Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1902-10-31

EN 5000
left such details as that to the
.chmcn who sat IN the large outer
re under the soft radiance Of green
ded electric lights. adding up col
IS IN a perfuuctory manner and
ming. 10 a man. OF what they
4 do II they were king.
modest door. upon the glass Of
h was Inscribed In small, neat let
mr.. Allston," led into the kings
tie room. where Turkish rugs
dhered the doOr and leather COW
d chairs were ranged along the wall
There was also q low bookcase, which
obtained such Invaluable biographical
dictionaries as Bradstrcet's aud Dun's,
% say nothing OF Poor's Railroad Man
ual. Somebody's Street Railways and a
number Of similar works, which con.
stituted the kings solid reading. though
he had once observed dryly that they
contain more fiction than you'd suppose
from the titles"
The king was sitting at his desk,
tracing with a lead pencil crude
squares and ~rectangles on the pad be
A0IE AMIAa IAE nNAsa VI W AAA hAEGAs
softened to a gentle murmur by the
height, came In through the open win.
dows, and q soft breeze huttered the
papers on his desk and filed the
with It's freshness, just TO let him know
that 1t was April.
The breeze was damp and cool, as II
Il had blown across moist. earthly
nIonoo xvhorso tho vfo1afo mana p,,cbfnu
upward instead of across acres OF
metal roof. 1t rumpled the kings thick
hair as nonchalantly as IL he had been
a mere commoper and somehow set
him to thinking Of the queen.
He stopped making squares and rec
tangles and began to scrawl something
on the pad instead, something that
would have made the clerks 10 the
outer office open their eyes and stare
In wonder could they have seen it, for
It was quite sentimental and had moth
ing whatever to do with stocks and
bonds:
Oh. faint. delicious ~springims violet.
Thine odor. like @ aey.
Turns noiselessly in memory's wards
To let a thought Of sorrow freei
indeed the king himself was aghast
when he looked At what he had writ
ten, and he tore the sheet from the pad
with a hurried, guilty air and crumpled
and crushed it into a small wad before
he threw 1t into the wastebasket.
Then he took it out again and tore it
into small pieces, a precauton which
was entirely unnecessary, as no n
had ever been able to read more than
two consecutive words Of the kings
writing. and, besides, no one In the
world would have believed him capable
Of quoting poetry.
He went back to his squares and rec
tangles again, his mind busy with the
days before his millions had made him
Il serene highness. In those days, he
remembered, he and the queen used to
take long walks In the park when he
could get away from the Office In time.
She called It their picture gallery and
affected a fine corr for the people who
gushed ever their COrots, Mlllets or
Rousseaus. but gave never a thought
to the real thing-the tender greens,
the misty grays, the last flush of sun
In the western sky, against which the
trees stood out in ~velvety. mysterious
darkness. I'VE get u beauty at first
hand" she was wont to say gayly, 'in-
stead Of on small pieces of canvas
which reek OF man instead Of God"
And they had zone their way through
the soft April twilights or sensuous
summer dusks, In love with life and
the world.
But that was all very long ago! The
king gave a weary little sigh as be
realized how long. The queen-he liked
to think of 1t all as hers-had "one OF
the finest private galleries in Amer
lea" now, and she drove in the park
on spring afternoons rather bored and
d~isiIlusionized and certainly too busy
In bowling to the occupants OF othel
carriages to give much time to thu
beauty about her. 1t no longer gavI
her a thrill Of delight to notice how
the gray of the leafess trees some
times melted into a pale amethys
nor did 1t touch her with a subtle sad
ness TO watch the sunset through
network Of bare branches II IS onl.
NnE lkDt WV nuNE NAnI ~ APRANNAeN
natures free exhibitions.
Even kings have their bad quartz
hours, though you couldn't make an.
OF the clerks tn the outer office be
lleve 1t. In this particular case, 70
instance, not one OF them OWNED tina
his majesty was sitting there IN hi
luxurious private room longing for tn
old days before he was king, livinI
ove the days when he aud the quee.
were first married-those exciting day
when he could scarcely get home fas
enough In his eagerness to tell her pei
haps that the time had come when sh
might afford the pale green carpet an
mahogany furniture upholstered I
match which she had 30 long coVete
for her little drawing room.
And the pink brocade hangingsl Tn
king smiled remlnlscently as b
thought OF them, for they were a SUI
prise. She never dreamed that the
had reached that point Of afiuenc
where they could AFFORD them, and b
had decided TO surprise her with Their
BE could still see the shine IN her eye
aud the flush on her cheeks when the
came homel The portrait painter
80