The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-05-27
/ Old Br0 B
Osrrt
A16afssef.heY1> >e.1AAr r.e,s,,Ise ~,

i
The girl + am going to tell you
about Is rather pretty, and her name
is Edith: She has dark hair, and
her eyes are blue, and she dresses
well She has been grad duated from
seminary Of good repute, and her
Mspositi ion is alniable ID, d degree
(which more than q year ago brought
all lie young men of the neighbor-,
hood at her feet. Il think she won.
q, tennis championship In singles,
somewhere last year, but Il am not
certain about that. What / can re-
call among her most pronounced ac-
complishInents I will pnt down here
| later on. 4 met her SO long a time
ago that 1 have forgotten the cir
cumstances of our meeting, but I
guess they wereS Of the ordinary
sort. 7 live two doors from her
house, and / drop in to see her and
Mrs. Burke at least once q week.
Even her; marriage, which hurt me
SO much at the time, did not sepa-
rate us for very long, and i think j
have lived to forget my first rash.
determination never to look upon
her face again. / called the night
Of the wedding, and I have been
calling regularly ever since. I am.
beginning to- to believe that it was q
good thing, after all, that she didn't
| marry me. 3
What I want to; tell--and it won't,
take long to tell it in. my dry FASH
ion-is the story Of old Brownies,
colirtship. 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 4 am, / being fifty-one now.
ne both have held The same posi-
stions for twenty years. Browne
weighs more than 200 pounds, and I
weigh trifle less. &; =
| Mrs. Burke, who is Edith's moth
Ter, came tome this summer and had
quite a 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 estab ablishment on Arch
street going she would have to rent
some of the hand dsome 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.
Isss Old Browne rented the second
| story front room the, day after II
told him about it. He had been liy-
ing away uptoS and he was glad
to get q 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 o.
wealth oftbric-a-brAc, which, to, my
mind, did not become his age. Mrs. Y
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. g
thought q good deal Of Edit. g
and every night or two we played
cards e her ;s;. ss1iythers rooms. 5ne
and 4 played pr. tners against young
Bob Smith and Mrs. Burke. We
were pretty evenly matched, too, for
Bob played q stiff game Of whist,
and ITweM, you may remember that
was one Of The Pentecost clubs
prize team last fall. Edith and I
won most Of the: games, though, for
Bob was too internally lazy ever to.
Edo anything we'll. And then he
never, seemed Ito mind it if he lost.
The presence Of old Browne an
noyed me a great deal a..as. a..as. Il don't
mind saying So About u week after
he took his rooms there fornd him
occup pying my seat at the whist tar
BILE when Z called Hewas fumbIing
hescards In his awkward fashion,
and Edith was Ian hing at him.
Bob was engaged in giving an imita-
| tion OF my telling d war story, and
even 4 Ma: Burke was approving the
ridicuIctls pro- edings. 7 coughed,
and that stopped the game, but T.
was lncomfort Bile all tha evening.
Bob had the good sense to OBI
ogize, bnt old Browne simply tit-
tered for an hour over what he
seemed to consider q good joke on
me. ~ II. S. &
After that all my affairs seemed
to 30 wrong, and I began to seri-;
sously consid der whether I shouldn't
rent every room in Mrs. Burke's
house myself Z was actually con-
templa ating this roposition one
night in my own pirtments, ssmok-
ing my lass bowl (of tobacco the
while, when The coIored girl who
waits on the door said that man
had cai LEI. !. to zee me. Z have Few