The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-07-09
CONTINUED From Page one.)

Il
minutes, OF course, no woman
likes to lose a lover, no matter
what she may say about 1t, 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 desperation, that you and
Bella are-are in love, why don't
you say so, Jim? 1 think you
will find that 1 stand 1t wonder
fully"
He frightened perceptibly.
81 didn't know how you would
take it, Kit" he said, "and ]
hope we will always be bully
friends. You are absolutely sure
you don't care a whoop for me?"
Absolutely" / replied. and we
shook hands on it. Then he be-
gan about Bella; 1t was very tire
some.
Bella is a nice girl, but I had
roomed with her at school, and ]
was under no illusions. When
Jim raved about Bella and her
banjo, and Bella and her guitar,
had painful moments when
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,
never batted an eye. And ]
shook hands solemnly across the
tea-table again, and wished him
happiness - which. was sincere
enough, but hopeIess-and said
we had only been playing a
game, but that 1t was time to STOP
playing. Jim kissed my hand
and 1t was really very touching
We had been the best OF
friends ever since. Two days be.
fore the wedding he came around
from his tailor's, and we burned
all his letters to me. He would
read one and say; Here's 9
crackerjack, Kit" and pass 1t to
me. And after / had read 1t We
would lay 1t on the firelog, and
Jim would say, 81 am not wor.
thy of her, Kit. I wonder IL
can make her happy?" Or-'Did
you know that the Duke of Bel
ford proposed to her in London
last winter?"
OF course, one has to take the
woman's word about a thing like
that, but the Duke of Bedford had
been mad about Maude Richard
all that winter.
You can see that the burning
of the letters, which was meant to
be reminiscently sentimental, o
sore of : how-silly-we-were-but-it.
is-all-over-now occasion, became
actually a two hours eulogy OF
Bella. And just when was
bored to death, the Mercer girls
dropped in and heard Jim begin
to read one commencing dear.
est Kit" And the next day
after the rehearsal dinner, they
told Bella!
There was very nearly no wed.
ding at all. Bella came to see
me In frenzy the next morn
ing and threw Jim and his two
hundred odd pounds in my face,
and although ! explained 1t all
over and over, she never quite
forgave me. That was what
made 1t so hard later-the stu
alton would have been bad enough
without that complication.
They went abroad on the we'd
ding journey, and stayed several
months. And when Jim came
back he was fatter than ever. Ev-
erybody noticed it. Bella ahd a
gymnasium fitted up in a corner
of the studio, but he would not
use it. He smoked a pipe and
lpainted all day, and drank beer
and would eat starches or what
ever 1t is that is fattening. But
he adored Bella, and he was
madly jealous Of her. At dinners
he used to glare at the man who
took her in, although it did not
make him thin. Bella was flirt-
ing. too, and by the time they
had been married a year, people
hitched their chairs together and
dropped their voices when they
were mentioned.
Well, on the anniversary Of the
day Bella left him-oh, yes, she
left him finally. She was in
tense enough about some things,
and she said 1t got on her nerves
to have everybody chuckle when
they asked for her husband.