The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1917-08-10
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY
Waiting for Watrous.
ny poRrHY poUaLAs.
Copyright, 1917, by the Mcclure
NeWspaper Syndicate.)

Copyright, 1917, by the Mcclure
Newspaper syndicate.)
7 was a cheap little restaurant on
the east side. The food was not
bad. neither was the service. but
there was a Ssr1e of baFr'nnes' about
II all.
meal because It was tnexpensiye-aI
attraction for Wartrous. He didn't
have much money and had scarcely a
/ hope Of ever having any, He was the
tyne, that blessed, happy-golucky type
that finds happiness in the moon, the
flowers and in the very fact that God
has given US life.
His position was an indefinite sorI
Of slerkship in department store IN
The neighborhood. In the evening ne
wandered over to one Of the bohemian
restaurants, his violin under his Ian
guild arm, and there played while art
lists, actors, futurists-why not-ate
heterogeneous mixtures OF food.
Watrous enjoyed this part OF his
daily toll. He found huge interest IN
the animated or dangerous or silently
melancholy beings who styled them
selves tempermental souls, HIP always
longed for a third hand that might
sketch them as he was wont to sketch
each day the inmates OF the cheap
little east side restaurant But with
his fingers busy with bow and fiddle
he could only imagine their quaint
attitudes on paper.
30 Wartrous went bis way, making
rather q wonderful, II assorted, collec-
tion Of friends as he dritted along the
bubhling bohemian current,
In the cheap little restaurant he
uBuGlly sketched attitudes while he
ebSently swallowed whatever his wait
feSB had considered nouriShing and
had placed on the polished surface
before him.
Had Watrous been observing he
would have known that he was, per
hspS, the best cared'for patron in the
plance. Molly Carey, who waited on
him always saw to that while she
waited wistfully for the day when he
would turn his eyes in her direction.
She had that motherly tender look in
her eyes Of his life partner-and sell
dom chooses. II Watrous was con-
scious of this attention no one knew
Il but Watrous. He sketched on the
menu cards whatever came within his
vision and tossed the quaint little
sketches aside when finished just as
he cast aside his serviette when the fl
nal mouthful OF coffee had passed his
lips,
He always left a dime on the table.
Molly Carey saved all those dimes.
When her dreams were or what inten-
lions she had wound about them was
her own secret. She preserved them
no less systematically than she saved
every sketch that Watrous made on
The menu cards,
The sketches we're far more clever
than she realized-portraits Of patrons
In various Characteristic attitudes.
The very tone, or perhaps lack OF
zone, of the cheap little restaurant was
7ividly drawn.
The only sketch he had made with
Watrous did not leave in the restau-
rant was one Of Molly. Something
about her usefulness, her entire lack
Of selfconsciousness, had dragged a
hasty likeness Of her from his pencil.
He had 1t in his room on his shaving
stand. Dreamy, semi-conscious appre'
citation had prompted him to put it
there.
Watrous was never definite about
lunching anywhere. There were days
when the last quarter had gone some
where in the world of spent money"