The Courtship
IT wag not surprising that Daniel
Hennessey and his fellow towns
men sometimes forgot that the
mayoralty was not a hereditary office
In Crowley. For so many undisputed
terms, he had been chief magistrate
that at last the very town seemed to
him his heritage.
The people of the larger cily that lay
across the state line from Crowley
In this case the state line was a river
were given to much abuse of that
begrimed center of mills,, railroads, gas
works, and oil-tanks. When they
spoke of Crowley's mayor and his ad
ministrations, it was with the tri
umphant vlndlctlveness of those who
maintain their own virtuous standing
chiefly by the shortcomings of others.
1 But all the periodic outcries of its
(rreat neighbor left Crowley placidly
unmoved. Mr. Hennessey and the town
agreed admirably with each other. Its
population was a poor one; it was the,
shabby sleeping-place of a horde of
petty clerks and workmen, who were
ferried over to the big city In the morn
Ing twilight and back at eyenlng dusk;
It was the abode of Its own soiled mill
hands and railroad laborers, of the
employees on the trolley lines, of its
rotund saloon-keepers, and of their
graduates In the staring, new, rect
angular Citv Hall that was Its boast.
Habited to makeshifts and blunders,
they accepted without resentment the
cavlng-ln of badly-laid pavements the
bursting of shell-like sewer pipes, and
the spluttering and flickering of Illum
inating gas that did not Illuminate.
Daniel Hennessey suited them. If he
did not give them good streets, he
made ample amends in the ways of plo
nlcs, free to all comers; If he amassed
property at a rate unpleasantly sugges
r" tlve, wealth did not render him proud.
Moreover, he spent his Income in a
way that made Crowley as Indifferent
to taxation as a loyal Briton on Cor
onation Day. No mayor within a hun
dred miles had more diamonds, raced
better horses, or kept a more expensive
or more easy "open house" at New
Year's and other times when he bade
his constituents hearty welcomo
Even his political associates were
not Jealous of Hennessey. .He was a
"fair man," they said, wagging their
chins Judicially; by which they mearrt
' that if Daniel held stock In each new
trolley that won a franchise from the
town, they too held stock In their de
gree; and that if the company which
mysterlouftly, in spite of a high bid,
received the contract for opening up
a new street, balanced things by re
storing a small proportion of Its fee
to the city officials, they, as well as
panleh profited, i
And they continued to let Danlol rule
them and rule Crowley, while the op
nosltlon languished into a negligible
. quantity, prating of assessments, civic
honor and the hygienic disposal of re
fuse, but never organizing a barge,
party in the summer or distributing
coals In the winter.
If Crowley's center was the disgrace
to civilization which Its neighbors
named It, the outskirts were Indescriba
ble. The streets went unpaved, the
roads ungraded, the infrequent Btrnt.
lamps were erected apparently as tar
gets, for stray missies. Along the river
side toward the north was the Voad
which the big city was constantly urg
Ing the little one to turn Into a boule
vard or a speedway, so great were Its
natural beauties. On one side lay the
winding, lsleted stream and on the
other sloping, wooded stretches. But
Crowley had small use for speedways
o the river-bank north of the town's
centre went quickly to ruin. Here
flood had encroached upon the road
and loft a great gap of Jagged rock
and water; and there a quarrying com
pany, empowered by the city to blast
rock, had left holes and pitfalls. The
rains came and washed down the earth,
uncovering the old corduroy founda
tlons, until even the sure-footed horses
from outlying truck farms Were forced
to seek a new road to town
In the tangled growth of grass and
weeds and trees that sloped up from
tho river's bank, were five or six old
houses. They hod been country seats
when Crowley was merely a ferry-slip.
Thoy had been built with tluit ancient
annuity wnicn aoiies time ami even
vandalism. The owners had long1 since
censed to oocpy them, and for the
most part they were untenanted. The
shingles had fallen from their roofs,
the glass was gone from their win
dows, the doors were fallen from their
hinges, tho columtiB of their high pi
azzas were scarred and chipped by the
hands of many picnickers. In the
coarBe grass that covered their old
carriage-ways tho wheel tracks of the
past were dim, , and ragged weeds
choked out the line grass where lawns
had stretched.
It was one morning In September thnt
Mayor Hennessey was tempted to try
this ramshackle road. Ho had Intend
ed to take a spin out of the town and
try his new horse on the good roads
Bouth of his Jurisdiction, hut when he
come down the steps of the City Hall,
he found he wus too late for the run.
Yet there wus an unwonted freshness
In the air the wind blowing the many
smokes of Crowley nway from hlin
and he wished to try the horse. lie
bent to lift Lady Hamilton's hoofs with
practised hand, then rising, Hushed
with the exertion, he climbed Into the
light rig and took the reins from the
slouching hustler.
