The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-04-20
KArE's F1NANCrER1NG.


they tell us there is no romance, the
one excludes the other-commercial-
ism, no romance romance, no COM
mercialism. Perhaps this is so, yet
there must be few exceptions. |
know of one. I, real estate agent,
discovered within cold, prosaic real
estate transfer the threads of most
borrowing case of duplicity, crafti-
ness and romance. Tying these
threads together and showing them
to the guilty person-my cousin
obtained full confession after promis-
ing never to tell. The best of it is
that the other interested person does
not suspect the romance in which he
figured.
About year before these events.
my cousin Kate had, to prove her in
dependence, obtained a position as
stenographer for an architectural
firm in town. Here were employed
several young draughtsmen, who
promptly became interested in Kate,
but she treated them all imperson-
ally, except one. In this matter,
among many others, Kate showed
her queerness of taste, for Kate the
fy-away, Kate the fi-t, Kate the
conqueror, chose to "adopt" Billy
Thorne. y
Billy Thorne was quiet, hard
working fellow, generally, considered
rather prosaic. He got fair salary
and saved most of it, never went
anywhere and was never known to
talk to a girl. Hence, there was
great wonderment in the Office when
one morning in walked Billy Thorne
with the stenographer. He repeated
this performance several times in the
next few weeks, and even went out
to lnnch with her. He carried on in
this way until he became regular
caller on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Then Billy began to think. Billy
had ideas on certain matters. He
thought that man ought not to pro-
pose to girl till he owned house;
that a man should never get in debt
was another axiom.
Inasmuch as his bank account
grew slowly he could see no possbil-
ity of further progress in his love af-
fair, and he knew that he must go
either backward or forward. Hence,
he was not at all smiling when he
rang the bell at Kate's home on one
balmy Sunday afternoon, nor did
Kate's proposition to take walk
cheer him greatly. They had taken
walks before and Billy had found
that contemplation of admirable
building sites one could not buy was
depressing.
Although Billy had never spoken
of building sites in a personal way,
nor expounded his ideas on debt and
marriage to Kate, she, being observ-
ant, had put this and that together
and got a. fairly good idea of the state
Of affairs. Hence she understood
Billy's Guinness and let him walk
along at her side, scowling and 81
lent.
AS they had done before, they
stopped and read a certain sign on a
certain lot. Billy laughed-a little
bitterly-and said: 'tIf we could
only have an earthquake I'd be
happy
Kate looked puzzled and he ex-
planned: ''An uncle of mine left me
200 acres of rocks on the Maine coast,
and a nice, accommodating earth
quake might, in the general mixup,
set few acres down here, where I
could use them"
"What part of Maine are they in?"
asked Kate.
"Other side of Calais. I've been
trying to sell that land for several
years, but nobody wants it.
"Did you ever advertise ~
eyes" answered Billy moodily.
Nothing DOING"
Then they walked on. Here's
where I come into the story. Just
because had proposed four or five
times to her-and been rejected each
time-Kate used me for all sorts of
errands, so 1 was not bit surprised
when Kate came into the Office and
sat down.
"Well," l asked, "what is it now?
Want me to circulate a petition for a
municipal theatre or restore lost
dog?"
"No, John have you met Mr..
Thorne ?'' She even blushed.
"No, but I'd like to-on dark
night" answered, looking as fierce
as / could.
"Don't be silly, John /; I want you
to go to Mr.. Thorne and buy some
land he has for sale. It's near Calais,
Me. I'll buy it from you-you know
Aunt Emma left be some money
so you won't lose"
"What in the world" I shrieked,
"are you going to do with land ur in
that place start a fresh air hospital
or a summer hotell" :
''John," she answered severely,
"you were always too inquisitive.
Now do as you're told. And John,
don't mention me at all. Pay him a
| good price. 1 must go now. Good
BY"
As usual did as 1 was told. 1t
was throwing money away, but 1t
was Kate's money.
And now go out of the story, for
the next day Sunday after l bought
the gold brick, Billy Thorne ran up
the steps to Kate's house and hardly
got inside before he announced JOY
fully: "Sold the rocks in Maine to
some fellow-named Marlow-nil-
lionaire, l guess, for he paid me big
price. And now I've got something
else to say" The rest, Kate says,
was personal"
Some time later Kate-I can imag-
inc her look of innocence at the time
L.