The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1924-01-18

! last. 10 dnedu ana ten me tnc
whole story. What was she. like?
Where did you meet herr"
Joe turned away thoughtfully to the
smoking-table and reiighted his cigar.
''Why. Annabel was Chicago girl"
he began presently. Lived down In
Woodlawn with her father and moth
er-Fanning, their name was.
boarded with them back in the spring
of ninety-nine. just twenty years ago
now. I'd just passed my examination
for a licensed structural engineer.
They were the most respectable peo-
pie in the world, those Fannings. Poor
but genteel-good Lord-so you could
hardly breathei But somehow that
sort of thing looked good to me just
about then"
! She left unbroken for little while
the reflective silence into which he'd
fallen. before she prompted him. But
presently she got him going again by
suggesting that the reason gentility
looked good to him just then was An
mabel. what was she like? How old
was she? What color was her hair?"
"Lightish," Joe said; mot yellow /;
there wasn't much color In 1t. / was
fooled on her age, all right. l took
it for granted that she was just a
kid, barely twenty. If as old as that.
When she gave her age at the license
bureau up in Milwaukee, where we'd
run off to get married, / found she
wasn't but five or six years younger
than l was 1t would have made
quite a difference If I'd known that
sooner" he added.
Jennie remarked that twenty-five
wasn't too old for girl to marry.
But Joe said this wasn't what he
meant. She was too old not to be
more grown up than she was.
You see, she'd been having a fight
with her father and mother. She
wanted to be an artist, a sculptor,
and they wouldn't let her. She'd
been going down to the Art institute
for quite while taking lessonsxin
drawing and designing, china-painting,
don't know what-maybe a little
ihOuCAiAlSs Aul hON IL was a
of a life class. and they wouldn't hear
of 1t.
well, that interested me in her a
whole lot more than I'd been before,
and the line her father and mother
had taken seemed so d-n silly that
the next chance 1 got tried to put
in word for her. 1t was a fool thing
TO do, of course. 1t got Annabel in
wrong, worse than ever, for discuss
ing such subject with young man
she, herself. was furious with me
at first for not having seen that-and
they were already suspicious that l
wasn't quite as good as ! looked.
Nov, here's a d-n funny thing,
Jennie. Here's a question I've asked
myself a thousand times: Will you
tell me why didn't just pack my
trunk at that point and clear out? /
was tired of the old people and 1
wasn't in love with Annabel, not one
little bit. / didn't even want her in a
temporary sort of way. There were
girls growing on every bush that were
more attractive, that way, than she
was. But l didn't get out. went on
butting myself farther and farther in.
We had hi of a time. The old
folks would hardly speak to me.
They sat around and kept watch so
that shouldn't be alone with Anna
bel. ! think the only reason they
didn't turn me out of the house was
because they figured 1t was easier to
keep us apart as things were, having
line on me, than If they hadn't any
idea where was.
well, the upshot of 1t was that one
day, along that summer, we took the
day-boat-the old whaleback, 1t was
to Milwaukee, got a license and a
minister to marry us, and spent the
night at the Plankington hotel. Came
home on the train the next morning.
1.-The old folks wouldn't take us in
and it wasn't bluff either. But l
found a furnished fiat over in Hyde
Park-it was easy enough to do In
those days-and we set up house
keeping. I'd suggested a couple of
1
she could have more time to herself.
But she didn't want that l was be-
ginning to wonder about that famous
career of hers that the whole row had
been about. Finally 1 asked her one
day why she didn't go over to the Art
institute and register in the life class.
remember how she looked at that
and just what she said. She gave me
stare and then a sort of laugh,
doubtful whether l wasn't joking, and
she said, Why, you silly old thing,
what do | want to go there for, now 2
"She hadn't any idea what marriage
was about, Jennie. Apparently sup
posed there was nothing to it beyond
housekeeping and little familiarity.
And she couldn't stand me-that's the
long and the short of it. Lord. but
she was conscientious-al three of
them were that. And she must have
had a talk with her mother that
Strengthened things out a little. The
one thing that reconciled her to the
relation at all was that 1t was legal
and binding-going to last forever
II can't think of worse mixup
than that. Because with me, well, it
had been like this. I'd never had
anything to do with woman before
never have since. for that matter
who wasn't in love with me, crazy
about me, for the time being anyhow.
So this was wrong all round. Yet
she might have made some other sort
of man good wife and been happy
with him. But she didn't like me.