In the Crowley language he was "a
fine figure of a man," broad and well
padded by naturo bciobs the shoulders
and ample of chest. Crowley liked tho
ruddy, Jovial face, the tine, llerce lron
Kray mustache at which his honor was
wont to pull while his little blue eyes
twinkled down upon a voter's baby.
They started delicately, Lady Hamil
ton and her owner. His big hands In
their orange driving gloves grasped
the reins lightly. On the Hiver Way
Daniel had purposed to give the horse
her head, but the twisting road did not
look promising for speeding. Although
long the winding way he kept a tight
rein, at a sharp turn he came upon
calamity.
An adventurous furniture van what
Idiot could be carting furniture 'long
the Itlver Way? blocked travel. Its
rear wljeel hung over a minor precipice
washed out of the road. Some of Its
content had escaped their rope moor
ings and lay bfrlow, a damaged pile
with the ripples washing it. The driver
stood scratching ills head futilaly, and a
woman was surveying the scene.
"I beg your pardon, ma'am," said his
honor, elaborately. "Kxcime me for not
dismountin' to help you, ma'am, but
this mare, ma'am, is a bit skittish this
morn'. Can I do anything for you?1
"Yes, if you please," said the lady
with unfemlnlne promptness. "I think
this driver's drunk. I thought so when
he came this morning, and that's why
1 came along with the load. I don't
care to have him finish dumping my
furniture into the river. If there is
such a thing in that town back there
she nodded contemptuously in the di
rection of Crowley's center, and the
Mayor felt a thrill of wounded pride
such as he had not known in thirty
years "as a decent furniture wagon
and a man sober enough to unload this
on It, please send them to me."
"I will, ma'am, with pleasure, ma'am,"
answered the Mayor, resentful of Lady
Hamilton's determined pulls to be gone.
"I will be much obliged," announced
the lady In a'tone that Implied no con
sciousness of overwhelming obligation.
"Not at all, ma'am, not at all," the
Mayor managed to Jerk out, as the
horse, safely turned, began to make
good her late owner's claims In regard
to her speed. .
To insure it that the calm woman of
the gray eyes was properly served,
Daniel sent to her aid a city dray driv
en by a man so sober as to be abso
lutely taciturn. This being never men
tioned to her that the Infamously fa
mous Mayor of Crowley had befriended
her.
The Mayor was no "lady's man." Fif
teen years before he had, as he put It,
"burled his wife." Since then he had
been too busy to think much about
women. Indeed he had been so before
poor Mrs. Hennessey had made her final
pathetic appoal for thought. But Bince
then he had beon the despair of the
ladies of Crowley's political circle who
were well aware of his eligibility.
To-day, however, there was a gentle
tumult beneath his Btrlped shirt and
Ills checked waistcoat. The direct
gaze from a pair or line, unexclted
gray eyes kept intruding between htm
and his oiilclal business, And at night
he went laggingly to the brick struc
ture of wmon. na nau always tnougnt
proudly as the finest house in Crowley,
being, seized with an inexplicable dis
taste for its solitary splendors.
He stood nt the door of the parlor,
hoping by a contemplation of it to re
store the brilliancy of his conception
of his home. The ormolu clock ticked
loudly on the black marble mantel.
Daniel scowled at It and at the tall
Chinese Vases at either end, and even
at the Bllver loving-cup inscribed with
divers names and with high-sounding
sentiments.
The lace curtains hung in spotless
evenness clear to the floor, and swept
the rose-strewn carpet a few Inches.
The chairs, upholstered in plush of the
softest texture and the most glowing
hue, stood evenly against the flowered
wall. The marhle table supported a
gorgoously-bound Bible, an empty card
receiver of Jade and sliver, and a
plush photograph album. A long gllt
framod mirror doubled the room, chair
for chair and ornament for ornament
even the great, dead, upright piano
over against tho folding doors, where
the red portlires were pulled back hy
heavy gold cord like the fringe on a
general's epaulets.
"An' no one to play II," grumbled the
Mayor.
By morning, however, his honor was
better. At lifty, tho successful poli
tician seldom perishes of love at first
sight. He made up his mind to visit
the farm-house where some of his
horses wero pasturing, to buy a lib
rary tho Mayor did things on a grand
scale and to start the campaign. Not
that there was much arduous cam
paigning In Crowley. "It's a walk
over for us, all right," said tho Mayor,
half annoyed at the fact.
He hud smoked a clgnr and had a
chat with the District Attorney as phi-1
of the day's business, when a clerk
from the outer olllce stood nt his desk.
"A lndy to see you," said tho elork.
Tho District Attorney looked his sur
prise. So did the Mayor.
"You mean me?" he asked.
"Yep," nodded tho clerk.
"Did ye tell her I was busy?"
"Says she'll wait."
"What t' '11 can she want?'' pon
dered the Mayor aloud, for the female.
lobbyist was the one political evil un
known In Crowley.
