Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-12-10
HER UNLIMITED GUEST
BY WILLIAM BURTON.

Always when she dreamed her IA |
vorite dream-that of some day living
in an apartment of her own-she oc-
cupied her fancy more with the spare
room than with any other.
This was curious, inasmuch as she
was a woman not much inclined to
sociability, being fond of her own So
ciety. So why in fancy she should
always be furnishing that spare cham
Der, laying the gray rug on its floor,
hanging the dimity curtains and
smoothing the Marseilles spread. she
herself could not explain.
She even arranged the books in the
little white case, books calculated to
put a guest in good humor with him
self, books which would bring about
that peaceful state of mind conducive
to sleep. She would have no exciting
novels, no passionate poems, no soci-
illogical firebrands in her guest
chamber. There should be such vol
umes as 1.-THE Measure of the Hours,
Society and Solitude" Sesame and
Lilies" These would become the
shelves and crafty guest even If he
never got beyond the titles
So when by a generous increase in
her salary the apartment was made
possible she took one with five rooms
instead of four, because. as she told
the agent, she must have a spare
room"
The rooms of reality are never as
well furnished as are those in the
houses of our Imagination. Still, her
guest chamber was a marvel of white
ness and daintiness. There was a
lovely gray hand woven flower bCrd-
cred rug on the floor and French
striped paper with pattern of tiny
rosebuds on the wall. The woodwork
was white, and so were the little iron
bed and the enameled dresser and the
stiff chair. There was another chair,
a rocker, covered with cretonne of
much the same pattern as the paper,
and It stood close to low wicker ia
BILE, on which was placed a small rain-e
bow glass vase, an Indian basket and
few books.
n0 CONCIS vi LuC UOOhS vi
the same colors as those in the wall
paper-pink, to match the buds. or
green, to match the buds leaves-and
they looked like the kind of books one
Is proud to buy. but never has time
to read. But "The Measure of the
Hours" Society and Solitude" and
Sesame and Lilies" stood up fresh
and inviting.
It was a conventional room, but Ii
had cost much thought and self-denial
to procure it. And it was ten times
more costly than her own.
But where was the guest? After
three months of residence in her new
home she had never turned down the
Marseilles spread nor put flowers in
the rainbow glass vase, nor brought
out the guest towel that she herself
had embroidered. OF course all sorts
of imaginary persons had occupied the
room and had expressed themselves
as having slept the sleep of the just
and Of infancy, and of having felt
strong desire never to be obliged to
emerge from the rose colored COM
forter and the Marseilles spread that
covered it.
Sometimes the guest was cousin
whom she had known in her child
hood and who had gone through Har-
ward and was now practicing law in
Boston; the rose comforter and the
Sesame and Lilies" would be none
too fine for him. Then again it was
an old friend of her fathers. an arts
tocratic woman, who had visited them
in the days of their prosperity, and
who, being literary in her tastes
would be sure to appreciate the quail
ity of the quilt and to pounce upon
| the Sesame and Lilies"
One day, a minute after she had
closed the door on the grocers shabby
boy. who had consented to deliver her
/ groceries after she had returned home
/ at night. she heard a crash on the
| back porch and the sound of some one
/ falling. She opened the door quickly
/ and turned the electric light upon the
| white face of the boy who but mo-
ment before had been explaining to
/ uSI WHY uc hdo plOu6lI NhiIS SOAh
! meal instead of the yellow she had
| ordered Now his face was as white
as the meal and he looked as II he
would never again deliver groceries
/ He was only a mite of boy and
she had little difficulty in getting him
into the guest chamber and on top Of
| the Marseilles spread, where he re-
manned until the arrival of a strange
/ doctor who ordered that he be placed
under this priced coverlet and that
/ he remain there until able to be re-
moved to his home. That was not un-
| til the end of the second week.
Those two weeks she declared to
1 be the happiest of her life. though the
/ guest who occupied her spare cham
/ Der showed no interest either in
books or bouquets After he had
gone she used to love to sit alone in
the little rocker. staring meditatively
at the backs of the books and at the
roses on the wall.
But this is not all of the story. She
married the doctor and turned her
back forever on the little room that
never knew the presence of an in
vited guest Yet she says that the
spare chamber more than fulfilled its
purpose-it brought into her life
guest who remained.