The herald., 1895-04-17
LITTLE FOOL
By JOHN STRANGE WINTER

uodIe's ease ana tOrget-me- nous,
| becauserI wasyery often late when Invent
tosmeet her. She takes the wrong line
with me always. sShe ought TO Jacket me,
she-oughtlt to tell me that the next time.
am late will be. the last time. and she
| ought to look as If she meant it instead
OF giving me a clock to remember by.
Little Fool little Fool,' he went on,
stopping in his occupation to look hard
az photograph which stood not far from
the trumpery little flower wreathed clock,
i never need anything to remind me OF
| you. You are always with me- can
get you. out ofmy head. would II
could, but can t. I always knew that
Twas poor, / always knew that | ought
to marry girl with money. bu: you /, lit
tie Fool, came along and it was all over
with me. Well, suppose :, l had better
change;''
If the truth be told he looked more
comely when he was dressed in. "a tweed
suit OF light grey than he had done even
in the frogs and gold lace of his uniform.
He ha1 several offers OF companionship
before he got clear of the barrack square,
but he managed to elude them all and
went off towards the town at a steady
swinging pace. ST. Thomas street held
many pitfalls for him, pitfalls with arch
glancing eyes, flushed cheeks and the
latest little Blankhampton fashion iull in
evidence. 1t is q place where fashion al
| ways seems to come BY the quantity
rather than by the quality. Like the
growth of a MUSHROOM in single night,
you will see the entire girl population of
the town carry it's skirt in certain
fashion, wear its bunch OF flowers at a
certain angle carry its UNI brella in all
approved manner, tilt its hat over its
eyes or stick it at the back of its head,
wear its watch soard, its veil the other
way. There is no originality in Blank
hampton; the synonym for that quality is
''ulIeor' ~ NO iS n ifxy.e dina
tured modification Of the word eccentric.
Ralph Ogilvie escaped these many pitfalls
| with the skill of a master, with the fnesse
OF diplomat: eyes might be bright,
glances arch. cheeks flushed, dress, air,
bearing, all in the latest fashion, but lit
tie Fool was waiting at the other end of
the street. and before the charms and
graces of little Fool the charms and graces
OF all others paled. 49,. .-
He was already late--by. good ten
minutes to be precise-and having saun-
tered into the winter garden in casual
to the place they had fixed as their 'tryst.
But there was no Little Fool awaiting him.
1t came upon him with a shock. No. she
was not there. He could hardly believe
his own eyes, but little Fool was not
there. He walked UP and down. paced to
and fro, sat down, got up again, looked
this, way and that-there was no little
Fool. At last after he had waited some
quarter of an hour she'came IA grey eyed,
haired, fascinating little witch, fair
of face. with a tip-tilted nose, short
upper lip and radiant smile. DO you
know. she said as they met, Il believe l
am late . @.-t
Now tits safe to say that, IN all the five,
years of their 'half-conditional engage
ment, or their conditional half-engaee
ment whichever way you1ike to PIT it,
little Fool had never been late before.
Ralph Ogilve had been late, many, many
times. always with a ready excuse, al.
ways with a flood of lf-objurgation, SO
that she should never feel too much
sighted. and this. the first time she had
kept him waiting. seemed an enormitv.
Il have been, waiting here a quarter
OF an hour by my watch, " he SAID. in
deepest reproach.
not help it. Mrs. Grevile met me on the
doorstep. If I had been a minute later
she would have knocked and | should
have waited ii had been five minutes
earlier should have been round the cor
ner before she got to the door. l bad to
go back-had to be civil--met three or
four people on the way here. am sorry.
l can't help it.
Little Fool said he, you are
getting tired of me-"
II don't think So" she replied
promptly. --se~
on oon mink so. Don. you
know" lr-.
Yes, know. You know that Lam
not tired of you. Oh, Ralph, Ralph,
Little Fool will never be tired of youf'
And then he slipped his hand under
her ARM drew hei down one of the most
sheltered alleys in all that greac deserted
garden and told her under the shadow of
the lime trees the story that he had been
telling her continually for more than five
years--the story which he meant and she
believed--the old story that we some of us
tell and some of us listen to. and that
! but few never hear during some part of
their earthly -pilbgrimage. ! .F..
raCHAPTER III.
A few months had gone by. !. The dis
NAL winter-more than dismal to Ralph
Ogilvie since he had not hunted-was
nearly over, and If on that memorable
day when little Fool had been late for her
tryst Ralph Osilvie had been whao is
known anon men as STONY broke, - he
had become more SO. You know when
can flourish along very finely for certain
time. 1t lisa fascinating process, going
to the Jews; it seems so easy, Just like
the first downward step, when, having
accomplished it after certain amount Of
dread, you find it so simple. SO easy. to
make SO little difference in your life, that
the next becomes matter of course, and
the next, and the next, until you find
that you cannot stop yourself in your
headlong downward flight. 1t is Just so
when man or woman goes to the Jews
At first the borrowed money stops such
gap, fills such blank, is so useful and
you feel SO free. SO honest to be paying
up all your bills and getting rid OF your
liabilities; but there comes a day ~of reck-
oning, there comes day when the Jew
elamors for his money and good deal
of yours into the bargain, when the few
borrowed hundreds have swelled into
couple of thousand and then there
comes a day, dreary and gruesome day.
when couple of thousand, rolling On
gathering interest like mantle of usurv.-
swells and swels and 'swells untillt dou,
bles and trebles itself again; for the Jew
has to be paid some time or he will know
the reason why. and the poor victim who
has heretofore regarded the Jew as a kind
OF universal benefactor, as benign indi-
vidual who will make the crooked Straight
and the rough places smooth begins to
understand how it is he Can live in May
fair, cheek by jowl with the noblest of
the land: begins to realize that cream laid
paper and the rampant crest of the mon
ey-lender are but as so much birdIime'
with which to catch mis- broken and falt-
ering wings. l don't know that SEN
sible person blames the Jews overmuch.
1t is true that race prejudice tells on both
sides of the Hebrew Anglo set.- The Jew
from the persecution OF ages, has learned
to submit oiitwardly to the Christian
yoke, with his hat in one hand and /.
thum bscrew in the other; the Christian.
on tho other hand hos DO ry,od ,,,;~L