"Have her In and see, Dan," coun
seled the District Attorney. "I'll stay
and help you out."
"All right. Send her in, 1U11," con
cluded his honor. And In two more
minutes a plump, neat, forceful look
ing woman was ushered into the may
oral presence.
Danlt'l whirled in his chair to see his
visitor; then ho bounded to his feet.
"How d'ye do, ma'am, how d'ye do?"
he cried Joyously. And as he advenced
he muttered to the District Attorney:
"It's all right. Carr. Oet out." Which
Carr did with a smile made up of
equal parts of amazement and com
prehension. The lady of the gray eyes looked her
astonishment.
"Oh!" alie said, "it's you?"
"It is, ina'um." said Daniel, beaming
as he pusnea rorwarn a cnair wim one
hand, and with the other sent Ills cigar
stub flying through the open window.
"An' delighted if I can be of any serv
ice to you. The man I sent the dray
they were all right?
"Oh, yes," she replied absently, as she
sat down. "They were all right. You
were very kind. I didn't understand.
of the -B
The man would take no pay. I thought
he was crazy."
"Oh, no, he s sensible enough., I told
him to take none. He's on the rolls,
you see."
"Ah, yes," said the lady absently
again. She looked vaguely throygft the
window and out onto the sunburnt turf
of the square.
"Badly sodded," she indicated the
square with an inclination of her neat
ly coiffured head. The Mayor flushed.
"It's its first, season," he said apol
ogetically. And again there fell a lit
tle silence while the visitor stared
through the window. But she soon
recovered herself. She turned her cool,
pleasant eyes upon the great man and
smiled.
'I'm a little upset," she said. "I
came here to find fault and it don't
seem very grateful to find fault with
any one who was as kind as you were
yesterday. But I came to complain,
and I'm going to."
She had a firm little chin, and now
that that Jhe smile had died away
there was a look about her wholesome
mouth that bespoke her no trlfler. The
Mayor, estimating the gray strands in
, I
her brown hair and the lines about her
eyes, was calculating, "Thirty-eight or
maybe forty." But he closed his arith
metical exercises to say, with pained
attention :
"To llnd fault? With me, ma'am?"
"With you since you're the govern
ment of Crowley," she answered, again
with the smile thjit took all harshness
from hor face, "anyway, with the gov
ernment of Crowley."
She paused. Mayor Hennessey, suf
fused with red, had no apt repl.y. So
he fixed his blue eyes, from which the
twinkle had departed, dejectedly upon
her ami waited.
"I have been left an old house," she
announced, "out on the road you call
the Itlver Way. It used to be known
as the Blair l'luce."
"Yos'm," said the Mayor.
"I am a poor woman," she went on,
"a self-supporting one "
"A widow on did her husband de
sert her?" Inwardly questioned the
Mayor In a perspiration of fear.
"My husband died thirteen years ago,
and 1 have got along pretty hard until
now, when 1 come Into possession of
this property."
"It couldn't come to hotter hands," de
clared the Mayor, bowing his best. But
his visitor seemed not to hear, and he
felt himself all at once absurd and
small.
"H isn't much of a place now," she
said. "Of course I didn't know or I
wouldn't have moved here clear from
Illinois. However. I'm here. And I
mean to stay. And I mean to open a
boarding-house there, for the house Is
as big as a barn, and I'm used to the
business. But the road to It has to be
repaired, Mr. Mr. "
"Hennessey." supplied the Mayor.
"Mr. Hennessey. No one would travel
over sich a road to get anywhere.
There ought to he a breakwater all
along the river-edge there," she fin
ished severely.
The Mayor began to recover himself.
"Oh, my dear madam." he said In tho
florid political manner, "we're not n
rich community like the city over there.
Ours is a worktn' population. A break
Water Is an expensive luxury for which
our taxpayers would be unable to
pay,"
The widow gazed nt Mm steadily.
"1'vo read all ubout Crowley," she
announced.
OSS-Byv Anne O'Hagan
"I suppose you mean In them black
guardin' minora n cross the river." he
returned, stirred to an unwonted heat.
again tne widow s Booming, rauiant
smile appeared.
"I suppose they were opposition pa
pers," she conceded. "But that Illver
Way Is a disgrace and a danger. And
It is In the city, you know." !
Charmed by her amiability, the May
or hastened to concede also.
"It has been somewhat er neg
lected In the press of other matters, but
now that we seem likely o have a
er population out that way some
thing will have to be done."
"The street lamps do not seem to be
lighted out there at night. It's rather
gloomy If one's a stranger," she said.
"Never a whimper about bein' a wo
man!" thought' Mayor Hennessey
proudly, while he proclaimed aloud:
"If the lighters ain't doln' their duty,
ma'am, we'll soon know the reason."
