Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1894-05-06
THE MANIFOLD COPY.
BY j. r. APPLETON.

BY J. Il. APPLETON.
She w1s 30 very pretty and dainty.
and withal So charming, that one would
hardly have thought her as hard work
ing us she wac; yet for more than "a
year pretty Edith Marview had sup
ported herself and dear old mother with
her slender fingers. The manner In
which those npering members did this
was by tapping the keys Of a type
writer all day long In the Insurance
office ot young Mr. William linker,
MIR Baker, II may as well pe stated,
ut once, was a strange young man TO
be In such business. for VI there had
ever lived a more poetical, dreamy fell
low than Will not one Of his friends
had ever seen him. From his earliest
childhood-which WAS not 10 many
yeas ago-he had written little verHep,
some very dainty and sweet. others so.
80, und Atlll others lrretrievnhly bad
80 when he announced his intention
OF going into real estate and Insurance,
his acquaintance looked ut each other
Ia milo surprise ana whistlod mentally,
II not outwardly, The Idea of WIN
Baker. dreamy, handsome WIN baker,
u pushing, bustling, hustling Insurance
man. II WAS hard to conJurc up sucn
a picture.
Yet, despite it all, MIR. Baker had
succeeded far beyond hls own hopes ~
building up IA good business for him
self. and his many friends found that
he knew how to make money quite M
well lnnd often better than he did how
TO write verses which was good
thing. aa they all agreed. Ana after
the business had grown 50 TINT II
could not longer be accommodated IN
one little room, others were rented, and
many modern improvements put into
his oiilcen.
And among these latter Edith Mar
laskN nj ola L. ia. ~
soon ne the other improvements were
In and everything 10 well arranged and
comfortably placed that even the criti-
cal head OF the business could find
no fault with II, he advertised for
typewriter, received hundred odd an
swera, and selected one from among
the nuinber-bccause well for many
reasons. one of them was that SHE
was perfectly Belf-posseRsed and not
curious about outside affairs. Another,
that she never volunteered remnrita,
which was n thing that two-thirds OF
the typewrltcra MIR. Baker knew nj
ways did. And she was cminently
huHineHs-liko from the tips OF her little
shoes clear up to the crown Of her
yellow head
SO Mr. Baker took her, and before
she had been there six months Mr..
Baker foil IN love with her with all his
ardent. romantic nature. which was
rather like Mr.. Baker. now l come TO
think Of ~
Whether she knew this fnct-thiE emil
nently unbusinesslike fact-Mr. Baker
could not say. and because his office
was always full OF men at work or
asking questions or talking, there was
never any time 10 ask her. had he been
30 inclined
But MIR. Baker. regret 20 say. found
II very difficult thing 10 put Into
words that he had so often put Into
writing--that TO- 10 tell her he loved her.
RS he could have written verses to an
imaginary enehantresg. For writing
love poems and being in love. let me
tell you, are quite separate affnirsi SO
win loved silently his little Typewriter,
and B.@1y a man before him hns loved
that interesting assistant. " we are TO
believe the comic papers. and worked
on. hoping for some quiet ten minutes
when he might see her alone and tell
her OF his affection.
greater. and every day he chafed and
fretted 10 his soul because no oppor-
tunlty afforded for his declaration, un-
~ he began 70 grow thin and white,
ana wonder II he had not best get an.
other girl for his letter-writing. 30 that
he might have time 70 tell this one he
wanted her for his wife.
Then after all, he did not stop Il.
He broke ou' one morning Into poetry.
! say broke out--which IL a very inele-
giant expression-becatse that iH ex-
nctIy what his other friends would
have said He wrote four very fair
verses, which breathcd an honest. ten-
der and true love, addressed 20 ''Some-
cneT and written In WITS wretched
chiyopraphy When no lind finished
them he walked steHdly across the
floor and laid them on Edlth's littls
table add walked back again. She
picked them up. looked rapidly over
Inc d sst and was about TO speak.
with some important news for the
prapriatnr and he was gone with the
nsw conner before She could say what
she had 70.
have neglected - say. l lind, that
MI Baker sometimes sent LlH gerseE
10 the magazines They We're invaris,
bly, returned 10 him. and that speedily.