The Washington weekly post., 1900-12-11


The ro-nlag's niag lay piled high upou
,ta oaken slide cf the desk. Van Bruat
t-sw bv experience that its bulkiness be-
,okenci many hopeless manuscripts TO
3. uste6 through. and he groaned, be-
csrss-the Clock not having yet ar
.f..s AZ tie dignity Of special readers-
fr. r-ooess desolved upon him alone.
ue uorked fast. ard before II O'Clock
d., oca manuscript remained unread.
80 ssRor paused. wiped his forehead.
- lcoktd grimly around the Uttered
-1.rs Then he took il I'D with a s!ga
a rC..cL
= proved unusually bad. Untypewrit-
tsa. tcrawled. and laboring under the
saae o. "A Hated Wcoing." IL set forth
a certain bl0od-cucdlng and halting tale
a. the love o. one Reginald De Courcy
f5r a lady Cynthia The author was
Miss Mabel McGlnnis on. NJ. Van
Erant jcrked a rejection slip toward hira
srgrlIy. wrote a fcw cutting words across
'he back o. the page. laid IL with the
manuscript down upon the desk and
wheeled around 10 reach for his pipe.
A. he did 50 he noticed another en-
rCl0pe. caught Ia the mail slit Of the Of
See door TIE 10y had overlooked Il. It
was from The Girl.
Now. ordinarily, the mere fact OF a note
from even this particular girl would not
have caused Van Brunts peculiar ac-
ions lie ran his hands through his hair
once or twice. stared at the letter irreso-
IUtely, and finally rose and locked the
door The reason for his performance was
manifest when one considers that I'm this
instance ne had good reason for beIiev-
-. sfrI -
ton he had asked Of her a few nights be-
fre. The question was quite a common
Question and the answer-wnStsver il
should chance TO be-was quite an or
dinary answer, but 1t did not seem so 10
Van Brunt
A puzzled look crept into his eyes as he
read:
$3.50
EDITOR Of the Clock, Marie building, City.
Dear Sir: II the ineiosed Ms Is Of use to you
4 z a. your for whatever compensation you
Judge fair. ! inclose s;amps Very truly.
MARION KINGsBURY.
so Madison ave
inclCsed MS" II was a card on which
was written a rhyme Of Franconia:
Come and see me Mary Ann
Come early you can
And stay ill after tea.
Struggling his shoulders. with a slight
smile, he caught the mood OF the letter,
and drawing forth his office stationery
With the cut Of a tall clock il one corner,
dipped his pen and wrote;
Dear Madam; We should be glad TO use the
Manuscript so kindly offered by you. We do not
often have s glimpse OF the work OF tantalizing
a. author. and We hope TO hear more from you
Judging from What We have seen. your cooperation
D what the Clock needs.
Thanking you and assuring you that a check
vill be forwarded to you in a few days. am, my
dear madam, wholly yours, THE EDITOR.
p. s.-you darling,
lie addressed and stamped an envelope,
Chuckline, and was reaching for the let
ger to inclose IL when the foreman of the
press room suddenly opened the door,
Mr.. Van Brunt," he said, IF you want
10 see Mr.. Miner before he goes. you'll
have to catch him right away"
Now Van Brunt did want to see Mr..
Miner very much, regarding a certain
half-tone 10 be used as the frontispiece in
the June number of the magazine and
Mr. Miner was going to Baltimore in ten
minutes. He looked at the letter, hesi-
tated, wavered. and tossing it upon the
desk, went TO his own destruction. Pre-
cisely one minute later the office boy
came back.