The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-12-21
MRs. PARSONS, n. D.

MRS. PARSONS, III. ID.
There are SO many fools in the
world that I do not mind confessing
that I was one of them for a few
dismal years, not one of the COM
placent, happy ones either.
To begin with, I took up medicine
comparatively late in life. They
had made an architect of me, but I
soon found myself kicking vigor-
ously against that honorable profes-
sion. After a deal of persuasion I
was allowed to enter as student at
Bart's and for two years worked
hard.
Tread a coed deal at the British
museum, like other fellows, from
the Sth of August, iSS--, always at
the B IL seat.
Why, you ask, always at that
pdace2
Well, because it was on that date
the most charming little woman /
ever saw first came and occupied the
seat marked B 12. Ihoped she would
keep to that seat. and so she did.
The pile of books she used daily
staggered me, and of course it
would have been. troublesome to
alter the indicationseon all her ref
erence slips if she had changed Or
been ousted from B IL.
From the 9Th of August. 188-. it
was generally a toss up which of us
was the first reader to appear nthe
reading room. The assistants often
. smiled.
Her name was Bella Whitcombe.
Ilearned that very soon. An official
left one of her slips on my table by
mistake. She had asked for Strauss
famous Lecture on Cardiac Trou-
bles.'' and the slip came to me
marked sIn use.' / had the great
est pleasure in the world in return
ing, the slip to her with a smile.
Then she smiled back at me with
those sweet, brown eyes of hers and
remarked: What a nuisancel 1 did
so want it. .
After this we often exchanged
words, trivial words. Any pretext
was good enough for mo that pro-
cured me glance or o smile from
her.
did not get or at all with studies.
IF / had not been fool from the
professional point Of view, / should
have bolted to the w or Y part of
the room. But I had come to the
conviction that it was more enjoy
able TO fail in my exams and see
Bella every day than pass with dis
tinction at the cost of severance
from her.
Blissful, lazy, heartbreaking, anx-
ious hours. day after day from half
past 8 until 8, with an interval of
three quarters of an hour for lunch.
Bella was broughs to the museum
every morning by a maid. The maid
took her off for lunch, and the maid
was always waiting among. the
pigeons under the portico from five
minutes to 8 in the afternoon.
There was no getting rid of that
precious abominable domestic.
When we had known each other
month, proposed cit was wild,
foolish thing to do) to accompany
her toward Bayswater on an omni-
bus. The maid was to go inside, she
and j outside, but it was no go.
.sMy father wouldn't like it, Mr.
Marrable," she said, with SYM
pathetic smile.
] tried whispering conversations
about the weather, textbooks, exams
and so on. But, to say nothing of
the frowns Iraised on other studi-
Gus faces and formal protest from
The gentleman on his throne in the
middle of the room, Bella did not
greatly encourage me.
81 am here to work." she wrote
ON a slip at one time and pushed this
toward me.
It will hardly be credited, but I
ostentatiously put that slip to n.y
Eps and then folded it and placed it
IN my watch pocket, the heart pock-
ct
How she looked at me when I did
thisl An ordinary girl would have
giggled. She did not giggle, and
fhenceforward her smiles were not
quite what they had been. The
pensive seriousness in them, how
ever, made her more and moro dear
TO me. Even when, for 6. joke, !
recommended her to ask for Spencer
on "Shoulder Blades, a well known
absurdity, she only gave me- little
reproving nod Of her pretty head,
with the bronze colored hair and the
dny shell ears.
So it went on until November,
when / could bear it no longer. ]
Rnew less about surgery and medi-
cine than in July.
II must speak to you at lunch
con-" whispered to her that morn
ing. NV face impressed her. Be-