Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-11-15

| essentially Qu0 10 the UATiuS ana du-
dacity of his ventures required check
or cessation; and he found, through
! the weeks and months, that the cock
tails supplied this very thing. They
constituted a stone wall He never
drank during the morning, nor in Of
fee hours; but the instant he left the
Office he proceeded to rear this wall
Of alcoholic inhibition athwart his
! consciousness. The Office became i'm
mediately a closed affair. 1t ceased
to exist. In the afternoon, after lunch,
1t lived again for one or two hours,
when, leaving it, he rebuilt the wall of
inhibition. OF course, there were ex-
ceptions to this; and, such was the rig
or Of his discipline, that If he had a
dinner or a conference before him In
which, in business way, he encoun-
tered enemies or allies and planned or
prosecuted campaigns, he abstained
from drinking. But the instant thu
business was settled, his everlasting
call went out for a Martini, and for
double-Martini at that, in long glass
so as not to excite comment.
Into Daylight's life came Dede Ma
son. She came rather imperceptibly.
He had accepted her impersonally
along with the Office furnishing, the
Office boy, Morrison, the chief, conf
| Dental, and only clerk, and all the
rest of the accessories Of a super
mans gambling place Of business. Had
| he been asked any time during the first
months she was in his employ, he
would have been unable to tell the
color Of her eyes. From the fact that
she was a demi-blonde, there resid-
ed dimly in his subconsciousness a
conception that she was a brunette.
Likewise he had an idea that she was
not thin, while there was an absence
in his mind of any idea that she was
fat. And how she dressed, he had no
idea at all. He had no trained eye in
such matters, nor was he interested.
He took it for granted, in the lack of
any impression to the contrary, that
she was dressed somehow. He knew
her as Miss Mason" and that was
all, though he was aware that as
stenOgrapher she was quick and accu-
rate. He watched her leaving one aft
ernoon, and was aware for the first
time that she was well-formed. and
that her manner Of dress was salts
flying. He knew none of the details of
woman's dress, and he saw none of
the details of her neat shirt waist
and weli-cut tailor suit. He saw only
the effect in a general, sketchy way.
She looked right. This was in the alb
sence of anything wrong or out OF the
way.
She's trim little good-looker," was
his verdict, when the outer office door
closed on her.
The next morning, debating, he con-
cluded that he liked the way she did
| ner hair, though for the life Of him
he could have given no description Of
! it. The impression was pleasing, that
was all. She sat between him and
the window, and he noted that her
! hair was light brown, with hints Of
| golden bronze. A pale sun, shining in.
| touched the golden bronze into smoul-
| dering fires that were very pleasing.
| He discovered that in the intervals.
when she had nothing to do, she read
| books and magazines, or worked on
| some sort Of feminine fancy work.
Passing her desk, once, he picked up a
volume of Kipling's poems and glanced
| bepuzzled through the pages.
F: You like reading, Miss Mason?" he
said, laying the book down.
"Oh, yes" was the answer; very
much"
Another time 1t was a book of
| Wells, 1.-THE Wheels of Chance"
What's it all about?" Daylight
| asked
oh, it's just novel, love-story."
She stopped, but he still stood wait
ing. and she felt 1t incumbent to go on.
It's about little Cockney Diapers
| assistant, who takes q vacation ON
| his bicycle, and falls In with young
| girl very much above him. Her moth
er is popular writer and all that.
And the situation is very curious, and
sad, too, and tragic. Would you care
| to read it?''
Does he get herr" Daylight de-
manded.
No; that's the point of it. He
| wasn't"
And he doesn't get her, and you've
read all them pages, hundreds of them,
to find that out?" Daylight muttered in
! amazement
Miss Mason was nettled as we'll as
amused.
But you read the mining and fnan-
cial news by the hour" she re-
torted.
But I sure get something out of
| that. It's business, and it's differ
ent get money out of it. What do
you get out of books?"
Points of view, new ideas, life."
mot worth a cent cash.
But life's worth more than cash."
she argued
"Oh, WELL" he said, with easy mas
culine tolerance, so long as you en-
Joy it. That's what counts, suppose;
and there's no accounting for taste"
Despite his own superior point of
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