The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-01-19
CHAPTER l..
At Least Meant Well.


When the dreadful thing occurred
that night, every one turned on me.
The injustice Of 1t hurt me most.
They said got up the dinner, that |
X them so give up other engage
ments and come, that | promised all
Kinds of jolliication, If they would
come; and then when they did come
and got In the papers, and every n
but ourselves-laughed himself
black IN the face, they turned on me!
j, who suffered ten times to their one!
y shan never forget what Dallas
Brown said to me, standing with a
coal shovel In one hand and a-well,
perhaps 1t would be better to tell 1t
all IN the order 1t happened.
1t began with Jimmy Wilson and
n conspiracy, was helped on by a foot
square piece of yellow paper and a
Japanese butler, and Il enmeshed and
mixed up generally ten respectable
members of society and a policeman.
incidentally, It developed a pearl col
lar and n box of soap, which sounds
fncongruous. doesn't It?
II 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
Texible and full of expression as a
pillow In a tight cover. The angrier
he got the funnier he looked, and
when he was raging, and his neck
nwelled up over his collar and got
red, he was enhancing. And every
body liked him, and borrowed money
srom him, and laughed at his pictures
Che has one in the Hargrave gallery
I'm London now, so people buy them
unsteady, and smoked his cigarettes,
and tried to steal his Jap. The whole
story hinges on the Jap.
The trouble was, / think, that no
one took Jim seriously. His ambi-
tion In life was to be taken seriously,
but people steadily refused to. His
art was a huge joke-except to him
self. II he asked people to dinner.
every one expected a frolic. When
ne married Bella Knowles, people
chuckled at the wedding, and consid-
cred 1t the widest prank of Jimmy's
career, although Jim himself seemed
20 take II awfully hard.
We had all known them both for
years. went to Pennington with
Bella. and Anne Brown vas her ma
sron 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 a studio tea
20 exhibit It. 1t was a very nice pic
stayed from the exhibition. Jim asked
me 10. He said he was not a 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 o
After | had refused Jim twice he
met Bella at a camp In the Adiron-
Gacks and when he came back he
came at once to see me-. He seemed
20 think I would be sorry to lose him,
and he Numbered over the telling for
10 minutes. or course, no woman
likes TO lose a lover, no matter what
she may say about IL, but Jim had
been getting on my nerves for some
time, and I 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 i stand 1t
wonderfully."
He frightened p~erceptibly.
81 didn't know how you would take
q, Kit he said, "and I hope we will
always be bully friends. You are alb
solutely sure you don't care a whoop
Cor met"
Absolutely" I replied, and we
shook hands on Il. Then he began
eAout Bella: It was very tiresome.
Bella is a nice girl, but ! had room
"a with her at school. and I was under
no Illusions. When Jim raved about
Bella and her banjo. and Bella and
her guitar, I had painful moments
when I recalled Bella learning her
two songs on each instrument, and the
old English ballad she had learned to
MAY on the harp. When he a she
too good for him, ! never batted
an eve. And I shook hands solemnly
the tea table again. and
wished him happiness--which was
sincere enough, but hopeless-and
naid we had only been playing a game,
hut that II was time to stop playing.
Jim kissed my hand. and 1t was really
very touching.