Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1919 — Beauty and Beethoven [ARTICLE]

Beauty and Beethoven

By R. RAY BAKER

Copyri«ht,’i«lK by th * McClure N.w«paper Syndicate.) There was nothing Angora or otherwise stylish about Beethoven. He came of a family of 'ordinary striped gray and black cuts, but lie was far from being an ordinary cat. At least such was the opinion of .Velma Blake, who occupied two romps on the third floor back in the .lordan flats, and who adopted the feline wanderer and christened him. Velma was employed as head of the music department in the Emporium five and ten-cent establishment. She was a pretty busy girl and also she was a pretty, busy girl. With or without the comma the phrase flts. She had little time to spend in the care of pets, but when a stray cat knocks at one’s door and one happens to be particularly fond of that species of animal, what can one do but offer a home! She took him in and fed him, and as he proceeded to make himself comfortable and refused to leave the vicinity of her rooms when she set him out in the hall, she was forced to the conclusion that she was elected to be the creature’s mandatory. Velma's, roommate didn't care for cats. "Why didn’t you get a dog 1 ?” she' demanded, but she managed to reconcile herself, in time, to the addition to the little family. Beethoven proved to be a mysterious being. He would vanish for two or three days at a time, and then suddenly reappear and remain at home for a period of equal length, making his arrival known by the usual wailing serenade. Velma got used to these comings and goings, for there was a certain amount of regularity about them, and soon she was able to forecast almost with certainty the day and hour the wanderer would return from his sojourn. At the front of the apartment house, in the basement, lived Ned Sayre, a bachelor young man. He shared the rooms with an acquaintance, but his life was rather lonely, for the two had little in common, although they got along well enough together. Like Velma. Ned was a cat fancier, and like her he had taken possession of one that paid hint a visit on two or three occasions when his living-room window was open. The roommate voiced some objections, but these were overruled, the Beauty; as the cat was christened, soon occupied a welcome place in the household, if two rooms and a bath may be called such. Like Beethoven. Beauty went away oh strange missions which he never explained or even tried to explain. Ned's duty as clerk in a haberdashery kept him away from home most of the day, and it is next to impossible to follow a cat in the dark, so Beauty's whereabouts during these periodical absences remained a secret. Ned was of a timid nature; that is, he was timid when g member of the other sex was in proximity. However, he had struck up an acquaintance with Velma Blake and had got to the stage where he could relapse into a day dream when crocking the busiest corner of the busiest street. He mustered sufficient courage once a week to take Velma to a theater or some other kind of entertainment, but had never been in her apartment, that being against the rules of the house. Consequently he was never introduced to her Beethoven. Such trivial subjects as - cats are not often discussed between young men and young women who are keeping company. There are more Important matters, such as musici bon-bons, automobiles. vaudeville and clothes; so why should a couple of stray pets get Into the conversation? It would be a queer way to carry on a love affair. would it not? Can you imagine a couple holding hands and at the same time a heated argument concerning the merits of their respective So. in spite of the fact that both Velma and Ned were very fond of their pets, the subject never entered their talk. Two things puzzled Ned, and the more he thought about them the more puzzled he became. One was the peculiar and repeated disappearance • of Beauty and the other was how tp win Velma for his lifelong partner. Rather a strange combination of worries for a young man, but Ned could not understand the girl any more than he could the cat. Similar mysteries concerned Velma. One was the strange absences of Beethoven, -and the other was how. to win Ned for the head of her family. If one of them had been able to look into the other’s mind there would have been no trouble about solving one of the puzzles, and of course that Was the more important one of the two. Just when it seemed that Ned and Velma were beginning to understand each other something happened that made them both miserable. Ned had arranged to take Velma to a theatrical performance, but she sent him a note saying she would be busy that evening and could not see him. It made him downcast for a while, but he recovered from the attack of the blues and invited his roomjnate to the show in Velma’s stead. On the 'way to the theater they met Velma with a young man. Ned formed the same conclusion that almost any other fellow would* have formed in similar circumstances.

He det ided that he had been "thrown over;” and, having a proud, sensitive nature, be resolved to stay away from Velma. —— He did. not know’ that the head of ihe music sales dej»artinent of the entire nation-wide chain of emporium Mores was in the city that evening to take an inventory of the two local establishments and that Velma and this official were simply on their way from one of the stores to the other when Ned saw them. When Velma said she would be busy that night she meant it in a literal sense, and'she was not entertaining some other young man, notwithstanding apiwaian<es. 1 Velma felt as bad about it as Ned, but she likewise possessed a considerable amount of pride; and, knowing she was in the right. although realiz- • ing the circumstantial evidence was against her, she would not permit herself to take the first step toward a reconciliation. One . evening, shortly after the “busy" one. while she was trying to read and failing because of thoughts that intruded, she suddenly came to a realization that Beethoven had disappeared. He had been in the room only a moment previous and must have slipped out when Velma went to the ice box at the eud of the hall. Here was a chance to give her mind diversion and at the same time perhaps fathom the mystery of the missing cat. She stepped to the door and looked out. , 1 Yes, far down the hall was Beethoven, just starting down the stairs. She followed him to the second and then to the first'floor, and finally into the back part of the basement, which was used -as a storeroom and Which contained. the furnace. From a distance she saw the cat crawl through a window of the basement, ahd she hurried upstairs and darted outside. Beethoven was walking close to the building, peering into various windows that came in his way. She saw him stop before one near the front of the house; and as she watched a hand came out of the aperture and seized the cat, drawing him inside. Without stopping to consider whose room Beethoven had entered, Velma hurried to the window and stood looking down at Ned holding the cat in his arms. "What are you doing with my cat?” she demanded, in what was intended to be stern tones. "Your ent?” Ned inquired, trying to be somewhat cold. "What do you mean? This is my cat.” "He’s mine and his name is Beethoven !" she snapped. • Each looked defiance at the other for a moment, then smiles took the place of scowls on both the f«ces. "We both seem to own him,” Velma said, demurely, kicking a pebble with her small boot "What can we do to settle It?” A desperate thought entered Ned’s mind. Here was a chance to find out his fate and all the uncertainty he had been laboring under for months. Fearing he would be lost if he hesitated, he gave voice to the big idea without waiting for a chance to change his mind. Standing there framed by the basement window, a cat crawling over his shoulder, looking up eagerly somewhat timorously at a girl outside who was kicking a pebble around foolishly to hide her confusion, he said: "There's only one way 1 know. Let’s form a permanent partnership of ourselves. and that will make all three of us happy. At least, I am in hopes that it will.” She gave the pebble a furious kick that sent it spinning away. “It sure will,” was her reply.