The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-10-10
A Matter Of Expression.
4 SHORT STORY

ByJ. M. b.

Nobody ever believed young Hayes |
was in earnest or angry or troubled |
for any cause whatever He had
pair of laughing blue eyes whose
only other expression was one Of ten
derness; he would approach you with
a business proposition or some serious
statement, and while he was going
over the ground his eyes would twin
kle and dance till serious attention
was impossible, and the conference
end in a laugh.
OF course he was engaged, and to
the dearest girl in the world; he had
looked her heart away in her first sea-
son, and equally, of course, there was
no prospect of their being married
because even the most unexacting
mamma in town, as the dearest girls
mother certainly was, stood out for
a definite something be it ever so
small, in the way of income before
letting the young people fix date.
1t had been very nice to have Meta
engaged in her first season, especially
to such a winsome fellow as young
Hayes, who had nice, caressing, re-
spectful ways with the dowagers, paid
them the little attentions the other
men bestowed on the young married
women, and was good fellow gener-
ally. But nOw the engagement was
an old story, and half a dozen girls
who had not become engaged till the
season after Meta were calling them
selves "old married women" already.
Now Meta was the most sensible,
as well as the dearest girl in the
world, and she knew that to love and
be loved by Charley Hayes, who had
neither money nor vices was ever so
much better than to marry some fell
low with plenty of both. Still she
was a soft-hearted little SOUL and
dropped. a small tear now and then af-
ter an expedition in search of wed
ding present for some more fortunate
couple.
The spring and fall weddings went
as far as anything else to keep young
Hayes poor, for no one gives silver
any more, and those old things that
clerks bring out and show you conf
dentially are dearer than diamonds.
She would have made she was sure, a
very creditable housekeeper, and to
quote one of her aunts, who always
brushed her hair smoothly back and
turned ner gowns, kept strictly
within her income There wasn't
any :2eome to keep within.
OF course, young Hayes had enough
to buy coats that were cut right and
never wore ready-made Shoes and OF
course, the dearest girls mother
would have the third story done over
and give it to them if it came to that
but Charley Hayes didn't think il
would be the thing for fellow who
had a wife to let her go to her moth
err every time she wanted a gown.
So, even though his eyes twinklej
and laughed, his heart was heavy.
He knew a fellow at New Rochelle
who had been engaged to a CIR
se7en years. He had seen them spend
a whole afternoon on a yacht once
and never say a word to each other
and he didn't want things to get Xix,
that between him and Meta He wa!
thinking of this in a sunny wiriov
at tie Athletic club, and turning owe
in ni mird two or three ideas he hat
which struck him as rather good whel
lie heard a man he knew telling ahoU
a little box he had taken at Mamarl
ho+ 1o nd h
new wife were going to have.
Hayes determined to do something
then and there, and made his way a
fast as possible down to a number o
Broad street where a clever bushes
man had an Office. He put the tw
propositions before him concisely, an
jotted down the figures with pei
Gil on a MANILA pad that lay on tn
desk. The business man followed tn
argument with attention, till lookin
up, in interest at a clever point, b
saw Hayes blue eyes twinkling an
laughing as if it was the best joke
he world.
"Well," he said before I looked
you, thought you meant It,"
They started for Maiden Lane /
see a man who had some lovely uncl
diamonds. The ceiling of the man
place was being repaired, and as the
} passed through to the back o1'
where the safe was some OF the lime
stun the men were using splashe
somehow, into Hayes right eye a.
burnt like fire.
They got him into hanson al
round to the hospital as fast as pos