New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1921-01-26
Her R DESK
BY MABEL w. SANFORD.
(Cepyright.a

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
!, rs tcepyright.9
Eyes," said Brent, answering the
deferentiaIly questioning look in the
eyes of the clerk, 81 like these rooms
very much. Did you say they are the
only vacant apartment in the house?"'.
YES" returned the polite clerk
promptly; "and we shouldn't have
these to offer only that the young
lady who had them was ill, and obliged
to go. home.
Il will take the rooms he said.
But tell me: do all these pictures and
this desk go with them, or do they
belong to the young lady?"
well, it's this way said the clerk;
"they are to stay here if you wish
them, not unless, You see, the young
lady, Miss Castleton, is an artist you
have heard of her-and these pictures
are mostly her own work. She used
this room as a studio. And the desk
is hers, too.
Stanley Brent was young man Of
enough wealth to enable him to in:
dulge his fancies but he had concen-
Tated all his energies and ambitions
upon novel, which had finally been
accepted by a New York publishing
firm on condition that he would make
certain changes In the plot.
He found his new apartment all that
could be desired in the way of stimu-
lus. He .whimsically attributed his sue
cess TO the Chippendale desk, at which
he did most OF his work.
Hanging directly over the Chippen-
dale desk, there was one picture which
! reused Brent's admiration and mag
inatiOn more than all the rest. TWAS
a study of young man, with features
fault1essly Greek, who looked the
epitome Of youth and poetry and love.
It set Brent to weaving a romance
at a faster pace than his own pen
could follow.
Yes, that's the man she loves, or
did love when she painted it," he said
to himself as he lighted his brier, and
gave himself up to the joys Of specu-
lation.
And Brent put down his brier, and
started on prolonged search for a
note from Miss Kingston, who had in
yited him to dine with her and her
chum.
Here it is, he said at last, spy
ing a>blue-gray sheet of note-paper in
T the far corner of pigeonhole
He pulled it out and began to read.
A puzzled expression came over his
face. He could not remember hav-
ing received this strange letter:
It is such joy to love you that /
feel as if must tell you so. fancy
most women don't tell man that they
love him. They allow him to do all
that. Well, my heart, am different,
that is all I sit here looking at your
wonderful face tonight, and it seems
to me that you We're born for love,
Just as Greek statue was born for
immortality. I cannot help adding my
that it will not touch you very deeply.
Why should it? You must have wearied
before this of the countless oblations
offered on your altar Nevertheless,
because love with a love which is as
fresh and pure as it is lasting, dare
to tell you so, and sign myself
yours devotedly,
sALICE CASTLETON."
This, then, was the way some WON
en- loved, Brent reflected, as he
carefully replaced the tell-tale letter.
faHe wished he had ever known that
sort Of girl. He made up his mind
then and there to meet Alice Cas-
Teton, no matter what the prete1t,
as soon as he finished his novel.
He did not have to wait long, how
ever. AS he entered the house late in
the afternoon of the next day, he was
met by the clerk with smile and the
information that Miss Castleman was
id his rooms.
Entering. he saw plump, merry
faced girl in the act of jumping from
a high chair with the fatal picture in
her hands.
How do you do?' she laughed. II
suppose you are Mr.. Brent. Well, am
Alice Castleton. ! hope you won't
mind my taking Narcissus.
The loquacious gentleman at the
desk tells me you are a literary man..
she continued. still in a serio-comic
way. why don't you put us into a
story, Narcissus and myself? I've
even written him love letters in odd
moments when I'd nothing better to
do
Finally he summoned up sufficient
coufage to tell her about the note he
had discovered, and his romantic de-
dnction. Miss Castleton could not re-
strain her mirth.
sss4And nov" she said, which do you
prefer, Mr.. Brent-the blighted violet
ct your fancy or the prosaic reality?"
Brent was silent for a moment.
might one be permitted to be glad
that a Narcissus seems to be his only
rival q he said finally.
But you forget laughed Miss Cas-
tleton, that Narcissus spells art, and
that art is long,
s, MAY not see you again?" he
pleaded.
Certainly" returned Miss Castle
/