The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1896-09-26
THE II H NAN
BY ARTHUR W. TARBELL.

IL WIS yesterday, allSr an lnteTNdI Vi
four years.
l had not seen him since we parted
last on Commencement day, and had
wished each other good luck on what
was coming. In my case it was a medi-
cal course at one OF the German univer-
sites; in his, a few years sojourn atthe
law school in Cambridge. Those years
lad now passed. was about to become
a ~fulI-hedged II. D., and Phil-laZy,
good-natured, joking Phil Wheeler, the
man who led his class Tin smoking rank
toblcco)-was about to call himself Il
law e y lawyer-I laughed every
time I thought Of it; for while Phil was
this best fellow in the world when it
came TO brewing 4 delcctable punch or
to doing the fascination talk act to 4
shy country maiden at her first swell
dinner, yet he had no more the making
of even a mediocre barrister in him than
has many another good fellow, who
thinks himself cut out by destiny for
ihe bar.
However, Phil had always been one
of my best chums, and, of course, l was
downright glad to find my self saunteT-
ing into the old Yard" at Cambridge
once mere. and on the point of yelling:
"Oh, Phil Wheeler" up to his window in
Holworthy, just as l had done 50 many
times before during our undergraduate
days.
After my yell waited Il few moments
TO see if he was in. Up the window
presently slammed, and a familiar
cnough-looking head was thrust out to
see who had called. 1t had been so long
since Phil had either seen or heard from
me that he failed at first 10 recognize
me; but it was only for 4 second; then,
when he saw who it was, his face
cracked into 4 thousand crcases, and he
shouted Justify down:
For heaven sakes. Jack Fenway, is
that you? Come up quick!"
So up l went to receive n of those
cldtime greetings that leaves a mans
right arm sore for q week afterwards.
But l skip all this and come to the point
of the story.
On entering the room | had noticed a
letter lying open upon the table. Evil
IDENTIFY | had interrupted Phil in the
midst OF it. so, after we had exhausted
and lived through the opening lombard
ment of usual questions, l glanced at
the note again and told Phil to finish it.
He smiled and picked it up.
"Oh, yes, that reminds me-" he said,
GIVE got something to tell you. Here's
a letter from Miss Lancaster-yOu re-
member that girl l met down at Bar
lIarbor my sophomore vacation?"
do [? Don'tI? Cad man, she wasa
dream-to you. And if my memory
doesn't play me false 1 believe you did
rothing but dream of her that whole
winter. At any rate you did deuced lit
tie studying"
Eyes, Jack, she was a nice girl. I al
ways thought q good deal of her" And
Phil's face broke into one of those mis-
chievous smiles that were inimitablS
with him.
l hadn't seen one of those smiles for
years, but l remembered on the spot
that | never liked those particular eX-
PLNSSiOIlS u Ills, III L lldu lCUl lltu lIOll
experience that they were generally a
prelude TO some act of deviltry, an I'm
conscious hint on his part to show that
the fellow was dangerously neal the
point of springing one of his eXasperat-
ing jokes. l remembered especially one
of the last times that l had seen such n
smile OF his amused face. 1t had been
at a dance neal his home, when he in
troduced me to 4 young lady he was
very anxious TO have me meet. AS l
crossed the hall with my arm in his, he
had whispered:
shes an old friend of mine, Jack; a
trifle gay, but sound at heart. So pitch
and make yourself doubly agreeable
for my sake, old man"
And | remember / Immediately pro-
ceeded to do so by flirting dis%gracefully
with her the whole cvening-iust for
my chum's Sake. you know. The other
fellows were crazy with me for monop-
olizing her; l could see it from the way
they kept watching US. One fellow es-
pecially stood out all the dances behind
some palms, savagely twisting his mus
tache with one hand and the other
plunged desperately down into his
trousers pocket. He looked u~nspeaka-
bic things at me all the time Iwasdanc-
ing VITA her, but 1 only laughed in my
and pitied the poor fellow. And
so the evening passed. Finally the last
waltz came. and just as 1 was ~congratu-
myself on having scored one in
favor-and incidentally n In
my own-who should come up to us in
Che midst Of a delightfully."- exclusive