Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-08-30
W6of tie Moffer
Wos Witt DoWIey

\ ley caueQ MIN sometimes an eX-
ceedingly well-informed man." some
times real BRIGHT" and sometimes
finely edgercated," but they not in
frequently added that he was a trif1e
conceited, or various equivalents in
the vernacular. AS matter of fact
he was well informed and he certain
~ had the self-confidence that a GER
tain degree of knowledge begets. He
was good-looking young man, too,
with lofty, pallid brow and a trim
little dark mustache. He wore eye
glasses, which increased his appear
snce of intellectually, and he dressed
very neatly-rather too neatly if 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 1ife-specifcally into a
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 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
- go
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 bark back to the
Roman and Grecian art, with perhaps
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 a literary Daniel come
to Judgment. Nevertheless he was
good dancer and he had his mus
tache, so the buds did not shun him.
He rather prided himself, too. on his
small talk. On the whole, he liked
the society of women. They came
nearer to approaching him than men
did. Still, he never particularized in
this respect. The boys down town
said he was too darned stuck on
himself.
One morning there came a new
stenographer to take the place Of
Miss Grigsby, the dignifed, middle
aged lady who had resigned her po-
| sition to become companion to a
prosperous invalid aunt in the coun-
| try. Dawley saw her at her desk at
q distance for several days before he
| took the trouble to go close enough
| to get a good look at her, and he
might not have gone then had he
| not noticed that her hair was of
| the true Titan red. For one thing
| he had heard the men speak of her
rapturously as ga peach" and he
thought he knew the kind of young
| person that would interest them.
She was busy when he passed her,
and he saw that her hands were
| plump and white and fairly well
shaped, but the nails were disfgured
by being bitten. Next his critical
glance took in her little double chin,
| her tip-tilted nose and the whiteness
| and fine texture of her skin. It had
| got to this point when the young
| woman finished the sheet on which
she had been writing; then she
raised pair of rather prepossessing
| blue eyes to Dawley's, and, nodding
at him in a friendly, offhand way, said:
"Good morning"
Dawley smiled in his most winning
| manner, and, returning the saluta-
ton, passed on.
For week or two this morning
| greeting was about the extent OF
| their communication. Then Dawley
| felt disposition to inger and sound
| the little stenograp piers mental
| depth, if she had any, which he
feared was not the case. He premedi-
tated little opening remark apropos
| OF the typewriter Oh baDylOniS
bricks, but he forgot that when she
told him there was a smudge on his
| nose.
us there?" he asked in some con
fusion, fumbling for his handker-
chief.
ION the right side,'' she said
"There! No, now you've only made i:
worse. Here, give it to me. Stool
down." She took the handkerchief
and, moistening it with her tongue
rubbed Dawley's nose vigorously and