The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1911-01-27
CHAPTER !.
At Least / Meant Well.

At Least Meant We'll.
When the dreadful thing occurred
that night, every n turned on me.
The injustice Of 1t hurt me most.
They said | got up the dinner, that
asked them to give up other engage
ments and come, that | promised all
kinds Of j~olliication, II they would
come; and then when they did come
and got in the papers, and every II
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 a
coal shovel In one hand and a-well,
perhaps 1t would be better to tell 1t
all In the order It happened.
II began with Jimmy Wilson and
conspiracy, was helped on by a foot
square piece of yellow paper and a
Japanese butler, and 1t enmeshed and
mixed up generally ten respectable
members OF society and a policeman.
incidentally, It developed a pearl col
lar and a box of soap, which sounds
lncongruous. doesn't It?
II Is a great misfortune to be stout,
especially for a a jim was ro-
was, and as all the lines Of his face,
or what should have been lines, were
Ssally dimples, his face was about as
flexible and full of expression as a
pillow In a tight cover. The angrier
be got the funnier he looked, and
when he was raging, and his neck
gwelled 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
insteadl, 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
he married Bella Knowles, people
ehuckled at the wedding, and consid-
cred It the widest prank of Jimmy's
career, although Jim himself seemed
70 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 a studio tea
TO exhibit IL. II was a very nice pic
trre, but 1t did not look like me, so
stayed from the exhibition. Jim asked
me to. 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 not.
After | 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
10 think / would be sorry to lose him,
and he blundered over the telling for
30 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
dme, and | was much calmer than he
expected me to be.
"If you mean" I said finally in des-
pcration, shat you and Bella a%re,-are
70 love. why don't you say so. jim?
I think you will find that | stand 1t
wonderfully"
lie frightened ~perceptibly.
Il didn't know how you would take
4, Kit" he said, land / hope we will
always be bully friends. You are alb
solutely sure you don't care a whoop
Cor me7"
Absolutely" replied, and we
shook hands on It. Then he began
~hout Bella: 1t was very tiresome.
Bella is a nice girl, but | had room
% witk Der at school, and ! was under
no illusions. When Jim raved about
BellaN and her banjo. and Bella and
her guitar, I 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. I never batted
An eye. And ! shook hands solemnly
ACROSS the tea table again. and
wishsd him happiness-which was
sincere enough but hopeIess-and
said We had only been playing a game.
2 that Il was time To stop playing.
'n Kissed my hand. and II was really
ny touching