Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1903-10-29


all. Here's my card, which you will
drop in the box, and send them To-
And le wrote an address on a tag
lying on the counter.
sThis address. I've left mother in
the carriage and she's afraid of the
horse, so I'll hurry out. Good morn
ing, Miss Perkins,
And Mr.. Martin was out and away
before Miss Perkins had hardly recov-
cred her breath.
She looked at the address he had
left.
Miss De Jones, Liberty House,
City,
And then Miss Perkins lost her tenn
per.
"Why, the impudent puppy!'' she
cried. IF he thinks I'm going to send
those flowers to that-creature, he's
mistaken! He's crazy, he is. won
der il his mother knows?'
And then out Of pure vexation she
sat down in a back room and had a
good cry. ~,-.,-.1-.
| A few moments later she came out
and calmly put the roses in a box
dropped Mr.. Martins card among them,
tore into little bits the tag he had
addressed, and with a firm hand wrote
new one, which she placed in the
box: then put it with a half dozen
smaller packages, which Nero. the fac
totum of her establishment, would de-
liver. Then Miss Perkins regained her
habitual smile end gentle self-posses-
sion, and went about hulnming little
snatches of happy songs and seemed
as one conscious of having done a
good deed.
Harry Martin was not u happy man.
Indeed he had been miserable for
thirty-siX hours, for he was, or had
been, deeply in love with Mabel
Richey, and in reality had never been
introduced to the golden-haired girl
with the three-sectioned name, unit!
since the quarrel with his sweetheart
But since that tempestuous interview.
he had sought, and easily obtained an
INTRODUCTION, and had decided to send
her roses for the decoration Of the
table at the supper that was making
several Westfield sweethearts jealous
and unhappy.
And Mabel Richey was not n happy
woman. She had wept all night after
the quarrel and gotten up the next
morning firmly resolved to die rather
than show any signs of weakening.
And she had gotten through the pre-
ceding day fairly we'll: the only times
that she manifested any unusual feel
ing being when the name Of Miss Mar
guerita Daisy De Jones was men
toned in her presence.
Miss Perkins Nero was never very
swift, and it was quite the middle OF
the afternoon before he reached the
Eichey residence and left long box
evidently containing flowers. Mabel
was in her own room. and Jennie. the
maid, took the box to her. It did not
take her many seconds to tear the Eox
open and scramble among the roses
for the card: even before she looked
she felt sure Of the name she would
find on it, and when she read, Mr.
Harry Martin" she sank down on the
floor and laughed and cried and said:
"Oh. what a goose I amr'
In less than ten minutes she was
down stairs in fresh frock with the
tear-stains all washed away, and hel
fathers stable boy speeding with q
note to ''Mr. Harry Martini" and un
der the stimulus of coin in advance
and the promise Of another when be
returned. Jack really hurried.
Harry Martin, for some reason, had
found the work in his fathers office
very irksome that day. After he had
made several more Oh less serious blum
ders, the elder Martin suggested in q
tone permeated with sarcasm that he
so home and rest, and Harry, actine
on the suggestion, had put on his hal
and street coat and left the office. He
stopped Oh the front steps. however
and wondered where he would go an6
what lie would do Westfeld, and life
itself, seemed dreary waste; he want
ed to get away from it all. The salts
faction he had expected to feel in send
ing q box of roses to Miss De Jones
was not very much in evidence, and
he heartily wished he had never seer
nor heard of that frivolous young
woman.
While he stood on the steps wrapped
in melancholy, which he puncture6
with an occasional. deuce. take il
all!' he saw Jack, the Richey's stable
boy, approaching; wearing broad
grin. Harry, from old time habit, be
gan feeling With one haid for a coii
and held out his other for the note
then he suddenly started and thought
with bitterness A.
"What an ass I am! He hasn't any
thing for me-
Heres q letter, Mr.. Martini sai(
Jack, his grin widening, and then he
added in a lower tone, Miss Mabel
she told me to hurry
"Well, hurry back, then.'' said Harry
tearing the note open, and giving Jacl
, the expected coin. ''1ll take the an
swer.
The note he opened read:
MY Dearest Henry-How very gooi
, of you to send the roses. Oh, you dom
l-nny1- how oyyf11I1v 1>.->