The Republican., 1900-11-22

5i'SAh uA-y VI JOuASN4As VIC nav Z
heard all about your books, and your
friends, and your rooms, and your
hours of work, but not a word of your
own self, your early life, your home,
your thoughts, your But perhaps
you don't care to talk about these
things?"
Miss King had risen from her chair
and was now toying, rather nervously.
with an ornament on the mantelpiece.
For one thing" she said, without
looking at Max, 81 have never been
asked to speak of these matters be-
fore"
I'm sorry" said Eden, wondering
whether she was annoyed with him
or merely nervous.
'Oh, I'm not angry" she replied.
| looking at him with smile for which
he would have sacrificed two friendly
editors and guileless publisher.
Only, do you think the public cares to
know"
"0h, bother the public!" said Max,
impulsiveiy, rising also and taking up
strategic position behind a chair.
And what about the Avenue Maga-
zine?" said Margaret, looking at her
interviewer rather curiously.
Eden reflected for a moment. and
then took the bit between his teeth.
Il was going to say bother the Ave-
nue. Magazine as WE'LL" he confessed;
but that would be unfair, as it was
through it that l managed to meet
you"
You are a very polite interviewer" !"
said Miss King, wondering little what
would come next.
"Oh. L know you are laughing at
me-" Max exclaimed desperately, rails
ing his head and looking her in the
face. But 1 am not merely trying to
be gallant. You may call it pre-
sumptuous. I suppose it is, as you are
a successful Dovelist and 1 am only
a hack writer; but when 1 say that it
is a pleasure to me to meet you, even
on these terms, l mean it,"
Margaret was not laughing now.
She was playing with the ornament on
the mantelpiece again and wishing
rather that somebody would come into
the room.
"And l mean more than that" Eden
went on, encouraged by her silence.
81 mean that for days and weeks and
months-ever since-since 1 read your
last book"-he noticed Slight flush
creeping round her neck-'I have
longed to know you as friend, and
to be able to tell you how much l ad-
mire your work. /"
Miss King turned toward him, and
her face was very grave.
pardon my interrupting you" she
said, ''but 1 understood that you wished
to see me on business. Had we
not better get on with the inter
view? Or. if you have changed your
mind about that. perhaps you will al
low me to attend to my work
He understood the rebuke, but stood
his ground firmly.
'Give me two minutes" he said. 81
suppose 1 shall never have a chance of
speaking to you like this again"
She pondered for moment, irreso-
lutte. and then dropped into a chair.
"In life like mine," said Max, there
are few refnements. A young journal
ist cannot, as a rule, afford to marry.
He lives by himself, or with another
man, in chambers; he feeds at restaur-
ants; he spends his evenings-if not
at his office-in theaters or music halls.
The feminine influences that fellow
living at home or a married man has
the benefit of do not fall to the lot of
the unattached man in chambers. He
talks to his laundress in the morning
and a barmaid at night, but otherwise
his social circle is mainly composed of
gross males"
"And so he consoles himself by in
terviewing ladies?" said Margaret,
reading, for the tenth time, a soap ad-
vertisement on the back of a magazine.
"Such an occupation is not always
one of pure joy" hcen replied, feeling
more at home when she rallied him like
that. But suppose that he finds,
quite by accident, woman whose ma
ture is entirely in accordance with his
own; whose thoughts seem to turn in
the same directions; whose SOUL
'And what if she happens to be old
and plain?" Miss King interrupted,
looking up at him from her chair.
would that make any difference?"
''It would be-impossible," said Max,
hesitatingly.
"That is, if may say so, silly" Mar
garet quietly remarked.
Eden was rather nettled.
81 beg to differ from you," he assert
ed. Beauty of body is nothing as
compared to beauty of soul and purity
of intellect. 1t is your mind worship;
your"
Margaret rose again, hastily. Such
situation as this could not be faced
from the depths of low wicker chair.
81 think this has gone far enough"
she said. 81 must ask you to leave me-"
He gazed at her blankly for mo-
ment, as though hardly realizing he
was to be dismissed thus curtly. Then,
in feeble kind of way, he picked up
his hat and moved toward the door.
AS he was going, something in his
manner appealed to the girl more than
his words had done. They had seemed
to her to smack more of the hack
fhor ha 20 1o,o. d.