Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1930-06-27
Love and
Letters
By H. IRVING KING
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
(Copyrtpht

AA/ hNN hiuu lTbpOStS W u gill
w he should do II by word of
mouth, but Jack Benton wrote his dec
laration to Arabella Porter and came
near dying bachelor In consequence.
If he hadn't had taste for low COM
pany he would have done so. It Is
only fair to Jack to say, however, that
he had taste for low company be-
cause low company was profitable to
him.
Jack, you see, was writer and had
developed a knack Of writing stories.
Of the underworld which made his
stuff salcable to magazine and Sun
day newspapers. What he aspired to
write was love stories.
For heavens sake, Benton, drop
lovers and stick to CROOKS" said Whit
marsh, the editor of the Sunday
Trumpet, as he handed Jack back one
of his stories dealing with the tender
passion. And Jack did stick to crooks,
though lie was determined that some
day he would write love story that
would make the editors sit up and
take notice. 1t was because of his
firm belief, in spite of all that had
been told him by people who ran mag
azines and newspapers, that he was
able to just "charm the bird Off the
bush" when he wrote on love, that
he put his proposal of marriage to
Arabella in written form. He read 1t
over, pronounced it perfect, mailed
1t and awaited a reply.
A week went by and he was still
waiting He waited confidently at
first, then hopelessly. Faith glided
into an agonized suspense and suspense
into an agonized certainty. The cruel
Bella had not even deigned to &C.
knowledge his passionate avowal of
love. Now and then horrible thought
would come to him. Was 1t possible
that the editors were right, and that
he was not such crackerjack at writ.
ing on love as he thought he WASP
But he dismissed the thought as I'M
worthy Of his keen literary perception.
Once or twice he considered going up
to Bella's house, and demanding TO
know what was the matter. But no
he would not humiliate himself so far.
He had poured out his heart in that
letter Of his and II she had not appre.
ciated it-well then life hencefortb
was to be dreary waste.
But Jack was doing Arabella an
injustice. She had received his let
ter-and she had answered It. In her
reply she had sale all that could be
said to rejoice the heart of her suitor
She put the letter in the mailbox, cal
culated just how long II would take
for 1t to reach Jack and then sat down
to wait his coming. But he came not.
Could 1t be possible that Jack had
been playing a joke on her-toying
with her affections?
Meantime Jack went on writing
about cr0Oks-he had to live in spite
of blasted hopes-and frequenting
and get local color" In the under
world he had made many friends who
knew that he was harmless and would
never "squeal" on them. Crooks don't
mind reading about Crookdom at all
they rather like lt-provlded nothing
is given away that should not he given
away.
Jack used to meet his crooked
friends In resorts Of n perfectly re-
spectacle appearance frequented by
perfectly respectable-appearlng people.
Unless you we're "in the know" you
would never suspect what kind of a
place you had got into. He was
seated in one OF these resorts glOOmily
eating chop suey one night when Nifty
Jim stroled in, faultlessly dressed as
usual and wearing upon his face that
charming smile which had been the
financial undolng Of so many coRiid
ing persons.
"Hello," said Nifty, taking n seat
opposite Jack; show goes the merry
whlrl Of literature? Speaking Of lit
erature; I've got something TO show
you that's n corker. One Of our crowd
is now and then able to do little in
side post office work for u.s. week
ago he brought down bunch Of let
tiers which we went over down nj
LOTUS place. Pretty poor piCklngs-
but | came across this and have been
keeping 1t for you, as a literary curl
oslty. Did you ever read such dlotIc
drlvel as thatf" And ne handed
across the table Arabella's reply to
Jacks letter. Jack read II through,
comprehension Of what II was grad.
ually dawnlng upon him.
"Nlfty," said he rising to his feet,
"you have been college man ] know;
but you must have been rotten In Eng
llsh. That Is the most beautiful and
touching thing ! ever read"
Half an hour later Jack and Bella
we're discussing bridesmaids and
orange blossoms.