The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1911-01-20
CHAPTER l.
At Least | Meant WeII.

Il kinds or 1Olllnchuoul Lhey WouiN
come; and then when they did come
and got in the papers, and every one
but urselves-laughed himself
black in the face, they turned on mel
(. who suffered ten times TO their one!
shall never forget what Dallas
Brown said to me, standing with
coal shovel In one hand and a-weH,
| perhaps Il would be better to tell II
ali in the order It happened.
It began with Jimmy Wilson and
A conspiracy, was helped on by foot
square piece Of yellow paper and
Japanese butler, and II 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 III
II 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, we're
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
Che has one in the Hargrave gallery
in London now, so people buy them
instead), 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. If he asked people to dinner
every one expected a frolic. When
he married Bella Knowles, people
chuckled at the wedding, and consid-
cred It the widest prank of Jimmys
career. although Jim himself seemed
to take It awfully hard.
We had all known them both for
years. l 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 It. It was a very nice pic
ture, but It did not look like me, so
stayed from the exhibition. Jim asked
-. l. hn n phn-
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 camp in the Adiron-
dacks and when he came back he
came at once to see me. He seemed
to think l would be sorry to lose him,
and he blundered over the telling for
20 minutes. OF course, no woman
likes to lose lover, no matter what
she may say about 1t, but Jim had
been getting on my nerves for some
time, and was much calmer than he
expected me to be.
'Tf you mean" 1 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 stand it
wonderfully"
He frightened perceptibly.
Il didn't know how you would take
It, Kit" he said, "and hope we win
always be bully friends. You are abb
solutely sure you don't care a whoop
TOR me?"
Absolutely" replied, and we
shook hands on It, Then he began
about Bella; it was very tiresome.
Bella is a nice girl, but had room
cd with her at school, and was under
no illusions When Jim raved about
Bella and her banjo, and Bella and
ner guitar, l 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, never batted
IN eye. And / shook hands solemnly
across the tea table again, and
wished him happiness-which was
sincere enough, but hopeless-and
said we had only been playing a game,
but that It was time to stop playing.
Jim kissed my hand, and 1t was really
Very touching
We had been the best of friends
ever since Two days before the wed
ding he came around from his tailofs.
and we burned all his letters to me-
He would read one and say: Here's
crackerjack. Kit" and pass 1t to
me. And after had read 1t we would
lay it on the firelog, and Jim would
say, Il am not worthy of her, Kit.
wonder If | can make her happy?" Or
ibid you know that the duke of
Belford proposed to her in London
last winter?"
OF course, one has to take tho
Woman's word about a thing like that
hut the duke of Belford had beer
mad about Maude Richard all that
winter.
You can see that the burning of |
the letters, which was meant to be
Peminiscently sentimental, a sort of |
how-silly were-it-is-all-over-now oc-
oasion, became actually two hours
sulOgy 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 Bellai
There was very nearly no wedding
AZ all. Bella came to see me in a
lfenzy the next morning and threw
Sim and his two hundred odd pounds
ln my face, and although / explained