Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1899-06-28

And then began a long spell of hard tuork
it with pleasure. AS yet you don't
know whether have not made the
most fearful hash of your work or
whether may not turn out to be ten
times more aggravating than either
Miss Blank or the good gentleman who
did not mind waiting"
81 don't think so, !" he said in tone
of conviction.
His instinct proved to be correct, as
= instinct of man who has given his
; up to the study of character usual
~ is After delightful luxurious half
hour of chat Mary went back to the
study and began to work, and by
O'Clock had finished her transcription Of
the mornings work. Alan Stacey, who
was as keenly interested in the result
Of the experiment as she was, came in
from the garden and read over the fair
typewriter pages. He did not speak
till he had read to the end.
MRS. Conway" he said then, 'syou
are perfect treasure. Can you keep it
upr'
"Howf"
"You have taken me down literally,
word for word, point for point. You
have caught the exact spirit of my idea.
Mrs. Conway. if you can keep it up we
shall get on splendidly"
She had flushed up scarlet in her ex-
citement and suspense, and Alan Stacey,
looking at her, said to himself that
surely his star had been in the ascendant
when such dainty creature had sud
denly fallen from the skies in lieu Of
the bulldog features and staring google
eyes Of the patient individual who had
but just left him.
~ am SO glad, she said with her
pretty, shy air; $50 proud to be able to
help you. I'll try hard never to be any
thing but your interpreter"
He laughed aloud and held out his
hand. "That's good name for you,
Mrs. Conway" he said. 81 can never
say my typist does this or my stenog-
rapher does that. You're not my Sec
Rotary, and it would sound pretentious
to call you SO. But interpreter that 3
splendid name for you. shall always
call you by it."
And so he did. She went that very
evening and looked at various rooms in
the neighborhood, fixing on some in q
quaint out of the world nook which
they call Parsons Green. don't mean
all that intricate bewilderment of small,
featureless, mean little streets which
lie between Fulham palace and the
cemetery, but corner on the other side
Of the railway line, corner which then
was still rejoicing in tall old trees and
spacious wide fronted houses. such as
kept an air of dignity about them
which came as surprise to the stranger
wandering through the neighborhood.
And then began long spell of hard
work, yet work that was intensely en-
joyable in character. It is almost inn
possible adequately to describe the
effect which this way of earning her
living had upon Mary Conway. She
was still quite young, little more than
a girl, and during all her early years
romance and the joy Of life had never
had any chance of growing and flourish
ing within her.
There is nothing Of romance about
the life Of board school mistress, more
especially when under the continual in
fuence of a mother who never forgot
her gentility or that her daughter was
the child Of gentleman. The board
school mistress who can love and be
loved again by young man whose
sphere is the same as her own, a young
man whose aims and ambitions are on
q level with her own, can revel in ro-
nance as entirely as the hero Of novel
or the lord of the manor. A young girl
may spend her life in the stuffy class
room of the state schools and yet invest
her lover with all the tender and idyllic
romance Of knight of old, but if she
is cut off by class grade from inter
course with those men among whom
| she is thrown by circumstances all the
romance which may be in her heart is
of necessity bottled up for sheer want
of an outlet.
Mary Conway, frail and delicate Of
being as she was. gentlewoman to her
finger tips, girl in whom all the signs
of good breeding were present to very
marked degree. was Of nature in
which romance was indigenous, and I'M
til the time when she became associated
In work with Alan Stacey, the novelist.
no sort Of outlet had afforded itself,
] and all the natural love in her heart
I'D been psnt up until Il was allied