Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1913-08-30

Miss Kent was quite thoughtful for
a long time The paper was crowded
that day and there was only room for
one more answer. The last letter
was a long one.
Dear Miss Mayhew:
Il am a blonde and / have been go
ing with a young gentleman for
year We love each other dearly. He
calls to see me every Wednesday and
on Saturday nights we go to the
heater He has told me that he Is
not going with any other young ladies
at present but he has never asked me
to marry him. Would it be wrong
for me to tell him 1 love him! I am
nineteen and ann considered rather
good-looking-
adamantine resolution nerved Miss
Kent's right hand
mo woman ever tells a man that
she loves him until he has asked her
to marry him." she wrote. THAT is
exclusively a gentleman's prerogative.
You can only be patient and suffer in
silence. Can you not encourage him
to make a declaration by not conf1n-
ing your attentions to him exclus-
ively?"
Il wonder" she reflected, as she
laid her pen aside, whether Miss
Mayhem was writing from experience
when she penned Form 4"
Her task was over at last and she
rose up and went to the wardrobe for
her hat. She hoped Miss Mayhew's
mother would make an amazingly
rapid recovery. The agony column
exhausted every atom of her vitality.
1T is good discipline to be sponsor
for all the Iove-struck idiots in town.,
she reflected
81 beg your pardon?" inquired Mr..
| Mclaughlin.
81 beg your pardon?" he repeated
Did you say something, Miss Kent?"
80, dear no, 1 was just soliloquiz-
ing" she answered, giving her hat
final pat to straighten it.
Mclaughlin paused irresolutely.
You look quite tagged he said
Say, Miss Kent, won't you'll mean
would you mind having dinner with
me tonight, somewhere? l haven't a
thing to do and 1 have found the fin
est little place where you can get a
| Scandinavian dinner and imported
beer. It's just opening, so it's bound
| to be good And then maybe we can
| take in show afterward-yes?"
81 don't know that ought to-" Miss
| Kent answered, but her smile was dis
| tinctly affirmative. So they set out to-
| gether and soon they had left the
| grimy working life far behind and
| were riding on a street car through
the city. And then they got off and
| turned down a little side street of
which Miss Kent had never even
| heard, and he was plotting her into
| a real Scandinavian restaurant. They
| sat down at a table which had been
| made for two exclusively, and there
| the lights and the music and the
| merry conversation of the other diners
| made Miss Kent forget all about Miss
| Mayhem and her miserable CORE
| spondents-
| AS she watched Mclaughlin she
| could not help thinking that he was
| the incest young fellow she knew. He
| carried himself so well and looked so
| frank and kind, and he had always
| treated her with such courtesy. And
| Mclaughlin, looking at her until their
eyes met and each turned away in en-
| barrassment, was thinking something
that had often disturbed him when
| he was seated at the copy desk-that
| Alice Kent was different from any
girl he had ever known, and what
luck it was that nobody had come
along and snapped her up while he
was idly dreaming about her.
He bent over the table toward her.
| DO you know he said, Il feel as If
1 had known you all my life instead
of barely a couple of months. How
| did we ever get to speak to each
other? Why, don't believe that we
have even been introduced to each
other, and now 1 feel as though we
ought to be sitting next to each other
at dinner every night. Gee, that
| would be some dinner, wouldn't itI'
81 guess it would answered Miss
Kent happily.
And then they fell to chatting and
| fingered over the meal so long that
| neither knew whether the fish had
| been served or whether it was the
salad they were waiting for. Indeed,
when at last they looked up they
found that everybody in the restau-
rant had left, and the band was go
| ing home, and they two were alone
| together there with the proprietor and
the walters, who were standing round
and looking at them with smiles that
| betrayed an admixture of impotence.
| So they went out and strolled through
| a paradise of dirty streets until they
came to a clean little park, and they
sat down on bench and their con-
versation became quite personal and