Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-12-14
CHAPTER |.
At Least L Meant Wen.

They said I got up the dinner, that
asked them to give up other engage
ments and come, that 1 promised all
kinds of Notification, if they would
come; and then when they did come
and got in the papers, and every one
but ourselves-laughed himself
black in the face, they turned on me!
!, who suffered ten times to their one!
] shall never forget what Dallas
Brown said to me, standing with
coal shovel in one hand and a-well,
perhaps it would be better to tell it
all in the order it happened.
It began with Jimmy Wilson and
a conspiracy, was helped on by foot
square piece of yellow paper and a
Japanese butler, and it enmeshed and
mixed up generally ten respectable
members of society and policeman.
Incidentally, it developed a pearl col
lar and a box of soap, which sounds
homogeneous, doesn't it?
It is a great misfortune to be stout,
especially for a man. Jim was ro-
tund and looked shorter than he really
was, and as all the lines Of his face,
or what should have been lines, were
really dimples, his face was about as
flexible and full Of expression as
pillow in a tight cover. The angrier
he got the funnier he looked, and
when he was raging, and his neck
swelled up over his collar and got
red, he was enhancing. And every
body liked him, and borrowed money
from him, and laughed at his pictures
Che has one in the Hargrave gallery
In London now, so people buy them
instead), and smoked his cigarettes,
and tried to steal his Jap. The whole
story hinges on the Jap.
The trouble was 1 think, that no
one took Jim seriously. His amb1-
ton in life was to be taken seriously,
but people steadily refused to. His
art was a huge joke-except to him
self If he asked people to dinner,
every one expected frolic. When
he married Bella Knowles, people
chuckled at the wedding, and consid-
cred it the widest prank of Jimmy's
career, although Jim himself seemed
to take it awfully hard.
We had all known them both for
years. went to Pennington with
Bella, and Anne Brown was her ma
tron of honor when she married Jim.
MY first winter out, Jimmy had paid
me a lot of attention. He painted my
portrait in oils and had studio tea
to exhibit it. It was very nice pic
ture, but it did not look like me, so
stayed from the exhibition. Jim asked
me to. He said he was not pho
tographer, and that anyhow the rest
of my features called for the nose he
had given me, and that all the Greuze
women have long necks. / have not.
After I had refused Jim twice he
met Bella at a camp in the Adiron-
dacks and when he came back. he
came at once to see me. He seemed
to think l would be sorry to lose him,
and he Numbered over the telling for
20 minutes. OF course, no woman
likes to lose a lover, no matter what
she may say about it, but Jim had
been getting on my nerves for some
time, and l was much calmer than he
expected me to be.
eff you mean" I said finally in des-
peration, that you and Bella are-are
in love, why don't you say so, jim?
/ think you will find that 1 stand it
wonderfully"
He frightened perceptibly.
''I didn't know how you would take
it, Kit" he said, "and l hope we will
always be bully friends You are alb
solutely suEe you don't care whoop
for me-" d .z!. ~; Gs3se 'Fr>>
tra,1Absolutely," / replied, and we
shook hands on 1t. Then he began
about Bella; it was very tiresome.
Bella is a nice girl, but had room
ed with her at school, and I was under
no illusions. When Jim raved about
Bella and her banjo, and Bella and
her guitar, l had painful moments
when 1 recalled Bella learning her
two songs on each instrument, and the
old English ballad she had learned to
play on the harp. When he said she
was too good for him, l never batted
an eye. And l shook hands solomnly
across the tea table again, and
wished him happiness-which was
sincere enough, but hopeless-and
said we had only been playing a game,
DuC CndC IL was ClLuS W sup play ms
Jim kissed my hand, and it was really
very touching.
We had been the best of friends
ever since. Two days before the we'd
ding he came around from his tailor's,
and we burned all his letters to me.
He would read one and say: Here's
q crackerjack, Kit" and pass it to
mo And after had read it we would
lay it on the firelog, and Jim would
say, Il am not worthy of her, Kit. /
wonder ifS1 can make her happy?" Or
did you know that the duke of
Belford proposed to her In London
last winter?"
OF course, one has to take the
woman's word about thing like that,
hut the duke Of Ralfnrd bod haan