Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-10-03
SHE MARRIED BOTH.

-NeW 1Orh
SHE MARRIED BOTH.
Mr.. Wilberforce Trott, lawyer, of the
firm of Lunkenstein & Trott, was the
picture of prosperity and contentment,
sitting in his office in the most lux
uriantly appointed office building in
town. His private Office, where we find
him, was a poem in hard wood and
stucco, but its spick and span cleanli-
ness denoted its newness. In fact, Mr..
| Trott had not always occupied quarters
| like these Indeed as he sat in his rotary
| chair putting the smoke from Colorado
maduro with a sultanic air of limitless
wealth, Mr.. Trott's elegant surround
ings bore the gloss Of a weeks existence
and not a day more. Not that he wore
the new conditions with any the less
grace on that account, however. Any
one to have observed him critically
would have acknowledged the aristo-
cratic repose of his regular features and
the exquisite taste of his fashionable ap-
parel. But the fact remains that Nh.
Trott week before had been strug-
Cling young attorney with an inchoate
practice and an unreliable sequence as
to meals.
AS there are no such things as fairy
wands to change hungry lawyers into
well fed barristers, the truth may as
well be admitted-Mr. Trott had hit
the races. The $40, 900 retainer from a
delightfully mysterious corporation in
the west, which he assured his friends
was the basis of his new magnifcence,
was in reality winning of that amount
on cluster horses upon whose combined
speed he had made a bet after the man.
ner current among the poolrooms. For
all this Mr.. Trott was by no means
''sport. I" He was unquestionably a
young man of talent who would be
heard from one Of these days, and who
knew what it meant to "toil terribly. ;"
The reason that we do not find him
at work with his books directly concerns
our interest in this lucky youth, for Mr.
Trott's thoughts were floating back over
five long years of professional vicissi-
tudes, as dreamily as the smoke that
curled aloft over his blond head, until
they rested upon a face of dark, healthy
beauty, surmounted by curling locks as
black as the tender eyes whose depths
he had once celebrated i'll a feeble quat
rain, with the opinion that they rivaled
the glories Of a starlit night He had
truly been desperately in love with
Alice Monroe, fact that had been full
ly appreciated by that dainty little des-
pot, who not only accepted all his at
tentions in the way of theater tickets,
balls and bouquets, but pouted for more
All of these things had been the despair
of poor, young Mr.. Trott, who won
dered how he was ever to marry girl
whose trivial expenses per week exceed
ed his income at the bar per month. To
render the situation even more poignant
she repeatedly declared that the man
she married W ould have to have money.
In her heartless opinion love in cot
tage was unqualified bosh. Often he had
exclaimed to the four walls of his dingy
room:
''She is vain, Haunting, extravagant
and unworthy an honest fellows toll. -
On every fine Sunday afternoon, for
her sweet sake, he had hired a yellow
cart and a large black horse with
stride like the course of empire, whose
tan colored harness was the swellest
thing that graced the Clifton drives on
that day. The swellest? Alas, mol There
was one rig that excelled that of Mr.
Trott, even as the white glory of the
diamond excels the dull gray of the to-
paz. And in that rig sat the bette noir
of Mr. Trott-the one being on earth
whom he hated with the cheerful, cor
dial hate Of lover for rival
The name of this party was Messer-
schmidt, cool, imperturbable gentle
man, the unruffled impudence Of whose
small, steady eyes had taken Mr.. Trott's
measure on the night that they had first
met i'll Miss Monroe's parlor and were
ever since noting the details of MIR.
Trott's suit with a stolid Teutonic
amusement that betokened their owners
confidence in his own supremacy. AS
rival Mr.. Messerschmidt was indeed pc
culiarly dangerous in the possession of
gigantic soap factory, inherited from
simple minded parent who would
have turned in his grave with astonish
ment had he seen what his son had done
for the old concern since its founders
| death, for the plant had undergone the
mysterious process known only to the
subtle promoter who capitalizes a small
enterprise into a colossal one by the
hocus pocus of the "street."
Never in his life had Mr.. Trott
claimed the society of the capricious
| Miss Monroe on one of those bright aft
ernoons but what Mr. Messerschmidt
could be seen in his gorgeous turnout,
| riding insolently alongside or else tax
| ing the road i'll a manner even more in
solent just in front. This gentleman's
| presence was not only obtruded upon
| them at these times, but he seemed to
| divine by a diabolical instinct just when
| and where to find them together. If Mr..
| Trott took Miss Monroe to the theater,
the other party invariably had a seat
nearby which he would change for one
| Immediately next to the couple and en-
| gage them in conversation with a mild
| insinuating assurance that used to irri-
| tate the young lawyer to the point of
| insanity. When he took Miss Monroe to
| the Art museum-a favorite ruse Of his
to get her away from possible intruders
his ubiquitous rival was there also,
suave, calm, entertaining, agonizingl
Just why Miss Monroe tolerated this
insidious parsonage had been more than
| Mr.. Trott could understand. She aver
| red that he bored her. and that she was
disgusted with his social stupidity, but
| Mr.. Trott noticed that she displayed far
| more cordiality toward him than was
consistent with these assertions. Having
the temerity to tax her with this pal
pable fact one evening, she petulantly
admitted that the only obstacles that lay
between her and the omnipotent Messer-
| schmidtwas his name and his business.
She did not fancy becoming queen OF
society under the title of a soap factory
that had to have its works extended in
order to make room for the name on the
, buildings. She would much rather
I marry the nlan who had become the
| most celebrated jurist of his time. Say
i ing this, she had looked wistfully at the
modest Mr. Trott, who had been trying