The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-07

got it for you
 The eyes of the girl glowed happily. She was beaming.
 sI'm so glad,'' she said. ssBut why why didn't you give 1t to me last might? It would have meant so much if you had"
 That replied MT. Magee, sis what I'm coming to-very reluctantly. Did you note any spirit of caution in the fellow who set forth on your quest and dropped over the balcony rail? You did not waited on the porch and saw Max tap the safe. I saw him and Cargan come out. I waited for them. Just as I was about to jump on them somebody-the man with the seventh key, I guess-did it for me. There was a scuffie. I joined it. I emerged with the package everybody seems so in terested in.''
 s.Yes,p said the girl breathlessly. "And them
 tT started to bring it to yoE,'' went on Magee, glancfng over his shoulder at Max q was all aglow with TO- mance and battle and all that sort of thing. I pictured the thrill of hand ing you the thing you had asked. I ran upstaIre At the head of the stairs --I saw .hef"
 The light died in her eyes. Re proach entered there.
 ssYes," continued Magee, your knight errant lost his nerve. He ceased to run on schedule. She. too, asked me for that package of money.''
 sAnd you gave it to her,'' said the girl scornfully.
 "Oh, nos answered Magee quickly. ssNot so bad as that. I simply sat down on the steps and, thought I got cautious. decided to wait until to- day. I'll did wait.''
 He paused. The girl strode on, look ing straight ahead
 q know" he said, what you think. Pm a fine specimen of man to send on hunt like that-a weakkneed mollycoddie who passes into state of coma at the crucial moment. But Pm going to give you that package yet-''
 The girl turned her head MT Ma gee saw that her eyes were misty with tears.
 You're playing with me-. she said broken1y. ssE might have known. And I trusted you. You're in the game with the others-and I thought you weren't. I staked my whole chance of success on you. Now you're making sport sof me. You never intended to give me that money You don't in- tend to now"
 Ion my word,'' cried Magee, "I do intend to give 1t to you-the minute we get back to the inni I have it safe in my room.''
 Give it to her,'' said the girl bitter ly. .eWhy don't you give it to her?''
 Oh, the perversity of women!
 ssIt's you want to give it to- re piled Magee warmly. 'I don't know night I was a fool. You don't be- ieFe in me, I know Her eace was cold and expressionless.
 sAnd I wanted to believe in you so much, 2 she said.
 .sWhy did you want to?'' cried Ma gee. ssWhy r
 She plodded on through the snow.
 "You must believe he pleaded ssI don't know what all this is about-on my word of honor. But want to-giye you that money, and will-the min ute we get back to the inn. Will you believe then? Will your" 4I hate you" said the girl simply.
 She should not have said that As far back. as he could remember such opposition had stirred MT. Magee to wild deeds. He opened his mouth, and words flowed forth What were the words?
 'I love you! I love you! Ever since that moment in the station have loved you! I love your'
 Faint1y he heard himself saying it over and over. By the gods, he was proposing-inanely, in words of one syllable. as the butchers boy might have told his love to the second kitch- en maid.
 .I love you" he continued. Idiot!
 Often MT. Magee had thought of the moment when he would tell his love to a woman. It was a moment of dim lights, music perhaps in the distance, two souls caught up in the magic of the moonlit night-a pretty graceful speech from him, a sweet gracious surrender from the girl. And this-insfead.
 'I love you" In heavens name, was he never going. to stop saying it? ''I want you to believe"
 Good lord! He recalled that feI- low novelist, whose love scenes were regarded as models by young people suffering the tender passion, had once confessed that he proposed to his wife on street car and was accepted just as the conductor handed him his trans fers.
 The girl deliberately stopped. There was never less of sweet gracious sur render in a suffrag gette hurting a stone through a shopkeeper's window. She eyed MT. Magee pityingly, and they stood until Mir. Max caught up with them.
 ESQ that's the hermit's shack said Max, indicating the little wooden hut at which they had arrived. "A funny place for guy to bury himself. ! should think he'd get to longing for