The Portland daily press., 1893-04-15
A METHODICAL MAN.

on his typewriting machine.
1t is remarkable that the TIP. mean-
ing the tender passion) should have
turned the methodical mans methodic-
alness to his undoing, as nearly hap
pened in the case Of Mr.. George Peters.
Love should have nothing to do with
man during business hours. There ought
to be placard to this effect hanging up
in all well regulated business houses:
:s........................
Clerks in love are. requested by the
management not to think of the adored
object between the hours of a. m. and 6:
:p'm- By Order.
..........................
Now George Peters was ) very me-
thodical person for so young man.
When letter got into Peters hands it
went through a certain routine, and the
answer departed from him to the copy
ing book, and from the copying book to
the envelope, and the envelope, letter
and all, with Enclosures marked, went
Into the letter box with regularity that
nothing but the office clock could emu
late, and even that, the clerks said, was
not as regular as Peters, for they claimed
it was always fast in the morning and
mighty slow IN pointing to o'clock.
1t is little wonder, then, that Peters
stood So high in the confidence of old
man Bentham. Bentham was Bentham
Bros. 81 Co. There were no brothers
and no company hat was merely the
firm name it was all Bentham. Per-
haps there once were brothers and per-.
haps there vas once company, but
that is all ancient history anyhow, and
has fUthingHedo with this strictly mod
ern story, And it did not interfere with
the fact that old Bentham's name was
lovely thing to have at the bottom of
large check.
The clerks never speculated on the
probable effect Of love on Peters because
it never occurred to them that such
thing as Peters falling in love was with
in the bounds of possibility. Love, they
argued, was not an article that can be
docketed and ticketed and referred back
for further information and entered in
the daybook and posted on the debit or
credit side Of a ledger, SO what on earth
could Peters do with it if he had it?
Manifestly nothing. If they had known
as much about human nature as you or
they would have surnaised that when
/ Peters did fall it was time to stand from
under.
And who should Peters fall in love
with but the very woman of all others
whom he ought never have given q
thought TON other words, pretty little
Miss Sadie Bentham, if you please. It
made Peters himself cold when he
thought of it, for he knew he had lust
as much chance of getting the moon or
the laureateship as the CONSENT of old
man Bentham. The clerks always said
that it was Miss Sadie who fell in love
with Peters, principally, suppose, be.
cause she should have known better,
and l think myself there is something
to be said for that view of the matter.
Anyhow she came to her fathers place
of business very often and apparently
very unnecessarily, but the old man was
always pleased to see her, no matter how
busy he happened to be. At first she
rarely looked at Peters, hut when she
did flash one of those quick chances of
hers at him poor Peters thought he had
the fever and ague. He understood the
symptoms later on.
/ don't know how things came to
climax; neither do the clerks, for that
matter, although they pretend to. Be-
sides, they are divided in their opinions,
SO | think their collective surmises
amount to but very little. johnson
claims that it was done over the tele-
phone, while Farnam says she came tc
the Office one day when her father was
not there and proposed to Peters on the
spot. One thing the clerks are unani-
nous about, and that is that Peters left
to himself would never have had the
courage. Still too much attention must
not be paid to what the clerks say. What
can they know about it? They are in
another room.
Peters knew that he had no right to
think about that girl during business
hours. He was paid to think about the
old man and his affairs, which were not
nearly SO interesting. But Peters was
con s4ientious, and he tried to do his
duty. Nevertheless the chances are
that unconscieusly little Miss Sadie occu-
pied some small portion of his mind
that should have been given up to the
concerns of Benthan Bros. & Co., and
Der presence where she had not the
slightest business to be threw the rest of
his mental machinery out of gear.
1t is very generally admitted now that
the sprightly Miss Sadie managed the
whole affair. No one who knew Peters
would ever have given him the credit of
proposing an lopement-sa him
of it," as johnson puts it. She claimed
that while she could manage her father
all right enough up to a certain point,
yet in this particular matter she pre-
ferred to negotiate with him after mar
rage rather than before. She had a
great deal of the old mans shrewdness
had Sadie. He used to say ne would
not like to have her as an opponent on
wheat deal
Then the clerks say--but hang the
clerks! What do they know about it?
AS Farnam truly remarked. casting a
gloom over the rest as he spoke, "You
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