The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1911-02-24
CHAPTE |.
At Least | Meant Well.

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 l got up the dinner, that
asked them to give up other engage
ments and come, that l promised all
kinds of jollification, 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!
l, who suffered ten times to their one
l 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 II
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
incongruous, doesn't it?
It Is a great misfortune to be stout
especially for 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 angrler
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
he has one in the Hargrave gallery
London now, so people buy them
rstead), 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 ambl-
ton in life was to be taken seriously,
but people steadily refused to. His
art was huge joke-except to him.
$ If. If he asked people to dinner,
very one expected a frolic. When
Re married Bella Knowles, people
ohuckled at the wedding, and cons1d-
red 1t the widest prank Of Jimmy's s
Greer. although Jim himself seemed
o take it awfully hard.
We had all known them both for
years. l went to Pennington with
Pella. and Anne Brown was her ma
tron. of honor when she married Jim.
Wy first winter out, Jimmy had paid
lot of attention. He painted my
:: ortrait in oils and had a studio tea
exhibit it. 1t was a very nice pic
are. but it did not look like me, so
stayed from the exhibition. Jim asked
me to. He said be was not pho
.ographer, 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. l have not.
After | had refused Jim twice he
met Bella at camp in the sAdiron-
dacks and when he came back he
came at once to see me. He seemed
20 think would be sorry to lose him,
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.
IF you mean," l said finally in des-
neration, that you and Bella are-are
in love, why don't you say SO, jim?
think you will find that stand it
wonderfully"
He frightened perceptibly.
y didn't know how you would take
it, Kit" he said, "and l hope We will
always be bully friends. You are ab-
for me?,.'
Absolutely" l replied, and we
shook hands on it. Then he began
ebout Bella; it was very tiresome.
Bella is nice girl, but had room
ed with her at school, and | was under
no Illusions When Jim raved about
Bella and her banjo, and Bella and
her guitar, l had painful moments
when l 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 l shook hands solemnly
wished him happiness-which was
sincere enough. but hopeless-and
said we had only been playing game,
but that 1t was time to stop playing:
Jim kissed my hand, and it was really
very touching
We had been the best of friends
ever since Two days before the wed
ding be came around from his. taior's.
and we burned all his letters to me
He would read one and say: Here's
a crackerjack, Kit" anG pass it TO
me. And after had read it we would
lay 1t on the frelog, and Jim would
say. Il am not worthy of her, Kit.
wonder If / 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.
but the duke Of Belford 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, sort of
how silly-we- were-it-is -all-over-now oc
casion, 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 dearest Kit
And the next day after the rehearsal
dinner. they told Bella!
There was very nearly no wedding
at ALL Bella came to see me in
frenzy the next morning 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 it