The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-02-07
THE MANAGERS uNLuckY SIGN.

tnt1kiEE or MISS Craig, mis- SLefSOSra 3aer.
Perhaps every unmarried male a,tache
Of the office was also az that moment
| thinking of her. Certainly Joyce the
/ b00kkeeper. was Investigation might
| have. at that particular instant, shown
| that Tommy. tire office boy, was deeply
! Immersed in some doggerel verse in which
he was striving to make -idOlator
! rhyme with --stenographer. But any
! how. Manager Dover was thinking Of her
| only Of her-when, with subeonscious
/ interest his eyes fell upon a shabby look
/ ing man standing in 4 street doorway on
/ lie opposite sidewalk.
I'm afraid she's a bit Of firt.
/ Dover was thinking, as he watched the
man edge up to the curved sign that pro-
! On the second floor" Perhaps she's al
ready in love-wonder il she likes Joyce
/ better than me-.
/ Then he lost his thread OF thought. for
/ the shabby man at the opposite door
way had suddenly moved up to the sign,
and, with a swift motion, pulled from be-
/ mind II a white paper. 1t might have
been a letter" thought Dover. and he
watched. The wayfarer walked to the
/ corner, opened the letter and read it
hurriedly. Then he looked up to the very
window where the manager was standing
and walked swiftly away. After that
when Dover got into a brown study
NBtGl MISS AIGi7 lie li4tu 10 MAKE LlIIi-
self believe that il was that sign which
| interested him, causing him to spend
| hours watching it.
She had just left the office IN the twi-
light one evening, and he had assumed
his fayorite attitude at the window. Pres
entity he saw her passing UP the opposite
. side. When she came in front of the
Paris Cafe she paused. hesitating for a
moment. and then darted into the hall
way
"Humph," unused the manager. so
she's going to sup downtown tonight"
But as he watched she came out again
ct the door, reached behind the diRgy
sign, and walked swiftly away-with a
letter or some white thing in her hand
For weeks Manager Dover had been
screwing his courage up to the point of
proposing. He was in love with Mss
Craig, and as he saw that every man in
the Office was in the same fix, he was
determined TO be the first TO ask her.
But her little tryst at the sign of the
Paris Cafe put a damper on his enthusi-
asm. He must have wasted two hours
the next day watching that sign. About
in the afternoon the same shabby young
man he had first noticed was there
again. lie plucked q letter from behind
the lettered tin and replaced it with an
other. Then for days Mr.. Dover was
very busy. He couldn't keep that queer
postofice mystery out of his mind. but
he hadn't time to watch. Sunday even
ing after a particularly troublesome
week, during which he thought inces-
sanity OF Miss Craig and her apparent
affair with a very poor-looking fellow, he
CHANGED to pass by the Paris Cafe en-
trance. He went in, turned back stood
IL the door a moment looking up and
down the street. and then! Nobody saw
him, but he almost ran TO his office.
Then opening the letter he had found, ne
reaG:
Dear Hazel:-I may go to work Mon
day as conductor on the L road. Do
you think that will satisfy your papa?
If You pass Rush and Superior at Mon
day evening l may be there. II not, you
VIII know l am at work. l suppose you
have not heard of anything. l will an
swer all the ads in the Sunday newspa-
pers, but office jobs seem to be scarcer
every day. Your loving WILL"
The following Sunday, driven by the
torment of uncertainty and more than
ever in love with Hazel Craig, he again
rifled the queer mail box. fixing the time
of his theft early in the morning. So
as to evade any watch that might have
been set. he found this:
Dearest Will:-Haven't lost any more
letters. think that one must have
blown away. Keep up your spirits. l
lbNC 4OA brllet llGn ever ana NOGlu as
soon marry you as a conductor as if you
were a bank president. / told mamma
what you had done and she, too, admires
your spirit. Papa still insists that I'm
too young, but 1 know that he would
give in if YOU had a good place. Cheer
up, dearie; I'll be IS next June. and can
do what / please. BY the way, l heard
Joyce talking about going 70 live on his
farm in Colorado. Who knows? IL he
units U1aVRp e-at Mr. Il 70 f1lr
you. I'll look for an answer tomorrow.
Your own, H"
Dover hung around his office all that
day, going cut TO lunch with a long face
and looking very dolorous as he tried L
work at his accumulated mail. But at
dusk he sneaked over to the tin sign and
put back her letter.
Tuesday evening as Dover left the
office he noticed in a dark corner Of the
hall a figure that looked ike Joyce.
Miss Craig was yet in the office, so the
manager, still tense upon his tacit pur-
suit of the little stenographer, loitered in
a doorway opposite the street entrance
of the building. He saw them coming out
ogether-Joyce and Hazel. They walked
north. the bookkeeper bending over her
and talking assiduously.
by Jupiter groaned the manager. as
ne watched them from afar. that Ian
tern-jawed bookkeeper has beaten me 10
her, after all Wen. he'll get what's
coming TO HIM. all right"
The next day, as Dover noted, Mr.
Joyce was unusually morose. dilatOry and
contrary. He even surprised the genial
maaager by q fash OF impotence. In /
the outer Office he complained loudly Of
his Slavery and openly boosted that /
he meant 10 retire lin favor OF some +
natural-born slave" Dover noticed that 1
he didn't so much Is salute Miss Craig {
when she came in or passed ont. on I
Saturday he gave notice. The manager !
tried to trap him into admitting his fail +
IRE with Hazel, but the self-satlsfed 4
joyce insisted that he was tired OF the 4
grind. that he had saved a competency. /
and that he meant TO raise sheep and sell !
the wool and mutton from his farm in 4
Colorado.
on Monday, late in the evening. he 4
turned to her suddenly and with odd en- (
barrassment said:
Just moment. Haze-that IS. Mss I
Craig. I want 70 ask you something"
He got Up and closed the door. She 4
flushed crimson. knowing tthe mink the 4
iIl-concealed state OF his heart.
4 just want to ask You iI-you know +
man
She was getting pale row.
"A man. honest enough, decent enough,
good enough. smart enough To-
TO what" she gasped. wondering how
she could refuse his profered love with
out losing her position
To recommend for bookkreper he
concluded. cycling her wiJh. pidful salts
faction '.You know. joyce has gone. I
want some ore IN MS piace-it pays f1-sls
a year-snd 4 YOU know
"oh. yes sir. she VAS saying as che