Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 292, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1914 — How It All Came Out [ARTICLE]

How It All Came Out

“D’ever you read a book pretty nearly through, all but the last chapter,” began the hotel lobby conversationalist, “and then when you were all ready to hear how things turned out find that ( your wife has taken the book back (to the library? Gradually you forge* the plot, but In the back of your bead .you keep wondering for a long time'what the wind-up was—whether she -married the fellow or became a trained nurse. “I stumbled across me closing chapter the other * day of a romance I’d been obliged tjo leave unfinished a couple of years* ago. This story, though, wasn’t in‘any book; it was in real life*. When we were living in the city a family across the street from us had a daughter who was receiving calls evenings from two men. But they always <came separately. In warm weather, wihen all the residents would be on the balconies, I would see her entertaining one .or the other of her two regular callers, and occasionally could overhear a snatch of the conversation. It was plain enough to me that neither -one of the callers required any special scheme worked on him to get him into a I matrimonial state of mind.

“But she seemed to have a (/lot of difficulty making up her mind. And that made the game all the moipe interesting. First I would think the tall, red-headed fellow who came Tuesday and Thursday evenings was going to win. Then along would come the black-hafned*young chap who carried a cane and 1 showed up as a rule on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the conversationswowld he either so animated or Bt>\hushed and; murmured that I wouldn’t see anything to It but him having; things his own way. One thing I though, was that neither the red-haired nor the darkhaired had control of the Sunday evenlng’^engagements. “There was one respect in which the two callers * played their cards a little differently. The dark-haired one used to bring cigars and smoke them and I woiild hear Mm offering one to the girl’s Jfather. Bedhead did not smoke, hut Ihe got along nicely with the moth Br. He would brag about the geraniums she j had planted in a box ati the edge 'of the balcony and he u sed to agreis with her in everything fehe said. ’Meanwhile; whether it wa p the dark-haired caller and father, /or “redhead and mother who were exchanging commonplace observations, the daughter sat by and bestowed glaißces of general approval that could be construed (to mean much or no fhing. “Things v rent along that \way all summer long, and even after cold weather cai pe and • they no sat on the, balcony where I could keep close tab. It was none of my affair, but I must confess I', had got interested, /and whenever I’dlsee that young woman going in or outxl would wonder if (she’d made up her mind yet, and if) not, why she didntt hustle up and relieve! my suspense, to -say nothing of the (suspense of the\ other two. “Abovuti the time I was feeling! sure’ things would be brought to sharp focus a .few weeks the family up and mowed away. That was more than two jyears ago and I had pflumb forgo* Sibout them and the l story they snatche d out from under my eyes unfinished, so to speak. Last Sunday a friend and I went to the city and while there started on a stroll through the park. A woman came toward us wheeling a baby buggy, whicJi was nothing unnsual, considering the city, but there was somethin g about her that seemed famlMdr. Though I couldn’t recall where, I fell that I had seen her before. It Hatched upon me an of.a sudden like sufffi things will. 'She was the girl wfio used to live tin the flat acrosß tl,e street!

1 “So; she had got married at’last. '‘Well, well, I wondered, of course, to I which* one of the two diligent suitors she had permitted! herself to be bawsered. I found myiself staring at her, which was hot a polite thing to do, for although I remembered her she doubtless did \not ever seeing me., So I shifted (my gaee from, her to the baby. D never take much\ notioe of kids In baby carriages, but this one fascinated me. Y’ougbt to've seen It. It hadJbair ofta shade spmewheer between the color of the bottom of; a copper kettle the running gVar'of a brand- netw old-fashion-ed piamo. box hhggy! After\ Bhe passed on I turned aronnd forY another look/and grinned to tmyself.’*