The Washington times., 1908-12-26


"Blirkety, blink, blank, blank. blank,
Pete Spencer" he coruscated, when I
say want 20 see you on highly ;mpor-
tant business. you ought to know. by
the Eternal, that somethiI = is up, and
not keep me out there playing a bloom
ing British ass for the entertainment
Of your blank-blanI1ed clerks and
stencgraphers! BY Goeffrey Gingertail,
/ refuse to stand for it,
But. Bailey" expOstulated Starr
Spencer, Il had important business Of
my own 10 attend to. Fiossy has been
here"
II it had been his purpose to sui ST.
tute amazement for wrath as his com
paInon's controlling emotion, he certain
" succeeded.
Bailey, or NorthoOte-whichever one
may see ht TO cali hiul-cropped his air
OF injured umbrage and gaped incred-
uIouslpy
WHAT
Yes" Spencer nodded. Il don't won
DER that you are surprised. You could
have Knocked me over with a feather
when 1 saw her come walking in here
this morning."
She came here2 Then. she must be
on To everything"
She thought she was" Spencer grin
ned; but 1 soon convinced her Of her
mistake. These officers, you must un-
derstand, belong 20 a company and
merely act as sort OF fgurehead; am
IN reality but an extremely poorly paid
empIoye-"
''oh I See,' remarked Bailey
Seven years before. these two. then
not even shady mining brokers, but
mere tn-hOrn professional gamblers,
had gone to a little South Dakota town
10 operate chuck-a-luck game AT a
county fair
Spencer. always stylish and prepos-
sessinG appearance. attracted the ia
vorable glances Of an unsophisticated
little country girl. the daughter OF a
neighboring farmer, and after q randi
IRE courtship OF two days induced her
10 run away with him and get mar
ried.
Why he had done such a thing he
never afterward could tell. The girl
was rather pretty and blooming. and
ne might have felt a momentary in
fatuati0n for her. but he was certain
y not in love.
Indeed, his cOldly selfish nature had
never known any approach to a real
passion until Helene Burns came into
his life; and his sentiment even with
her was, as has been seen, not wholly
disinterested-
OF poor. dowdy, ignorant little
Flossy he became utterly wearied in
less than two weeks, and A run OF bad
luck coming along just then. he sent
his wife back to her parents.
Perhaps the man was not 20 blame
In that he was incapable OF giving her
any affection. They were absolutely
uncOngenial, and although she was no
more responsible than he for their
hasty. ill-advised match. il was but
natural that he should feel a certain
resentment against her when he
awoke to the realization that he was
bound hard and fast. From Adam
down II has been a masculine ten
dencv 10 shift the fault 10 the wo-
mans shoulders.
1t speaks volumes. though. for Starr
Spencer's inherent meanne5s that he
had permitted the girl to drudge all
these years. a dependent in her hard
old fathers home, and had never con-
tributed so much as one penny TO her
support.
Even now, when he played with mill
lions as a man might Jingle quarters
IN his pocket, he represented himself
in the occasional letters he wrote
TO Keep her quiet"-as so hard press
ed that he hardly knew where his
next meal was coming from
lie would ostentatiOUsly give Il FIVE
or ten dollar tip to a waiter in a res
taurant, but he did not send his wife
so much as Christmas present. So
Indifferent was he 10 her. indeed, that
he almost grUdged the postage he was
obliged to spend upon her letters.
Yet, despite his coldness and negIect.
Flossy-oh, marvel Of a woman's heart!
never wavered in her devotion to him.
She slaved away uncomplaingly at her
hard work upOn the farm, fiercely re-
senting any remarks Of her people aneLt
his "shiftless.lsSs-
She treasured lis curt, infreq le1t let
ters, reading and re-Teadllg them over
and over again. and weeping soft
heartedly over the straits IN VIII cE he
pictured himself. sac made constant
excuses for him to herself
I4atterly he had been automatically
limiting that, since his prospects were
never so bad, and II seemed hopeless
that ne could ever do anything for her,
he was generously willing to release
her from the tie between them, anc per-
NIT her to obtain a more capable help
meet; but she scOrned so disloyal a
proposal.
She would never desert him. she de-
clared, simply because he was in trouble
and down on his luck" He was her
hero, you see. her brief honeymoon,
the one touch Of romance in her dreary,
sordid life. Too long had she cIung TO
the dream that "Pete should one day
make a raise and send for her" to aban-
don It at this late date.
And then one day that Sunday sup
plement depicting the rise and aims OF
Starr Spencer-that same supplement
which had led to the acquaintance be-
tween him and Helene-reached by de-
vious ways the kitchen of the South Da-
kota farm house.
Flossy unwrapped it from about a
bundle of crockery sent from the store
and saw the picture Of her husband
forth as the organizer of a
great industrial scheme.
Hastily she concealed the paper SOL
that no one else might see; but that
night. when alone in her room, she
- -, "a