Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-09

out OF The storm at twenty MIN
,,toe naat twat,,a ~, a Toacoroha
: wELvE-TwENTY had come ID

uleS past Twelve OI n DeCeUlDef
day six months before, and with the
single exception of a time when he had
gone to some place out on the Putnam
division. he had never failed of the
hour and the minute.
When he had withdrawn to the place
on the Putnam division the spheres had
strayed in their courses, according to
Murphy's internal evidence. She had
believed herself to be served by fate as
Number Ten had been, when the Swell
had gone away.
Murphy's and Twelve-Twentys intel
lectual converse had been bounded fore
and aft by ''Prunes.'' but how unlike
his fellows did Twelve Twenty dis
course: IF you please and II am in
no haste" How unlike the mental pro-
cesses of the man who sat beneath the
legend Watch your hat and coat" up
by the ham sandwich structure! The
man who wore potent breath, queer
colored diamond in a queerer colored
negligee shirt, and who mentioned his
thoughts somewhat thus Hand me
hash-dammed quick!"
Between Murphy and Twelve-Twenty
there had been something very gentle
and rarefied in the atmosphere-so rare
indeed, as to be intangible; but as "a
matter of fact, had Murphy paused t.
think it over, she must have recalled
that something like the following hhd
passed which had furnished an elemen-
tai and fertile imagination material
upon which to feed.
On the day when Murphy had had &
headache Twelve-Twenty had been
conscious of ii without being especially
conscious of Murphy, and he had said:
my dear girl, 1 am not at all par
ticuar about the prunes; just skip
them; it will mean the saving of at
least two hundred steps for you be-
tween here and that counter. Is there
not something quite handy that you
can shove this way, and which will
save you trouble? Now that butter
and-and"- Twelve-Twenty had
looked about, and having seen nothing
but the butter, and a sugar bowl and
heap of napkins, bad paused; but he
had all unwittingly made his gentle
purpose apparent, and Murphy had
paused in her flight and had looked
upon him with a new expression.
Twelve-Twenty was unaware that she
had looked at him at all; it was his
habit to treat all women with velvet
thought as well as tone, and to per-
ceive their needs without any process
of mental registration.
Twelve-Twenty was a man of the
pen, even was a man of very great
genius, as all the world but himself
knew. He, himself, had never become
aware of these things, in all his nice
and pleasant life. All that he was con-
scious of in his own case was that he
more frequently than not received a
good many cents word for writing
something for somebody-when he did
not receive a great deal more; and that
he had several-more than three
generations of entirely pleasing and
strictly honest folk behind him; and
he had never taken thought for the
morrow as to what he should eat nor
what he should put on. Twelve-Twenty
was one of those dangerous men VINO
was so largely because he did not know
it; and Murphy was not conscious of
why she loved him; but what she felt
stood for the word, in lieu of the word
superior. Perhaps affection was the
thing she felt-that word so much
sweeter and more abiding. Probably
what she had confided to Mag-Number
Ten-upon the subject, expressed the
case as clearly as it could have been
expressed by any one:
I'm just livin' day N night on his
smiles, Mag-because he's so different"
He was "differ'nt" to many more
persons than to Murphy, although
many might have better defined the
reason why.
Twelve~Twenty was not aware that
he needed aught of this worlds goods
above what his pen provided and that
which he had inherited from a fairly
we'll fixed ancestry. But Murphy as
sumed, not unreasonably, that a man
who took his luncheon at the ''joint"-
a misnomer attached to the restaurant
because of painful familiarity which
had grown up between it and it's en-
rloyes-and confined his dietary almost
exclusively to prunes toast, baked
apples and to certain other five cent
trivialities-I say it was not unreason-
ably assumed by her that he fed thus
because he could not afford roast beef
and pie. When Murphy had the price
roast beef and pie became for the time
her obsession.
Murphy had acquired numerous un-
classified and wholly erroneous assort-
ment Of facts concerning Twelve
Twenty which was the result Of his be-
ing SO "differnt" and so beloved. and
because to her his life was esoteric out
side the period bounded by the nooo
hour
Hence when he had withdrawn to the
place on the Putnam division where he