, 1918-05-30
For the Love
of Pete
~
By INES MACDONALD
Copyright, 1918. by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)

Mable Wells was as winsome as
twenty, as buxom as thirty, and as
wise as forty, and yet she was none
of these. A woman would have said
h was thirty-five-a man, twenty
five, but as a matter of fact she was
none of these, either. She was en-
tirely twenty-eight, admitted every
year, month and day of it, and smiled
when she did so, serenely and brightly
smiled, whether you looked skeptical
or doubtful.
In her graver moments, or hours, i
should say, Mable was private secre-
tary to the Honorable Peter Hobb, one-
time senator in the Legislature of the
great state of Ohio, and for all time
the richest man in Bellington. The
Honorable Peter Hobb, although only
forty-one, was also the most dignified
man north of the equator and south of
the North pole. he radlated dignity
he oozed it. He lifted his hat with the
same precise lift every time he met a
woman of his acquaintance, and bowed
his head at just the right angle, with
a variation. And during the
four years In which Mable had been
his secretary he had never treated her
other than as If she were a duchess
at a diplomats ball, with all the cour-
tesy of a Chinese mandarin.
And yet Notwithstanding all of this
perfection of treatment on the part of
her employer, Mable had disgraced
herself. She had chewed the dignifed
hand that fed her, as it were, she had
but what's the use?
When a friendly, s%prightly, here-I-
am and here-I'm-not sort of a girl, as
was Mable Wells, rises up in the office
of her employer, shoves back the chair
from her desk, slams a book down on
its paper-littered top with a bang and
yells out in ~adisgusted tones right in
the face of a digniied man like the
Honorable Peter Hobb-"for the love
Of Pete! you make me Sick" and then
marches GU of his office in the middle
Of the afternoon and doesn't come
back the next morning, you may know
that something would be liable to
happen.
81 just couldn't help it," she told her
mother that night. "He just lets that
nephew Of his work him to a stand
still. 1t will ruin the boy, and he's
too nice a youngster to be ruined that
way. The idea With all those bills
coming in every month and getting
bigger all the time, and he never says
a word I"
"But. Mable, just think what you
said Hfc no-a4 a., pztA. da-- 80
you said. for the love Of Peter He'll
think-oh, my, what will he think? OF
course. you're fred"
81 don't care If I am" said Mable,
spunkily. 1.-THE nerve of him asking
me If I'd take Billy Hobb in hand
and marry him just to make him be-
have-even supposing I couldw
But Mable's voice was as calm as
a kittens slumber as she answered
the telephone at ten-thirty the next
morning, and 1 regret to say that she
slipped her hand owe the transmitter
and giggled, when she heard the voice
of her employer on the wire.
Are you i'll this morning, Miss
Wellsr"
"Oh, no." blithely.
"Well-er-you were late-and-I-
er thought you might be ILL.,"
II thought l was fred" said Mable.
"Fired? Oh, no, and you see, l can't
seem to find anything this morning.
If you could arrange to get over as
DON IS possible, Miss Wells, l would
appreciate it"
Thirty minutes later Mable entered
the office and pitched into her work.
There was a pile of bills to be checked
off, and checks to write for each bill,
besides a dozen letters. The bills were
statements from Billy Hobbs cred
itors, and of the letters was to
Billy himself. The letter was of Ma
bells W composition, and 1t was to
the point:
"My Dear Boy:-Needless to say,
I'm covering your accounts as usual.
Also I'm sending you check for a hun
dred, which will be enough and more
to get you home. I'm expecting you
to begin work at the plant on the first
of the month.
"As you know, If you had displayed
any particular talent In any line at all
/ would be glad to extend our pres
ent arrangement to that end, but such
has not been the case. As far as I
can see, your only talent lies In spend
ing money and feeding chickens.
II want to have a good time my
self n of these days, and If I'm ever
to have it, you've got to be able to
take things in hand here. In order
to do that, you'll have to get in now.
"Your aflectlonate uncle"
The Honorable Peter looked over
the checks hurriedly and signed them,
but he signed the letters without look
ing at them at all, while his secretary
demurely as she placed them