Gloucester County Democrat., 1903-05-07

have remarked before, to help me will
my Melancolia."
sNever heard a word about the lady
before
whats the use of having a friend
if you must sling your notions at hin
in words? You ought to know what
I'm thinking about You've heard me
grunt lately"
"Eyen so. But grunts mean any
thing in your language, from bad 'bac
| cy to wicked dealers. And / don't think
I've been much in your confidence fol
some time.'
''It was a high and soulful grunt
You ought to have understood that il
meant the Melancolia." Dick walked
Torpenhow up and down the room
keeping silence. Then he smote him
in the ribs. "Now don't you see iti
Bessie's abject futility, and the terror
in her eyes, welded on to one or two
details in the way of sorrow that have
come under my experience lately. Like
wise some orange and black-two keys
of each. But I can't explain on an
empty stomach"
sit sounds mad enough. You'd bet
ter stick to your soldiers, Dick, instead
of maundering about heads and eyes
and experiences"
"Think so?" Dick began to dance
on his heels, singing:
They're as proud as turkey when they
hold the ready cash;
You ought to ear the way they laugh
and joke
They are tricky an they're funny when
they've got the ready money
Ow! But see EN- when they're all stone
broker
Then he sat down to pour out his
heart to Maisie in four sheet letter of
counsel and encouragement, and regis
tered an oath that he would get to
work with an undivided heart as soon
as Bessie should reappear.
The girl kept her appointment, un-
painted and unadorned, afraid and
overbold by turns When she found
that she was merely expected to sit
still she grew calmer, and criticised the
appointments of the studio with free
dom and some point. She liked the
warmth and the comfort and the re-
lease from fear of physical pain. Dick
made two or three studies of her head
in monochrome, but the actual notion
of the Melancolia would not arrive.
"What mess you keep things IMP
said Bessie some days later when she
felt herself thoroughly at home Il
s'pose your clothes are just as bad.
Gentlemen never think what buttons
and tape are made for
81 buy things to wear, and wear 'em
till they go to pieces. | don't know
what Torpenhow does"
Bessie made diligent inquiry in the
latters room and unearthed bale of
disreputable socks. Some of these I'll
mend now," she said, "and some I'll
take home. D'you know, l sit all day
long at home doing nothing, just like a
lady, and no more noticing them other
girls in the house than if they was so
many flies? don't have any unneces-
sary words, but put 'em down quick,
1 can tell you, when they talk to me.
No; it's quite nice these days. lock
the door, and they can only call me
names through the keyhole, and sit in
side, just like a lady, mending socks
Mr.. Torpenhow wears his socks out
both ends at once"
sThree quid a week from me and the
delights of my society. No socks mend
ed. Nothing from Torp except nod
on the landing now and again, and all
his socks mended Bessie is very much
a woman" thought Dick, and he looked
at her between half shut eyes. Food
and rest had transformed the girl, as
Dick knew they would.
what are you looking at me like
that for?" she said quickly. Don't
You look reglar bad when you look
that way. You don't think much of me-
do you?'
''That depends on how you behave
Bessie behaved beautifully, only il
was difficult at the end of sitting to
bid her go forth into the gray streets
She very much preferred the studio and
a big chair by the stove, with some
socks in her lap as an excuse for de-
lay. Then Torpenhow would come in
and Bessie would be moved to tell
strange and wonderful stories of he1
! past and still stranger ones of hel
present improved circumstances. She
would make them tea as though she
had a right to make it, and once OF
twice on these occasions Dick caught
| Torpenhow's eyes fixed on the trim lit
tie figure, and because Bessie's fittings
about the room made Dick ardently
long for Maisie he realized whittier
Torpenhow's thoughts were tending
And Bessie was exceedingly careful OF
the condition of Torpenhow's linen
She spoke very little to him, but some
times they talked on the landing.
81 was a great fool,' Dick said te
himself Il know what red freight
looks like when a mans tramping
| through a strange town, and ours is q
lonely, selfish sort of life at the best
| wonder Maisie doesn't feel that some
times. But | can't order Bessie away
That's the worst of beginning things
| One never knows where they stop"