The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1896-11-06
THE OTHERS OTHER MAN
BY ARTHUR w. TARBELL-

1t was yesterday, after an interval of
four years.
/ 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 1T was medi-
cal course at one of the German univer-
stiles; in his, few years sojourn at the
law school in Cambridge. Those years
had now passed. was about to become
Il fuIl-iedged NJ. D., and Phil-laZy,
good-natured, joking Phil Wheeler, the
man who led his class Tin smoking rank
tobacco)-was about to call himself
lawyer. \ lawyer laughed every
time l thorght of it; for W lille Phil was
the best fellow in the world when it
came to brewing a delectable punch or
to doing the fascination talk act to
shy country maiden at her first swell
dinner. yet he had no more the making
of even i mediocre barriSter in him than
has many another good fellow, who
thinks himself cut out by destiny for
the bar.
However. Phil had always been one
of my best chums, and, of course, L was
downright glad to find my self saunter
ing into the old Yard" at Cambridge
once more, and on the point of yelling:
"Oh, Phil Wheeler!" up to his window in
Holworthy. just as l had done so many
times before during our undergraduate
days.
After my yell waited u few moments
TO see if he was in. Up the window
presently slammed, and a familiar
enough 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 to recognize
me; but it was only for second; then,
when he saw who it was, his face
cracked into n thousand creases, and he
shouted Justify down:
For heaven sal<es, Jack Fenway, i:
that you? Come up quick!"
SO up | went to receive one of thos
Cldtime greetings that leaves a mans
right arm sore for n week afterwards.
But / skip all this and come to the point
of the story.
On entering the room had noticed
letter lying open upon the table. Evi-
IDENTITY / had interrupted Phil in tn
midst of 1t. so, after we mad exhausted
and lived through the opening om' ard
nlent. of usual questions, | glanced al
the note again ard told Phil TO finish it.
lie Smiied ana picked II up
''Oh, yes. that reminds me-" he said,
I've got something to tell you Here's
a letter from Miss Lancaster-you re-
member that girl | met down at Bar
liarbor my sophomore vaoation?'
''Do /? Don'tI? Cad man, she was a
dream-to you. And if my memory
doesn't play me false L 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. al
ways thought a good deal of her" And
Pills face broke into one of those mis-
chievous smiles that were inimitable
with him.
hadn't seen one of those smiles for
years, but | remembered on the spot
| that | never liked those particular eN-
pressions of his, for | had learned from
| experience that they We're generally a
| prelude to some act of deviltry, an un
| conscious hint on his part to show that
| the fellow was dangerously near the
| point OF springing one of his eXasperat-
| ing jokes. | remembered especially one
| of the last times that ! had seen such a
| smile on his amused face. 1t had been
| at a dance near his home when he in
troduced me to young lady he was
| very anxious to have me meet. AS
crossed the hall with my arm in his, he
| had whispered:
'.She's an old friend of mine, Jack; n
trifie gay. but sound at heart. So pitch
and make yourself doubly agreeable
for my sake, old man
| And | remember | Immediately pro
cceded to do so by flirting disgracefully
with her the whole evening-just for
my chum's sake. you know. The other
fellows were crazy with me for monop
| oIiZing her; / could see it from the way
they kept watching us. One fellow es
pecialIy stood out all the dances behind
some palms. savagely twisting his mus
tache with one hand and the othel
plunged desperately down into hi:
trousers pocket. He looked unspealla
| BILE things at me all the time 1 was dane
ing with her, but l only laughed in my
sleeves and pitied the poor fellow. An,
so the evening passed. Finally the las
waltz came and just as / was congratu
iating myself on having scored one il
Phil's favor-and incidentally one il
my own-who should come up to us il
the midst of n delightfully."- EXCLUSIVE
tete-a-tete but Phil, with the man wh'
stood out the dances on his arm.
"Oh. Jack" he calmly and suavel
| exclaimed, before you go, l want yer
much TO Introduce to you my friend
husband, Mr.. Huntington-Mr- Fen
way"
So you see | know what those smile
generally meant Still, that was seVera
wears ago. and Phil was now reminls
cling about Miss Lancaster.