED
An End to tho JekylI-and-Hyde Game
Of n Would, 10 Lover.

Ah0 bhOuA OutlS ludA Will tQ6 DlaS-
tered hair and old gold mustache
chuckled softly to himself and looked
again across the way.
''And she's better looking one than
the girl at the other Window" he solilo-
quized after as critical an examination
of the new face as the nature of the case
would permit.
He was bookkeeper in the employ of
a real estate firm whose Office was on one
of the upper floors of down town sky
scraper, and for several hours each day.
while the members of the firm were
securing the streets for business or Civ
ing exclusive scoops" to every real
estate reporter in the city, he had the
room to himself.
During the frequent spells of loneli-
ness that came upon him he had cult
waited by degrees the acquaintance of a
typewriter girl who sat at window
across the court that separated the two
wings of the great Office building.
1t had come to be understood that
their regular morning greeting, repeated
now and then during the day, was a
smile and nod ON his part and nod and
smile OH hers.
One day, while temporarily at work
at another desk than his own, he
CHANGED to look across the court and
found himself opposite window near
which sat another typewriter girl
whom he had not seen before, and, as
already related, she struck him as be-
ing an improvement upon No. 1.
Thereupon he set himself to work to
cultivate her acquaintance also.
1t was slow process. 1t took him
some time merely to impress upon her,
as circumstance worth noting, the fact
that he was there.
But he persisted. Without suffering
his acquaintance with Typewriter Girl
No. tolapse in the slightest degree, it
became his custom while suffering from
his lonesomeness-his tired feeling-to
repair to the desk that brought Type
writer Girl No. 9 within the range os
his vision, lean his head upon his hand,
and look at her with an expression of
deep melancholy OH his face that would
have softened the heart of cab driver.
For long time she seemed oblivious.
but one day, while he was regarding her
with his most pensive and woebegone
her head OH her hand and fix her eyes
upon him with an exaggerated look of
anguish on her own face.
The mimicry was perfect, and in the
laugh that followed it the acquaintance
was established ON basis of reciprocity.
The regular salutation between the
young man and Typewriter Girl No. 9
thus came to be different from that of
No. l.
After he had exchanged his nod and
smile Mt his own desk with No. he
would wander in n casual way to the
other desk, out of sight of No 1, and ex-
change look of the most profound
melancholy, usually followed by wave
OF tho hand, with No. 2: and in these
recreations and diversions the blond
young man relieved the monotony. of
his lonely hours, and plumed himself
not little, moreover, upon his powers
of fascination.
What it might all have led to had not
an unexpected occurrence, an event Dor
dering closely upon tragedy, broken in
upon the current of his existence-but
let us not anticipate.
One morning there was an alarm of
fire close at hand. From the court be-
tween the two sections of the building
only glimpse of the street could be
had, but the sentimental bookkeeper
ran to the nearest window, raised it.
thrust his head out and looked toward
the street to see if the fire engines were
gathering.
Directly across the court two win
dows, pertaining to two different offices.
were raised at the same moment and
two female heads were thrust out stimuli
taneously.
They wereathe heads of Typewriter
Girls Nos. and 2.
No. looked at him with smile and
nodded.
No. assumed an expression of the
most lugubrious melancholy and waved
her hand in the usual manner.
The blond young man looked helpless
ly from one to the other and wilted.
His hour had come.
He couldn't smile and nod in one di-
rection while looking melancholy in the
other.
1t is simply impossible. Try it and
see.
AS he stood there gazing vacantly at
nothing in particular, shrinking visibly
i'll his clothes and feeling his plastered
hair rise slowly on end, the two type
writer girls, happily oblivious hitherto
of each others existence, turned and
looked at each other.
Then they looked at him again, with
an expression of frozen scorn in their
eyes, two windows came down with a
simultaneous bang and Nos. l and Q
went to their work.
From that time to this they have ut