Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-11-08

Il love you, too. BEATRICE
With an apprehensive face that i'll &C
corded with the fervor of his pencil he
answered:
Not a much as I love YOU"
His communication brought him from
that far away table a siclly smile. a
deaths head symphony of age giddy with
the emotions OF youth For moment his
eyes fell beneath it, then with fists clench-
ed so that nails cut into the palms Of his
hands he met il and smiled in his turn.
The next communication from the aging
goddess via the waiter route was:
'WII you marry me~" BEATRICE.
Almost upsetting the table Broadway
leaped to his feet. Some champagne
glasses did indeed roll in fragments on the
floor. The while every eye in the room
was turned upon him, and every refine
there recorded his swift emphatic down
ward gesture of the arm, he shouted:
| Yes"
Instantly the room was filled with the
clamor of many voices speaking at once
each to its neighbor
"The punch AT last" said Mrs. Pres
brey
Then she looked for young Wallace,
but he had vanished some moments be-
fore.
There succeeded silence as profound as
the babel had been vigorous moment
before Expectation was written on
every face. Out of the silence arose a
woman's voice. the high pitched tremu-
ous falsetto tone of Mrs. Gerard, who
was half on her feet
81 feel just Ike little twitterlne bird
in the tree top" she cried. and then fell
over backward to the floor apparently in
a dead swoon.
Swift were the rescuers. Nine millions
Of dollars in womans hands may have
wings, but while it lasts it also puts
wings to the feet of others. Women
rushed to Mrs. Gerard, men tried to
, push past them, some one called for
, physician. others for brandy. while still
others, sodden with wine, stood agitated-
, ly ~ their chairs, and then drank the
, dregs from their glasses, there seeming
nothing else to do.
! But If the feet of some of the diners
had wings. those OF Broadway Jones
seemed planted in twin automobiles of
greatest horsepower Through the press
t Of men and women he passed without ap-
= parent effort. It was his hand which
t raised Mrs Gerard's head from the floor.
his knee upon which it was pillowed,
/ while he placed smelling salts beneath
> the wornans slightly tinted nose
1t was so sudden, poor dear he said,
E with just the slightest hint of his old
= humor in his eyes, and would not say
more.
= doctor augmented without dspacing
I the youth, who still supported Mrs. Ger
ard. Soon she opened her eyes. Broad
. way Jones mind had phrased the words
! before her lips uttered them.
where am 70" she murmured
: AS best he could from his half-squat-
y ting position on the floor, he put his
young arms about the angular time
2 gouged form.
$ Here, dearest in my arms, safe where
r you belong, little Beatrice" he said, so
that an overwhelming circle about him
heard and repeated to those on the out
$ skirts.
I There was again merciful interval
which was hidden by the outspread skirts
I of the women. Then, finally Mrs. Ger
g ard was led to her place, while, calm and
alert, at her side stood Broadway Jones.
waiting for order to be restored.
In response to his gestures the com
pany found, if rot their old seats, new
ones, which they drew as near to Mrs.
Gerard's table as possible.
Then. at last Broadway spread out his
; arms in a gesture for silence. He got it
Immediately. He sat down and d young
lawyer, a friend, tool; his place.
, MY friends said he I'VE have seen
: many things together. have shared many
experiences Now, we're going 10 share
a great happiness Our guest 1 may
well say. cur guest of honor. airs. Gerard,
begs to announce her engagement to
marry Mr.. jackson Jones"
! At first there was only an astonished
: ripple. to be succeeded a moment later
by bursts of laughter. This in its turn
: was followed by a blending of softer
merriment, the minelng of congratula-
{ tons and polite sprightliness, when peo-
pie began TO reflect that after all this
might be one of those punches" with
2 which the name of Broadway Jones had
been associated.
| But merriment unbounded returned
when from the far end OF the room came
l a piece of the grotesque, from which
: even the most thoughtless might have
] drawn sinister shade A white haired
] man, with a champagne glass in his hand,
f arose and waved It aloft. He was recog-
nized as an intimate of the Gerard fam
! lily, and of the age precisely Of Mrs. Ger
} ards second husband-that IS to say, of
I her own age. His hoary head brought
into striking relief the great difference
in the ages of the pair whose "happi-
' ness" had Just been announced
t "A health to the bride A health to
the BRIDE" he shouted.
| Then a a. 81 gnal from him. repeated
by the pallid Broadway Jones. files of
, walters swiftly appeared with great mag
nuns OF champagne, cooled in huge sill
Yer pals. nder The deft efforts Of the
/ serving men the toaming wine flowed in
unrestrained rivers.
Then began the maddest period Of the
/ night. which justified all OF the precau-
tons OF AZ. Henri. Upon an improvised
dais. made by heaping chairs upon chairs
and covering all with Oriental rugs, they
set Broadway Jones and his antique
divinity, while they crowned them with
chsplets made from the fiowery table dec
, orations.
, 1t was a season Of hilarious frenzy,
and gradually the torrents and cas-
, cades of wine swept away the conference
Of speech words lost their meaning.
their sound, and became merely so many
laughs. so that in the end the chief sign