Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1923-10-04
WASTED FORMULA
BY \. IRVING KING

RETH CURTIS was stenographer
- in big insurance office. In spite
of her good looks. she knew stenog-
raphy and typewriting thoroughly and
had laid up for rainy day few
hundred dollars in the bank and
store of common sense and resource
fulness. And she was twenty-one.
Harry Parkman was clerk in the
same Office; was twenty-seven, hard
worker and a competent all-around
man ut his business. He was gifted
with persistence and staying qualities
which were admirable. He went at
things Systematically.
That was the method he used in
building up his intimacy, which had
now so far progressed that he called
at her boarding house every Thursday
night and took her out to dinner or to
the theater once every fortnight. Had
they been living In country town
everybody would have said they were
keeping company" As they lived In
the big city, and were both reticent
as to their personal affairs, nobody
knew anything about 1t except the
people in the boarding house and they
did not care hang. In the. Office they
were always Miss Curtis and Mr..
Parkman to each other.
Harry intended marriage and so did
Beth; but Harry, somehow, kept put
ting off popping the question" A
dozen times he had concocted In his
mind a formula Of avowal and re-
hearsed 1t mentally as he approached
Beth's boarding house. Then he would
become dissatisfied with 1t as not
quite coming up to the high standard
which the occasion demanded and he
would put it off until next week, by
which time he hoped to think up some
thing more worthy Beth knew he
was going to propose some day and
she knew, also, that by artfully and
skillfully giving him Jolt" she
could make him propose any time she
wanted to. But then the situation was
very pleasant as 1t was-why hurry
matters? In another years time they
would both be better equipped finan-
cially to enter the married state.
The head of the insurance Office
which employed Harry and Beth was
Horace McPherson-large, portly,
ford, fifty-dve years old and with
whitening hair; wealthy, Of course.
For five years he had been a widower.
For the past year an important part
of Beth's work consisted in taking die
tation from Mr.. Mcpherson. He had
been gruff with her at first, then pa
ternal and at last almost gallant
nothing disrespectful. Horace Nc
Pherson was a gentleman; he was
getting into the Indian summer Of his
years, that was all Harry felt an
noyed naturally, but he had every con
fidence in Beth and no fear that the
wealth of whole clan Of McPher-
sons would dazzle the true-blue eyes
OF his Beth.
When old Horace began to use sui
phur and sage on his hair and his
waistcoats and cravats began to show
a youthful and hilarious disposition
everybody felt that crisis was APP
preaching. Then one day the APP
preaching crisis arrived. When Beth
went into the Chiefs" office and
seated herself demurely with her pen
ell and notebook to take dictation
Horace said:
Before we begin debating, Miss
Curtis, have something to say which
] hope will not be entirely displeasing
or entirely unexpected to YOU" and
then he went on to state his case In q
very manly and aightforward man
ner
Beth answered him as frankly and
they had q rather long talk with each
other Of the "heart to heart" variety
before she came sailing out of the
private office as cool, calm and col
lected as IL she had done nothing but
take notes for the last three-quarters
of an hour.
That was on Thursday and Thurs
day night was Harry's night for call
Ing. Harry had prepared proposing
formula which he was determined to
put into operation that night or perish
in the attempt
AS they sat in corner OF the
boarding house parlor he had actually
got off the first two carefully pre-
pared and well-polished lines Of the
proposal when Beth interrupted him
with, "Oh, Harry, | had proposal of
marriage today"
"Who from?" growled Harry, "old
Horace?'
Yes, old Horace-Mr. Mcpherson"
replied Beth. land he is an old dear"
Glad you think So" said Harry
glumly. "What did you say to it?'
"Oh," replied Beth, looking down, Il
told him | was already engaged"
ALREADY engaged" gasped Harry.
ITO whom, pray?"
why, to you, OF course" said Beth.
Harry's formula vanished into the
limbo of proposals that were never