The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-01-18

al Arrangement With The Chicago LTD
in. an astral sort of manner, we shall
hear the noise and see the crowa; we
shall note how the tables and clalrs
are damned together, how the WAIVERS
and extra walters can scarcely move,
how the dance-floor has diminished and
the bit at the head Of the stairs mas
been taken in; how plated icebuckets
are everywhere and cigars are pro-
truding from innumerable congested
countenances. All this we shall nave
an opportunity OF observing as the
plainest sort of proof that the man
agement knew what it was about.
But at the moment we're not in the
Serene Hotel at all. Our duty takes us
elsewhere and from the general to the
particular.
There was a young man Standng IN
telephone-box who pressed Button A,
and heard two-pence vanishing forever,
! and said: 1T that Lady Courtfields
house?" And then he said: do you
think could speak to Miss Truelove?'
Whereupon the voice which had just
| answered him in tone of civil1ty verg-
ing on humility underwent distinct
| change. Became more human, possibly
but much less obsequious. 1t said:
What name, please?" quite sharply;
nor, on this second occasion, did it
employ the enclitic "sir."
"Oh," said Mark Matheson, in his
cal-box, cts Mr.. Matheson, would you
say? mean, I don't want to disturb
, her if she's busy, but"
In the midst of this s-statement-
for actually he was consumed with
eagerness and impatience- heard a
sound as of a receiver being laid on a
shelf or. table, followed by further faint
thuds of departing footsteps. He
thought: THAT footman or whoever it
is has gone to fetch her. I'll be speak
ing to her in moment now, and can
tell her-well, at any rate I can tell
her how hellishly I've missed her while
was away He thought: It'll hear her
marvellous voice again. He thought:
and can tell her that the firm is
pleased with me-even if they haven't
said anything about raising my screw
yet"
And again he thought of the agony
of that months separation, and of the
dull letters that he'd written her-bllt
how could one put more when she was
probably just sweet like that to- every
body? And of his long train journey
back from the north just now and
The faint thuds again-coming near
er this time. Still louder thumpings
in that young mans thorax, though, as
| he gripped his own receiver and drew
| in, hi 1,o hooo,o COW.
| ing. "Hullo? Hull"
"Are you there?" said the same voice
as before. well, forgot jes' now.
Went 'alf-way upstairs an then re-
membered. She's CORN. She's left. Er
la'ship's got new guinness coming in,
you see. 'Uullo? What's that?"
IL said, when did She"
"Aow-Monday, think; only I was
down in the country meself. sorry.
"But-but you've got her new ad-
| dress?"
"Aow, naoh!" said the voice, losing
more of its veneer every moment. II
| duno where she's CORN to I'm shore"
So that, with a couple of clicks, was
that, and if you're young man in
| Mark Matheson's situation you don't
spend another two-pence on recalling
| so insufferable a personality and de-
manding to be placed in communica-
ton with its mistress. You just Or
so it appears-slink out of your call
box and resume your journey to your
| lodgings. That hard labor up in New
castle doesn't seem so very profitable
now. 1t may occur to you, even, that
it was just trick on the part of Fate
that well-known trick of lifting you
up merely so as to dash you down
and the likelihood is that you'll pass
the rest of the evening in rather
dismal and dumpish frame of mind.
"She might have written" you'll say.
"She knew I was coming back. She
| knew I was-well, fond of her. She
Pride and dignity, or-Oh, gosh, no!
I'll write to her again, suppose. Lady
Courtfield must forward it. I've got
to see that girl again, somehow"
There's flaw in this reasoning. The
very rich employ nursery overnesses
so as to delegate responsibility, not so
as to assume one avoidable fragment
of it themselves. The very rich have
large houses, big establishments, and
crowded and complicated lives. No
| communication addressed to MIS- s
Griselda Truelove, care of Lady Court
field, would ever come within yards Of
her ladyship's bureau or escritoire. It
would lie in her hall for bit, with q
heavy deposit of unopened circulars.
Soon it would be covered by still more
of them, and still it would be nobody's
particular business though her lady,
ship had fifteen servants-to pay any
particular attention to it. If there were
a general clearance presently. it might
get as far as the buffers pantry for a
while; and the butler might glance at
it now and then, with vague feeling
that Miss Truelove ought to have call
ed for 1t and a still wagner notion Of
getting postman to remove it.
And then, one day, it would pass
somehow into a drawer full of corks
and ragged busters and pieces of string,
and would remain there indefinitely.