El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-07-22
''HelPing Jimmy"
A short Story.
ALr saw Jimmy this morning" I
mentioned casually. d

''Yes?' said Mrs Neralour.
Yes. I think we shall have to take
to calling him James. The hand OF
Time seems to lave given him a sud
den, fearful blow be locked as i
he had seen II0uble through a micro
SC re Has anysCdv left him moneT,
] do yeu know %
Money Good gracious, no."
Poor old chap. Then he must have
lost his little all.
Mrs VeralOur, tapping her foot i'm
patienaIy. Why must it be one or
the other?
it was money trouble Of some sort He
had the appearance of being pau
per trying to look like millionaire,
or else a millionaire disguised as a
papuer. His clothes have aged fright
fully during the last few days. In fact,
you could hardly call them clotnes'
! they were merely emblems Of civiliza-
ton"
Mrs. VeraIour seemed about to speak
and then changing her mind, put her
hand in front of her mouth and con-
verted her remark into a yawn-
"Or else it is love-" I murmured
gazing dreamily into the fire.
"Of course" she said at last, with
somewhat superfluous franknesss =
I make mistakes sometimes, You
7 know Florence Appleton, don't you!
I Jimmy was frightfully gone on her. he
\ used to come round here every AFTER
noon and tell me how much he loved
! her"
/ would have been considerably more
| sensible for him to have gone round
I and told the girl how much he loved
leWhat2' calculated Mrs. Veralour,
with a laugh that was nearly a shrek
Mr.. Blake. what an extraordinary
| thing to say"
We'll" I said. Isn't the next best
-srT hnr n
| tell her you dOnt2 Especially a girl
30 sought after as Florence Appleton
Shed Immediately begin to wonder
what was the matter with him
-'Myes,' said Mrs Veralour, 7 sup
pose she is inclined TO think every
man in town is in love with her; but
then she's got such hOrdes of admirers,
! it's really not the girls fault"
No" I agreed Its not her fault;
its her fortune"
MISFORTUNE murmured Mrs. Vera
lour, who never by any chance listens
to what / say, well, / don't Know
about that Still, as was saying,
Jimmy used to come round and tell
me all about ii, and I promised TO help
him"
Mrs. Veralour," I said Indignantly,
you're always matchmaking It's
abominable- You don't deserve to be
widow"
Mrs VeralOur, firmly. deaf to my re-
mark. He wanted rather a lot OF
helping" she added reflectively," he
was so awfully shy Fancy a man be-
ing shyl"
why not? Somebody's got to be.
What did you dO2 suppose you
praised him up to the skies to her"
Mrs. Veralour looked at me with an
air of mild amusement
My dear Mr.. Blake. Is your grand
mother still alive2"
Eth? Yes. Why2"
"Oh, I was only wondering where
i
from. Of course didn't praise him.
1 ran him down I used to go round
and tell her most frightful stories
about him 1 warned her against him
Once you warn a girl against a man
you've wasted your time It's like
putting a dangerous" notice I'D on
sheet Of ice; everybody goes to see
why it was put there"
Oh said, weakly I haze had
many a ducking myself"
The best reputation q man can have
she pursued, is not to have one The
worst Of it was Jimmy wouldn't live
down to his reputation
That must be very disheartennig,'
I said, sympathetically, when you're
doing your worst for a man"
Yes, it was. Really, think il was
+ her money he was afraid Of"
Coward"
'.Myes. Still, suppose it is humil-
iating for a rich giIl to tell you she
can never be poor mans wife How
he would propose if I COntrived a good
opportunity for him.
She paused for a reflective moment
You know the summer-houSe in the
garden, don't yOU?"
I do" I said, and you know I do
Yes, you do, don't YOU" she smiled
Il had a spring lock fixed on the door.
You know, one of those that YOU can
only open from the outside"
I know. begin to see the end OF
this story
MN" she said. That's the worst
of being so bright, nothing comes as a
surprise Well after I'd had the lock
put on, 1 invited them both round to
lunch. OF course. asked a lot Of other
people, SO as not to arouse her sus-
piciOns- They all came: one or two
girls and a lot of men-mOst Of her
horde, in fact After lunch we all
went out on the lawn"
Do get on Mrs Veralour; you're like
a writer on space rates. There are
some things one takes for granted"
I'd told Jimmy what he'd got to
Get the girl in the summer-house.
and then you'd come along and snap
the door on them?'
Yes. Don't you think being locked
IN a summer house together was good
opportunity"
7 think so. He could lead up to
a proposal by saying how he wished
they could never get out again That's
what you meant, isn't it2'
les only nothing quite so silly as
that 1 was going to give them half
an hour to themselves, but after about
ten minutes all the men commenced to
drift away in search of her, and 1 was
afraid they'd take her away from poor
Jimmy so hurried along to the sum-
mer-house at once"
Go on I urged. Quicken the
action"
7 listened for a minute to make sure
they were really in there, as soon as
heard her voice, 1 gave the door a
Congratulations A tip-top scheme.
jolly well carried out"
wei, I do think So" asserted Mrs.
Veralour, in a tone curiOusIy defen-
sive- "I-stin think So"
why, of course You don't mean
to say, when you opened the door
later on they weren't engaged?"
ooh. no they were engaged all
right"
Good" I paused for a moment.
struck by a sudden thought But,
look here, what was old Jimmy look
ing so absolutely wretched about when
I saw him this morning.
Mrs Veralour hesitated, and then
pulled herself together.
1T wasn't he in the summer-house
with her, after all" she said