The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-01-26
SHE MARRIED BOTH.
BY jules wEDEKIND.

Copyright, 1894, by the Author.1
Mr. Wilberforce Trott, lawyer, of the
firm of Lunkenstein & Trott, was the
picture Of prosperity and contentmen Mt.
sitting in his Office in the most luxuri-
ously-appointed Office building in town.
His private Office. where we find him,
was poem in hard wood and stucco,
but it's spic and span cleanliness de-
noted 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 a colo
RADIO maduro with sultanic air of him.
itless wealth, Mr.. Trott's elegant sur
roundings bore the gloss of week S
existence and not a day more. Not that
he wore the new conditions with any
the less grace on that account, how.
ever. Anyone, to have observed him
critically, would have acknowledged
the aristocratic repose of his regular
features and the exquisite taste Of his
fashionable apparel. But the fact re-
mains that Mr.. Trott, week before,
had been a struggling young attorney
with an inchoate practice and an unre.
liable 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 ten thousand dollar re.
tainer from delightfully."- mysterious
corporation in the west, which he rs.
sured his friends was the basis of his
new magnifcence, was in reality q
winning of that amount on cluster OF
horses upon whose combined speed he
had made bet after the manner cur
rent among the pool rooms For all
this, Mr.. Trott was by no means a
sport" He was unquestionably q
young man of talent who would be
heard from one of these days, and who
knew what it meant to toll terribly"
The reason that we do not find him
at work with his books directly con-
Germs our interest in this lucky youth.
For Mr.. Trott's thoughts were floating
back over five long years OF professional
vicissitudes, as dreamily as the smoke
that curled aloft over his blonde head.
until they rested upon face Of DARN,
healthy beauty, surmounted by curling
locks as black as the tender eyes
whose depths he had once celebrated
in feeble quatrain with the opinion
that they rivaled the glories of a star.
lit night. He had truly been des-
perately in love with Alice Monroe, .
fact that had been fully appreciated by
that dainty little despot, who not only
accepted all his attentions in the way
of theater tickets. balls and bouquets,
but pouted for more. All of these
things had been the despair of poor
young MIR. Trott, who wondered how
he was ever to marry girl whose
trivial expenses per week exceeded his
income at the bar per month. To rem
der the situation even more poignant,
she repeatedly declared that the man
she married would have to have money.
In her heartless opinion love in a 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 q yellow
cart and a large black horse with
stride like the course of empire, whose
tan-colored harness was the SWEETEST
thing that graced the Clifton drives on
that day. The SWEETEST? Alas, no.
There was one rig that excelled that of
Mr.. Trott, even as the white glory of
the diamond excels the dull gray of the
topaz. And in that rig sat the bette
noir of Mr.. Trott-the one being on
earth whom he hated with the cheerful,
cordial 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 in Miss Monroes parlor. and
were ever since noting the details of
MIR. Trotts suit with a stolid TeutOnic
amusement that betokened their own
er's confidence in his own supremacy.
As rival, Mr. Messerschmidt was, in
deed, peculiarly dangerous in the pos
session of a gigantic soap factory, in
herited from supplemented parent
who would have turned in his grave
with establishment had he seen what
his son had done for the old concern
since it's founders death, for the plant