Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1911-10-26

heard q group OF excited girls say,
Poor little thing. her mother died
last week and she is all alone"
Willis mind, working slowly,
evolved a plan. "Pd like to send her
home in cab," he said TO one of the
girls. 1T seems to me that am
partly to blame. Everybody who
shops In such crowded season is to
blame. might have waited until the
rush was over"
The girl looked at him curiously.
You get the cab" she said. and I'll
bring her down when she Is better"
At the door Of the cab Willis asked
for her number, and he blushed and
stammered.
The next day he hunted her up. He
found her on the top floor OF tene-
ment. looking smaller and winter
than ever, as she lay curled up on
the couch. One OF the women in the
house was looking after her, but
there we're few evidences Of comfort.
Che greeted him in startled way.
Her life had not made her confiding.
IF you will let me look after you
a little" he said to her, "Td feel pct
ter. hate to see a little white thing
like you having to struggle. When
you tainted yesterday In the store it
came to me that the world was pretty
cruel to girls like you"
Her eyes filled with tears. "Peo-
Pile do not think" she said. very
much about us"
He did not shower things upon her.
Yet he saw to it that she had enough
nourishing food.
She did not dream he was a rich
man. His clothes, his rough hands,
his hesitating manner. gave no inn
preston of aff1uence.
Yet she chung to him; loved him;
worshiped him. He was not Slow
Coach Willis" to her. but wonderful
being of tenderness and strength
When at last he asked her to marry
him, she would have gone with him
to penury. She did not dream that
his house was, in sense, a fairy
palace. Plain on the outside, it was
like rose within.
Spurred by the rapture of his love
for her, Willis demanded from his
shrewd lawyer friend information as
to the keeping up of an up-to-date
establishment. A stout maid was
hired to assist his housekeeper. He
bought big limousine and an cleo
trio, and when he took the little white
maid home to his village they rode
in the big car wrapped in furs.
But you mustn't be so extrava-
CANT" she told him, thinking 1t hired
for the occasion, after this. OF
course, just for our wedding journey
it is all right, but after that you
mustn't"
He smiled in his slow way, and he
laughed little as he carried her
over the threshold of her own room.
1t was the rose room.
"Oh!" she said, and drew a quick
little breath ooh, is 1t fairyland?"
mo, 1t is your home" he told her.
She fitted into 1t like jewel into
its proper setting. She had a city
woman's knowledge Of the proper
thing; and 1t came about that Willis
Lamphear's home became the center
of hospitality In the town. And Will
lis took on new dignity. His wife
told him what to get and he bought
1t. His clothes, made by city tailor.
fitted him and gave him an air of q
man of the world; He was no longer
SLOW Coach Willis" the townspeo-
pie were proud of him and of his pref
ty wife.
But there were some women to
whom Willis success was sour
grapes. 81 wouldn't have had him
with all his money" they would say
spitefully
But Willis wife knew that she
had won a prize; she had seen be-
meath the surface into the heart OF
the man.