The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1900-06-13

tOC tllo uCNG uuN y INSut
Through my open door l could sec
tho dingy desks of the so called cdi-
torial room, most of thCm vacated now,
and from the farthcst corner came the
drono of a prOOfrCadcr. GlanCing ar
this familiar scene stopped my writ
Ing moment rs my eyes rested on his
copy holder. Instead Of the rough young
hobblcdchoy who usually filled that
place there sat the most young girlliko
Of young girls, making a sunshine in
the grimy place. Sho had soft light
brown hair drawn smoothly back into
the deccntCst of littlo knots, She turned
toward me the ncatcSt of little proiilcs,
and she devoted herself to her copy with
the gcntlest bend of her small head.
Just rs l was idly recalling the fact
that old Martin, the ploofreadcr. had
once cCnfded to me his desire to get
this position for daughter of his,
Bentley, tho "star" reporter of The
Appeal, came striding il and toward
me.
"Sparo me minute from the tariff"
he questioned, standing in my door
way, pushing his silk hat to the back
of his red head with one hand and rest
ing the other, which held lighted
cigar, against the door frame.
When had declared my Willingness
to lay aside for a time those political
labors with which it pleased Mr.. Bent
pey to imagine me always occupied, ho
took off his hat and laid 1t with his
cigar on the steam heater outside, came
Bn and seated himself astride my vacant
chair and for moment stared at me
lin silence over the back of it.
When he spoke, he said; "I'm going
to ask favor of you. Miss Addington.
and wish by large majority that 1t
was you going to ask ono of me. Oh,
yes, | know, you're n mighty nice,
pleasant. accommodating little girl
that's aside from my wanting some
thing out Of you just now-but you
don't have it any too soft down here,
anyhow, and now I'm going to ask you
I'm ashamed of myself. But-woll,
let me open with the curtain music,
and work up to the last farewell by de-
grees. The beginning is'-ho stopped,
waited an instant, got up and turned
his chair around, sat down properly and
took up his sentence again as IL he had
never dropped it--"that Pm in love
with and want to marry that little
Inimini pimini, white faced girl Of ole
Martin out there''-thcn relaxing 9
little from the uncommon seriousness:
with which this was said-"and I'G
give 500 to be able, without arousinl
suspicion, to get hold Of that seat thai
Calvert has there by her. That ain't
sentiment, Il would We're glove upor
that hand kind of business; it's pur,
science. That desk is the strategic key
to tho whole campaign Pm not il
with Calvert. wo'vo been hating cacl
other TOO long for me to bo ablo to wOrl
up an intimacy with him now just pre-
vious to asking him to give me his desk
and &c would be too thin. anyhow
There is no way to get that desk-her,
comes tho climax" Bentley stopped
and looked at me deprecatingly, appeal
ingly. | was amused to see that h,
could command such an expression
''unlcss'-ho stopped again, scowlet
and drew long breath in burlesque o.
his own discomfort and his resolution
and, as he would have said. took tn,
plunge-''you' be 50 angel white as t.
Ilet him come in here. He's been want
ing to do that this long time, not alto
kgether because of his secret desire to bt
near you. but he thinks it would bC
nice to be in here away from the lower
orders. and convenient to tho encyclo
Ipedias that he gets his little pieces out
of"
The Appeals limited library was in
the room occupied. Expression Of my
Willingness to share my scclusion with
Mr.. Calvert did not still Bcntleys de-
sire further to explain and justify him
self
"You see," he went on, "I've got
the campaign all planned out, though ]
cant explain it in word. I'm perfect
Ny willing to explain it, however. I'm
oven willing to admit that it would be
"a pleasure to me to do SO. I'm too old
land tough to talk about this kind of
thing to man, but there's a senoible
diminution Of dangerous pressure in
letting off to you little"
shall utterly fail in giving any idea
pf Bentley unless l am able to convey
Ian impression Of the personal uncon-
|sciousness that characterized his con-
l9ersation. He expressed himself in the
way that was easiest to him-that is
to say, as much as possible by estab-
pished formulas intelligently applied
|sometimes slang, sometimes quotations
that became slang in his mouth-but,
Though he often felt the humor OF his
own ideas, his verbal clothing Of them
rarely enough attracted his attention.
He turned look at once grave and
Iquizzical through the door and upon
the copy holder
"Nothing's going to change me about
wanting that little piece Of propriety
put there but getting her. he re-
marked.
mo. not altogether quite so sudden
as you might think he said when I
Expressed my interest in the speed with
which he had discovered his attentions.
''She was here last month for a week,
when you were off doing the woman 8
convention. l haven't ever got her out
OF my head since. 1t was sudden
enough, and I'm hit hard enough. Pm
going to put my system to work now
for all it's worth" He turned back to
mo, hitched his chair half around, 80
that tho diatracting picture in the other
foom was out Of his range of vision,
and went on:
You've heard that there is a right
and wrong way of doing everything.
Well, my system Is the one right way
OF going courting-w when your court
ing woman, that is. I'm sorry it's
30, H..