Middletown transcript., 1901-04-13
A Cheerful Liar

4
came and stood over me.
"What are you going to do to-nightP
she asked.
''From present indications" replied
Gin the course of an hour or so shall b.
sleeping the sleep of the just. Pm tired
All day long have tramped the cobble
stones of Paris"
'Don't 60 to bed," she implored. Let
have some fun. 1 never have any fun
work at that old stenography iron
morning till night Then the drakol
gives me one egg for dinner. Half tn
time that's not near done"
looked up at her. She was of an ex
aggerated height too high to subsist OIL
one egg and that not near done. Som'
days. / pitied her, and other days | didn't
She complained too much. What wa
the use? Mademoiselle as regarded th'
| menage was invincible as fate, and sht
knew what she was about. She hac
served an excellent apprenticeship fol
the keeping Of pension. She had livee
through the siege. Her lively descrip
tions of things she had eaten then otter
filled me with foreboding. However, peo
pie who live in pensions are seldom filled
with much Of anything else.
As for me, T had quit complaining
Long, sweet, pure breaths of the Alps had
served to disgust me with most things
Partisan. As soon as my linen came
home l was going to skip. That was all.
II am sick of life," said she.
She was fairly young to be sick of life
%. But she partly deserved it. had a
grudge against her. Under her constant
nagging 1 had become almost hopeless
about myself In England they had said
to me: "Do you fancy that you talk
English? Not much! You talk broken
English-in other words American. You
not only talk broken English, but yon
are further afflicted with southern pa
tots, brogue-nigger talk, as it were. "
And I couldn't learn the French. Evil
IDENTIFY the more I travelled and the harder
l studied the less / knew. Then came
this Swedish girl whom we called Froken.
She rubbed it in. Upon her first appear
ance / had scarcely opened my mouth
before she cried out. THAT awful Amer
lean talk of yours I was in the States
awhile. | had it. Thank goodness, |
have recovered from it. l hope never
again to pronounce my to's' like that or
twang my AIS Never mind" conde-
scendingly; 'I'll try to teach you in the
proper English.
So she was trying to teach me the
"proper English p'
And my French! She bent double
over that
ooh, oh r' she screamed. ''Such accent!
Such pronunciation Ii have time, I'll
try to set you right, but | doubt if | can.
You Americans will never learn decent
pronunciation in the world"
At that l bent my head in deep dis
grace for myself and my countrymen.
'.Do let's have some fun tonight p she
begged now. Lets have Burroughs in"
81 hardly speak to him. ruminated.
"True, of late he has made some over
lures"
"What are overtures ?'
Commandments of OPERAS" l ex-
planned.
"Oh, yes, I know. l used to be quick
as you when l lived in America. They
are quick there; must acknowledge
that"
l arose and bowed low, very low, for
myself and countrymen.
''But living for three years in Sweden
and eating the food Of the people make
you like them, don't you know"'
Stupid"
'No, not exactly that, but-Say, shall
we have Burroughs in ?"
'1f you'll promise not to let him stay
too long Pm tired, remember. Go get
him, then"
She ran toget him while Strengthened
the room for company. Soon she re-
turned, radiant, he at her heels, that tall
who in winter had made vio-
lent love to me with "Jag alsckar digs"
and then gone back on me.
l advanced to meet him.. I held out
my hand.
'tYou don't deserve to visit me" said
|, ''but so long as you are here come on
in"
He bent over my hand and kissed it,
1t was way he had.
81 love you as much as ever,'' he de-
clared in a quality of French which laid
mine many miles in the shade and in
tone too low for the girl to hear.
go way fun heah p commanded in
my crudest Of niger talk and shook my
hand out of his grasp.
Then I sat over in one corner, playing
while they conversed briskly
in Swedish, a language l don't under
stand, The role of gooseberry pleases me
little I am not a good background and
never was. If can't star, retire.
"Your bore me to death, you twoT I
exclaimed. GIVE got to amuse myself
some way or other. I'll make some
"What did she say?'' Burrough asked
Of the girl, whose face had flushed at my
words 1--WE forgotten all the English I
ever knew"
He never knew much.
Nothing worth repeating" she an
swered and renewed the conversation in
their native tongue-Swedish. am sure
heard as l vanished kitchenward "Jag
alsckar dig" That means 'I love you."
While Ami was in the dinning room l
stole slab of chocolate from the table
drawer; corralled the spirit lamp and
arge juicy bowl of sugar. With these
to my room, knocking before /