The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-09-02
81 beg your pardong" he repeated,

81 beg your pardon?" he repeated.
Did you say something, Miss Kent %
20, dear no, l was just soliloquiE-
ing" she answered. giving her hat a
final pat to straighten it.
Mclaughlin paused frresolutely.
You look quite tagged" he said,
Say, Miss Kent, won't you'll mean
would you mind having dinner with
me tonight, somewhere? haven't a
thing to do and have found the fin
est little place where you can get a
Scandinavian dinner and imported
beer. It's just opening, 80 it's bound
to be good. And then maybe we can
take in a show afterward-yes?"
Il 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 street car through
the city. And then they got OF 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 we'll 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
luck 1t 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
had known you all my life instead
Of barely a couple of months. How
did we ever get to speak to each
other? Why, l don't believe that we
have even been introduced to each
other, and now l feel as though we
ought to be sitting next to each other
at dinner every night. Gee, that
would be some dinner, wouldn't it,"
Il guess it would" answered Miss
Kent happily.
And then they fell to chatting and
fingered over the meal 30 long that
neither knew whether the fish had
been served or whether 1t was the
salad they we're 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 we're 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-
became quite personal and
absorbing.
When at last Mclaughlin left Miss
Kent at the door of her apartment he
hesitated, and, as he looked back
over his shoulder at her, fumbling
with the key which somehow would
not fit the lock of the door, he sud
denly came back again and took her
in his arms and kissed her.
Miss Kent had often dreamed OF
such a possibility and of the just rep
rimand that she would impose upon
the criminal who took such liberty.
1t had ranged all the way from a box
on the ear to a mild rebuke, according
to the way she happened to be feel
Ing. But now, to her subsequent
all she did was to put
her arms round his neck and say:
20. Richard. love you with all my
heart"
And then, grinning, out of its cor
ner a shadowy remembrance crept |
into fully fiedged life.
20, Richard she cried Historically,
cant you do one thing for me? Ask
Mr.. Kemp to take me of the agony
l can't live up to Miss May
hews principles"
Copyright, 1913. by W. G. Chapman)