The Washington herald., 1920-11-30
ANO. HENRY STORY
The Memento

II asked. Were your positions In
life SO differentr
-.She was, far above me- says
Arthur. Now. Ida.' he goes on. this
Is all Of the past. You're not going
to be Jealous. are your
Jealousv says /. why, man,
what are you talking about2 1t
makes me think ten times as much
of you as did before 1 knew about
it,
And 1t did, Lynn--if you can un-
derstand 1t. That ideal love was a
new one on me, but IL struck me
as being the most beautiful. and gio-
rious thing I'd ever heard of. Think
OF man loving a woman he'd never
even spoken to. and being faithful
just to what his mind and heart
pictured her! Oh, II sounded great
to me. The men I'd always known
come at you with either diamonds.
knock-out drops ora rssse of sal
ary-and their ideals!-well, well
say no more.
Yet. 1t made me think more of
Arthur than 1 did before. / couldn't
be Jealous of that far-away divinity
that he used to worship, for / was
going to have him myself. And
began to look upon him as a saint
on earth, just as old lady Gurley
did.
About four o'clock this afternoon
! a man came to the house for Arthur
to go and see somebody that was
| sick among his church bunch. Old
lady Gurley was Daking her after
| noon snore on a Couch. so that lef,
| me pretty much alone.
I'm passing by Arthir's study I
looked in. and saw his bunch OF
keys hanging in the drawer Of his
desk. where he'd forgotten 'em
Well. I guess we're all to the Mrs
Bluebeard now and then. amt we
Lynn? made up my mind I'd have
| a look at that memento he kept sc
secret. Not that I cared what 4,
was-it was just curiosity:
while I was opening the drawei
imagined one or two things Il
might be. I thought it might be a
dried rosebud she'd dropped dowr
! to him from a balcony. or maybe a
picture of her he'd cut out of a
magazine. she being so high up In
the world.
II opened the drawer, and there
\ was the rosewood casket about the
size of a gents collar box I found
\ the little key in the bunch thai
fitted 1t, and unlocked It and raised
the lid.
'I took one look at that memento
and then / went to my room and
backed my trunk. / threw a few
| things into my grip, gave my hail
a fiirt or two with a side comb, put
on my hat, and went in and gavs
the old lady's foot kick. I'd tried
awfully hard to use proper and cor.
rect language while I was there fol
Arthur's sake, and I had the habit
down pat. but it left me then.
Stop saving gourds.' says /, and
sit up and take notice. The ghost,
about to walk. I'm going away
| from here, and owe you eight dol,
lars. The expressman will call fol
my trunk
ct handed her the morey.
Dear me. Miss Crosbyn says she
is anything wrong? thought you
were pleased here. Dear me. younl
women are so hard to understand
and SO different from what. you ex.
pect 'em to be-
You're damn right says I
Some of 'em are. But you can't say
l that about mcn- When you-know
one man you know 'em all! Tha,
settles the human-race question
And then I caught the four-thir.
| ty-eight, soft-coal unlimited:s and
here I am
You didn't tell me what was In
the box. Lee" said Miss D'Armande
anviously.
"one of those yellow silk garters
that I used to kick off my leg into
the audience during that old vaude.
Vile SWING act of mine. Is there
any of the cocktail left, Lynn"
Copyright, 1890. by Wheeler Syn hiicate.)