The sun., 1901-04-23
What tie Matter
Was Witt DaWley
EoPLE speaking of Egbert Daw-

ley called him sometimes ian ex-
ceedingly well-informed man." some-
times '.real bright" and sometimes
"fnely edgercated," but they not in
frequently added that he was trife !
conceited, or various equivalents in
the vernacular. AS a matter of fact
he was well informed and he certain
ly had the self-confidence that GER
tain degree of knowledge begets. He |
was a good-looking young man, too,
with lofty, pallid brow and trim
little dark mustache. He wore eye
glasses, which increased his appear
ance of intellectually, and he dressed
very neatly-rather too neatly,i II any
thing.
Dawley felt that he was naturally
fitted for diplomatic career or some
thing of that sort. He had artistic
tastes and might have gone in for
painting or sculpture or even music,
but fate had pitchforked him into
commercial life-specifcally, into
wholesale dry-goods house-and he
was obliged to make the best of it.
He was not popular with the rest of
the men in the house, but they were
| a common, ordinary lot, and they nat
urally felt his superiority. Some
times feeling of this sort is mani
Tested by "joshing," but Dawley was
not "joshed" to any great extent.
Either he showed a lofty Indifference
to it or else he retorted with some
aggravating sarcasm. The best thing
was to let him alone, and that course
was pretty generally pursued.
In society Dawley was the arbiter
of taste and an all-around authority
on things in general. If he was con-
fronted with pottery he would begin
to bubble over with the distinctive
characteristics of Wedgewood, Dres-
den or Sevres, and hark back to the
and airy offhand allusion to the
Eleusinian, mysteries in connection
with the Portland vase. If he was in
vited to give an opinion on some gem
from the picture department of a
downtown store he would discourse
very impressively Of breadth and
depth of treatment and chiaro os-
euro and would ring in Douw and
Poussin and Gliotto. When he talked
about the theater his listeners soon
became conscious that most of the
actors of the present day were en-
tirely wanting in delicate apprecia-
ton of the motive of their parts,
and in his intellectual communion
with the Sevignes and Thrales of his
| circle he was literary Daniel come
to Judgment. Nevertheless he was a
good dancer and he had his mus
tache, so the buds did not shun him
, lie rather prided himself, too, on his
9 small talk. On the whole, he liked
| the society of women. They came
e nearer to appreciating him than mer
did Still, he never particularized il
e this respect. The boys down towI
= said he was too darned stuck OF
, i himself.
;. One morning there came a new
stenographer to take the place o
! Miss Grgsby, the dignified, middle
l. aged lady who had resigned her po
J. sition to become companion to
II prosperous invalid aunt in the coun
- try. Dawley saw her at her desk a
= distance for several days before h
!. took the trouble to go close enougl
4 to get good look at her, and h
70 might not have gone then had h
D, not noticed that her hair was O
l. the true Titan red. For one thin
he had heard the men speak of he
rapturously as ga peach" and h
thought he knew the kind of youn
: person that would interest then
8; 2 She was busy when he passed he
a and he saw that her hands wer
4 plump and white and fairly we
shaped, but the nails were disfgure
1t by being bitten. Next his critic;
glance took in her little double chil
al her tip-tilted nose and the whitenes
al and fine texture of her skin. 1t ha
u got to this point when the youn
woman finished the sheet on whic
she had been writing; then 81
!, raised pair of rather prepossessin
- ~ blue eyes to Dawley's, and, noddir
n at him in afriendly, offhand way, sale
ID ."Good morning"
ell Dawley smiled in his most winnir
N. manner, and, returning the salut
I'M ton, passed on.
On For week or two this mornir
'e greeting was about the extent
VI their communication. Then Dawl,
felt a disposition to linger and soul
the little stenographer's ment
=, depth, if she had any, which
ois feared was not the case. He premet
er. ac tated little opening remark aprop
he of the typewriter on Babylon
bricks, but he forgot that when s
to told him there was a smudge on /
be nose.
ng, SIS there?" he asked in some co
az fusion, fumbling for his handke
,o, chief.
av "On the right side" she sa
The "There! No, now you've only made
the worse. Here, give it to me. Sto
his down." She took the handkerchi
lar- and, moistening it with her tongl
I'M rubbed Dawley's nose vigorously a
ore then looked at it with her head
o.a one side. just then Sparks, one
nf the coarsest beasts in the pla
ace came along, with his face on bro
e of grin.
"Here, I amt going to stand
can that, Miss Dixon" he chuckled.
In course Eggie is nice boy and
nan that and you don't mean anything
oon n it, but all dates are off between y
and me after that"