The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1918-12-17
Bill Burke Regarded the Sign.

dings. After that he had taken turn
around the store and had come back
just to see Clarabelle again.
Now to explain just why Bill Burke
was so vulnerable to the charms of
the whitehead Clarabelle Smell and
her Hoover kitchen. Largely, of
course, 1t was because Clarabelle was
really very charming sort of person;
her particular charms appealed to
him because of the contrast they bore
to the woman whose personality DOM
mated his entire existence. That
woman was no less than the justly
celebrated novelist, George Standish,
In private life Laurette Burke. his sis
ter Laurette was some five or six
years older than he. Her first sue
cessful novel had helped him through
college and by the time he was gradu-
ated her renown and her income from
her writings were phenomenal.
But she needed a manager, her bank
account was In a helpless mess. She
could not endure to live alone, her
rather eccentric housekeeping methods
would have been the despair of any
woman who might have been helpful
to her, and, though she might have
chosen a husband, she preferred the
less binding companionship of her
brother. He shared her literary tastes
If not her talents. He had a good
head for business and was at least
used to her ways and owed her
rather deep obligation.
So, just when he was trying to de-
eide what his choice of q career should
be she settled the matter, offered him
salary that would have been temp
tation to any young graduate, and
took him on as her manager. In that
choice Laurette showed that for once
she had managed her affairs wisely,
for with Bill as her constant compan-
ion and adviser she nearly doubled
her literary output, found new inspira-
ton and was relieved Of all the little
interruptions that had previously
harassed her
Meantime, Bill had become nobody
in the world but George Standish's
brother. He lived in her apartment,
ate of her oddly-chosen meals, cr1ti-
cized vigorously all that she wrote,
stood between her and her publish
ers, and incidentally did such other
not really worthy tasks as going shop
ping for her, hiring maids when they
left and, when they couldn't be hired,
sharing with Laurette the work OF
their admittedly shiftless housekeep-
| ing.
OF course, 1t was not just the manly,
strong thing to do-to become so abb
sorbed in the personality even of
| brilliant sister. But Bill felt keenly
his obligation, and he couldn't make
up his mind just how he would take
the first step that would mean his in
| dependence.
At times the whole thing really got
very much on even his steady nerves.
The morning of his first vision of
Clarabelle was one of these times, for
Laurette had worked all night in the
throes of a nearly completed novel
and came to breakfast haggard but
jubilant and ravenous. 1t was in one
of the cookless epochs of their house
keeping, and what breakfast there
was Bill had got; and Laurette, VINO
! might have been a very comeiy Wom-
an-and in fact was so on occasions
sat there eating the scrambled eggs
though they were burned and cold,
reading aloud the product of her night
labor. A new maid was promised for
4 that afternoon, and to solve the dish
washing problem until then Laurette
had conceived the happy idea of get
ting more dishes and pans and hence
Bill had been dispatched to the store
to buy them.
And as he looked at that immaculate
kitchen he thought of the CONTRAST II
would make with that other one III
Laurette's apartment. Then, as CARA
belle returned, he contrasted her a.
she stood there-as fine a type O
voman as his own slster-yet willlns