Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-04-27

some TO get INTO evening uresS. %
he dined in business clothes. thinking
he would dress after dinner for any
function to which he might have been
invited-for the theater, opera or what
ever entertainment was in store for
him. But after dinner he found it more
difficult to exert himself than before
and, sitting down to his evening paper
or book, failed to arise till 10 or IL
o'clock, to get into his pajamas and go
to bed. After having done this quite
continuously for a few months, one
evening he unused thus:
There's no use denying the fact any
longer that I've outgrown social, or,
rather, society, life, which Is hollow,
selfish and altogether Improbable. I'm
getting out of it very fast and will new
er go back to it. 1 can't marry because
the girls I associate with are all
brought up to spend money, and / am
not earning enough to supply my own
wants. AS for marrying a helpmate,
I can't do that because I don't know
any girls of that kind. Being forced
to live in bachelor quarters alone, III
| procure books from the Libraries and
read. But first I must get the bare
ness out of this room and make it as
homelike as possible"
Mr. Barnes consulted with an elder
" lady friend as to how he might get
/ the "bareness'' out of his room and
was advised to buy a few attractive
pictures to cover the walls and knick-
knacks TO adorn his furniture. He
bought the pictures, and, as for the
knicknacks, he found a profusion Of ar
| ticles that no man would ever have
! thought of at a woman's exchange.
One thing he purchased there which
only a woman would have dreamed of,
though it was useful to the sterner
sex, was a case for smokers articles
made Of a wooden fabric bound with
silk and decorated with number Of
beautiful bowknots.
Barnes laughed at this when he saw |
it, but bought it because it was so dis |
tinctly feminine. When he got it to |
his room he hung 1t On the wall, string |
ing his pipes along the chain of loops, |
expecting to keep them there till the |
smoking case became odoriferous. He /
also dropped a rubber tobacco pouch |
in a pocket probably intended for it |
by the fair smoker, then sat down in /
his easy chair to admire his decora-
tons.
They all looked attractive and were
a great improv ement to the room. But
there was still something wanting.
Barnes knew very well what it was.
He had got rid of the baroness, but
not the loneliness. Going to his smok-
ing case, he selected pipe and took his
tobacco pouch from its pocket. With
it out came a bit of paper, which
Tod 70 no a r1ipl -od |
up and read in a feminine hand as
follows:
Lonely Bachelor-If this work of my
hands falls to such. 1 sympathize with
you in your loneliness. Perhaps when
you read this you will be passing an
evening by yourself in your room. If so
think of the girl who is doing the same
after teaching all day. making things like
this smoking case to help to keep herself
alive. By the bye don't you think struck
a bright idea when I thought of maxi
ing it?
Ned thought she struck brighter
idea when she put this missive in it.
though at first he was disposed to con-
slider her doing so a trife-well, a trif1e
irregular, but it occurred to him that
a girl stupid enough to make a smok-
ing case out Of wool and silk, adorned
with bowknots. might suppose she
could put out such a message without
her identity being discovered. How
ever, there is something attractive to
men in womans misconception OF
mans requirements, and vice versa.
At any rate, Ned was very much inter
ested in his find.
He was more than interested. He
was sensibly, or, rather, sentimentally,
affected by the sympathy of this poor
girl, who was like himself yearning for
something which nature intended for s
her. but which she was denied. He {
lighted his pipe and began putting 7
clouds of smoke, through which he l
formed conceptions Of her. Was she
lark? Was she fair? Was she dis q
posed TO be merry? How would she l
ook sitting on the other side of the 2
able doing some Bit of needlework. a
not to sell to strangers, but for some I
me she loved? O
This simple picture grew into others, l;
yet all of the same kind. The room n
became one of a number. There was a 4
'aint cry. She arose and went to an d
adjoining room, from which it had is q
'ued. There was lullaby. which in a b
ew minutes ceased. The dreamer n
rose and looked into the room where | Z,
he woman and child were and saw
he baby sleeping, the mother bending r
'ver it. W
Leaving the child, they walked back. II
land in hand. and. drawing n sofa be- N
ore the fireplace. sat together and, It
laid plans, in which the h,
title sleeper was the central figure n.
The dream changed. He came home a.
fter business to meet her at the door. M
nd she gave him kiss mechanically G,
or she was troubled. She told him OF
hat their oldest child. now boy OF q,
even, was i'll. The doctor had been
allied for ana would soon De there.
ioing upstairs, the father put his hand