Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1905-03-15

\
have been with you now. know that
II your illness continued you would
need nurse, and l felt that could
not delegate to strangers the privilege
of attending you" 1t was a womanly
letter-the letter of woman mature in
heart and brain-and Claxton pondered
q long while before putting ii aside.
| Next came telegram, sent to his
apartments before the telephone had
been installed: please come tonight.
Am blue. Have wired Minnie stay
home" A very sweet, dependent lit
| tie message, but of course not to be
thought of as the single memento of
| so close a friendship as theirs had
been. 1t was even preferable to retain
| the short note which he had always
ascribed to her literary genius rather
you, dropping into the waters of my
heart. produces ever widening circles
| of tender recollection"
| Then there was an envelope from
her. on the back of which he had COM
| posed fragment of verse 1t began:
1
| SO dear and oh, so necessary!
| Claxton remembered that she had
| priced the poem above anything else
be had given her. at is 50 fine to be
thought necessary, she had said.
In this manner lie progressed through
five of the nine packages. Each letter
| seemed more desirable than the rest,
and every moment made a selection
less easy. This scrawl was reassur-
ance which she had penciled on the
leaf of her programme at the theater
| that sheet of blue paper bore the first
| words of affection he had ever received
| from her
At the bottom of the fifth bundle was
long envelope with the name of a
hand corner. The postmark was over
| two years old. Rejected manuscript"
Claxton concluded tossing it to one
side contemptuously. That had come
back in the days when rejected manu-
scripts had not been half SO rare as
| good dinners or money with which to
pay rent Something approaching Gu
| iioNltS piNh tp thC ticpC
again and draw the contents from its
mouth. The story that lay before him
| was headed. From Frank Claxton, 211
West Twenty-irst Street" but the
type Enthusiastically belonged to the ma
chine which still remained fixture
| at Miss Certer's. The tale was one
that she had sent over his signature to
l oil 90 prjn sba had foit
certain, and it had in consequence been
returned to him when that gentleman
had classed it as unavailable" Il
thought you'd get check" Virginia
had confessed, land l knew you'd
spend it without considering why's ana
wherefores. It's just like Phelps! lie
was enthusiastic over the plot when |
told it to him last week"
Virginia" he had demonstrated, at
was like offering me charity"
"Nonsensel. shouldn't have thought
of handing you money. l simply wrote
story for you that you might have
written yourself if you had taken
time
Taken time, Good Lord. how much
time he had taken that year in just
such discouraging. unremunerative Ia
Dor. How unhappy he had been and
how awfully, awfully hard up! He
hadn't begun spending every evening
with her then, and he hadn't begun
selling whatever he wrote either. mo
body ever did-at first" she had as
sured him.
For twenty minutes Claxton sat 81
Iently on his chair island in the middle
of sea of letters. His fingers chung
to the rejected manuscript, but his eyes
looked beyond it into the past. All the
half forgotten history of his love for
Virginia Carter had been recalled to
him with wonderful vividness-her un-
varying goodness, the sweetness of
their intercourse, the erstwhile strength
of his affection for her. A ships clock
In the adjoining room struck 2, the
nautical fashion of saying that the hour
was 5. and with quick resolution he be-
gan climbing into his evening clothes.
1--WE come to take you to dinner" he
said to Miss Carter when she respond
ed to his pressure on the button at her
door.
$50 you were lonely, tooT she asked
him.
Lonely? By George. and those let
ters"-
She was too clever girl not to seem
surprised, and he could not look
through the sides of her trunk into the
tray where reposed severa! PACKAGES
of his letters to her, unsearched, un-
touched, since first they had been read
and laid away.
| Blue Jays.