The San Angelo press. (San Angelo, Tex.) 1897-1907, 1903-07-22
B Old Browne'S
B CourtShip

The girl l am going to tel YOU
about is rather pretty, and her nama
is Edith. She has dark hair, and
her eyes are blue, and she dresses
well. She has been graduated from
a seminary of good repute, and her
disposition is amiable TO a degree
which more than Il year ago brought
all the young men of the neighbour
hood at her feet. / think she won
a tennis championship in singles
somewhere last year, but | am not
certain about that. What | can re-
call among her most pronounced ac-
complishments | will put down here
later on. | met her so long time
ago that | have forgotten the cir
cumstanccs of our meeting, but /
guess they were of the ordinary
sort. live two doors from her
house, and drop in to see her and
Mrs. Burke ut least once week.
Even her marriage, which hurt me
so much at the time, did not scpa-
rate us for very long, and | think |
have lived to forget my first rash
determination never to look upon
her face again. | called the night
of the wedding, and | have been
calling regularly ever since. | am
beginning to believe that it was a
good thing, after all, that she didn't
marry me.
What l want to tell-and it won't
take long to tell it in my dry FASH
IONS the story of old Brownies
courtship. make my living by
keeping the cash accounts of big
Market street wholesale house, and
Browne is the man whose desk is
next to mine in the counting room.
Our salary is about the same, and,
although he is two years younger
than am, being fifty-one now,
we both have held the same posi-
tions for twenty years Browne
weighs more than 200 pounds, and l
weigh a trihe less.
Mrs. Burke, who is Edith's moth
er, came to me this summer and had
quite long talk with me about her
personal affairs. She said that her
late husbands estate was pretty
much entangled and that to keep
her present establishment on Arch
street going she would have to rent
some of the handsome rooms in the
house to boarders. OF course she
didn't want to do that, and Of course
| deprecated the plan, but in the end
it turned out that we both had to
give in.
Old Browne rented the second
story front room the day after |
told him about it. He had been liv-
ing away uptown, and he was glad
to get little nearer to the office,
besides enjoying all the social pres
tige which geographical conditions
could give him. He moved into the
rooms with dozen trunks and a
wealth of bric-a-brac, which, to my
mind, did not become his age. Mrs.
Burke was glad to accept the refer
ence to me which he gave her, and
Edith smiled upon him when she
gave him his night key.
| thought good deal of Edith,
and every night or two we played
cards in her mothers rooms. She
and | played partners against young
Bob Smith and Mrs. Burke. We
were pretty evenly matched, too, for
Bob played stiff game of whist
and well, you may remember that
| was one Of the Pentecost clubs
prize team last fall. Edith and ]
won most of the games, though, fol
Bob was too internally lazy ever tc
do anything well. And then he
never seemed to mind it if he lost.
The presence of old Browne an.
noyed me great deal, and l don't
mind saying so. About week after
he took his rooms there | found hin
occupying my seat at the whist Ia
BILE when / called. He was fumblinl
the cards in his awkward fashion
and Edith was laughing at him
Bob was engaged in giving an imita
ton of my telling war story, ant
even Mrs. Burke was approving thu
ridiculous proceedings. coughed
and that stopped the game, but
was uncomfortable all the evening
Bob had the good sense to apol
ogize, but old Browne simply tit
tered for an hour over what HI
seemed to consider a good joke OIL
me.
After that all my affairs seemed
to 60 wrong, and began to seri
ously consider whether | shouldn'
rent every room in Mrs. Burke
house myself. / was actually con
templating this proposition on
night in my own apartments, smok
ing my last bowl of tobacco tn
while, when the colored girl VIII