The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1899-11-24
TWO FLATS AND :.
| An ACCIDENTAL
Uo
How a Lover Brought q Dallying
Girl to the Point.

The suggestion that brought it all
about came from me. | believe.
Suggestions of any sort usually came
from me rather than Margery. for !
have in my veins the adventurous blood
of stanch Kew England ancestry, who
had burned witches and fought Indians
and later pursued a relentless traffic in
wooden nutmegs with the same high
courage and fine disregard of conse-
quences, while Margery is of Dutch de-
scent and inclined to be cautious, if not
a bit pig headed. as l often told her.
But no one could help loving her. in
spite of her little touch of Dutch OBJ
stinacy, least of all myself. for of all
the provoking little women that were
ever created for the express purpose of
charming and tormenting their fellow
men Margery was the most deliciously
dear, and / loved her so well l could
forgive her anything-that is, anything
but the way she treated Jack Beasley.
The dance she led that poor fellow
was something to move eve a bearded
Turk to pity. For a whole year she had
kept him dangling after her as abjectly
as a dancing doll at the end of a string,
and yet, as far as we could see, he had
made no progress whatever in her way
ward affections.
We had been talking things over,
Jack. Ned and l. in Margery's absence
Il never dared mention Jack to Mar
gerry for fear of still further exciting
that famous obstinacy of hers). and
even Ned, the most hopeful of mortals,
had had to admit Jacks chances looked
blue. Ned. be it known, was the daring
youth who had undertaken to guide my
New England enterprise and other vir-
tues (too numerous to mention) through
life's pilgrimage.
He and Jack were partners in a law
office and occupied the fat on the top
floor, where they INDUCED in certain
mysterious rites they called light house
keeping, while Margery and l taught
music and Delsarte and practiced the
modest virtues of hospitality in the fiat
below.
Nothing, therefore, could have been
more fit, suitable and otherwise to be
desired than to have Margery and Jack
fall in love with each other, ever as
Ned and l had done. Jack was willing
enough, poor boy. but Margery baked.
1t was too provoking.
As l said before, we three had been
talking it over the day before while
Margery was absent teaching the luck
less children of a rich soap manufac-
turer to play Wagner on the piano and
had all agreed that the situation looked
hopeless.
Jack had been in the depths of de-
spair because the tenor of the choir for
which Margery played the organ had
called three times that week, and,
though l didn't believe she cared a pin
for the tenor, l had never known naugh-
ty Margery to appear more wlllfully re-
CARELESS of Jacks feelings.
We had parted, therefore, gloomily
enough, after a fruitless conference,
and l had relieved my mind by being
especially cross to Margery all day,
though l must own she didn't seem to
mind much.
1t was an awful day, raining cats
and dogs, and in the afternoon I got
tired of being cross all by myself and
proposed that we should shampoo cur
hair and dry it on the parlor radiator,
the only one in the fiat large enough for
the purpose. Of course Margery object
ed. Visitors might come, she said, and
then who would let them in? ] secuted
the idea of visitors on such a day I'M
less, l observed with sarcasIl. she was
expecting the tenor again.
She didn't notice this stab, so | pro-
ceeded to say that as the radiator was
in the corner we could pull our big Jap
anese screen up in front of it and, Sc
cure in u hiding place, let u entire
visiting acquaintance, including mes
senger boys and duns, knock at the
door till they got tired and then de-
part. blissfully W of our proxim-
ity
Accordingly it wasn't long before we
were snugly ensconced on a pile of sofa
pillows on the parlor floor, wrapped in
our bathrobes and with our wet locks
streaming out behind US across the ra-
diator, over which we had stretched a
steamer rug We were armed with a
novel apiece, but soon got to talking
girl fashion and were deep in a discus
sion of Amos Judd when there came a
loud knock at the door,
"Great Scottl' | exclaimed in a
ttage whisper. the rosy advantages of
my plan suddenly fading in the cold
light of reality
"There. | told you SOL cried Mar
gerry unge%uerously, sitting up abruptly
so that her hair fell all about her in a
great shining, coppery shower.
"Sh-shut upl" whispered, reach
ing out with an agitated stockinged toe
for the bedroom slipper had carelessly
kicked off a moment before.
Again the knock came. this time
more imperative
"What. in heavens name, shall we
dof" gasped Margery.
keep still. l said soto vcce.
Then the door handle turned. and We
heard Ned's voice saying; 'There's no.