The lady rose to go. Her face was
divided between Its grim resolution
and its sunny confidence.
"You will do something,, then?" she
said. "You Bee I'm ignorant. Maybe I
ought to have gone to gome one else,
but I " said to myself 'I'll go to the
head.' I've always found' It best to go
straight to headquarters. Why,
broke half my furniture yesterday. And
I wus a little desperate.'
"Whenever anything goes wrong
with you in 'this town, ma'am," an
swered the beaming Mayor, you come
straight to me. And If our broken road
was the cause of your broken furniture,
you send In a bill, ma'am."
She looked dubious.
"Send InCa claim, ina'am, an' don't
bring a suit for damages," begged the
Mayor in sounding terms. And to facll
Ituto her progress he placed official
foolscap by the pens and ink ready on
hitt desk.
When In neat, unaccustomed chlr-
ography she had mad out the bill
against Crowley for a broken piano, a
broken what-not. and a broken' case
of crockery, Mayor Hennessesy had
the satisfaction of learning that her
name was Maria Downs. And he felt
thnt the twenty-eight dollars at which
sho estimated her loss was a small
price to pay for the information
since it should be the1 city that would
pay it. Mrs. Downs departed, bow
ed out of the outermost door of the
City Hall by the Mayor, to the" mar
veling delight of. the clerks and hangers-on.
Then he departed to see the
Chief of Police.
They talked of many things of the
Mayor's horses and of the Chief's son
who had Inopportune yearnings to go
to Annapolis In spite of the fact that
his father had quarreled with the
recommending Congressman. But May
or Hennessey had not quarreled. He
would speak the word In due season;
and by the way, would the Chief see
to It that the River Way was diligently
patrolled for a while until the young
toughs of Crowley had It firmly fixed
in their minds that the River Way was
not for them? The Chief would!
"A man that never, forgets his
friends." commented the Chief warmly,
picturing his son a naval ensign as he
looked at the Mayor's broad back In
Its placid retreat from the office.
Daniel Hennessey, as he strode along,
banished merely sentimental reflec
tions. He had work to do. reforms to
undertake, a bill to have paid, audi
tors and treasurers to manage. And he
managed them 80 easily that it was
but a short Urn before lie louna a
neatly written, but it seemed to him
unnecessarily brief, note froni Maria
Downs acknowledging the receipt of
twenty-eight dollars, and thanking
him for the trouble he had taken In
her behalf.
The campaign went on; and the re
sult was the usual one. The Mayor wag
triumphantly re-elected. The returns
reached him at the party headquar
ters, conveniently adjacent to Casey's
saloon. He and his aides sat about a
long table In an upper room, dimly
perceiving one another's good-natured
faces and titter hats through a haze
of smoke. There was plenty of laugh
ter, during the evening, and when the
last district1 had been heard from, the
Mayor, according to his time-honored
cUBtom, invited his friends to remain
until Casey sent up a little something
to drink success to the government,.
They all waited except young Donahue,
the new alderman.
"You'll excuse me, Mr. Hennessey,"
he apologized, slipping into his over
coat, "but theres a little woman at
home that'll 'be sittln' Op to hear the
good news." . 1
He gripped the Mayor's hand. He
was the Mayor's man, and there was
gratitude in his dog-like young eyes.
And the Mayor shook his, hand so hard
that his fingers were scarred from the
pressure of a big diamond.
"Poor Hennessey," he said In detail
ing the evening's occurrences to his
proud wife, "I misdoubt me but he'd
like some one to be waittn' up to hear
the. news himself." ,
A few days later the restless unde
fined craving of the Mayor for the
River Way could no longer be kept
down. With a, soberer steed than Lady
Hamilton attached to an open.buggy,
he started. It was cold, and he wore
the seal-lined ulster that Crowley es
teemed the brightest Jewel In its mu
nicipal crown. He had looked wdth
some satisfaction at the reflection given
back by his hall mirror before he left
the house. In some vague undefined
way he thought of himself as a tri
umphant warrior setting out to re
ceive the victor's final meed.
As he approached the turn . in the
road that gave upon the old Blair
place, he was conscious of a sort of
dizziness. Beneath his ribs his heart
thumped loudly. He threw back his
overcoat and told himself that driving
heated a man. Then he wondered if
Mrs. Downs would regard him as In
sane if he should call upon her.
He rounded the urve and there she
was, a determined figure In a short
skirt and a woollen reefer-Jacket. A
red muffler enveloped her head and
throat, and crisp little ringlets blew
from beneath Its close folds about her
animated face. Two men worked bus
ily under her directions, ptling rocks
along the bank The Mayor pulled up
sharply. Mrs. Downs looked askance
until she recognized him. Then she
advanced with outstretched mittened
hand. s
"Oh, Mr. Hennessey!" she cried. Then
she laughed.. "You see, I'm building
my own breakwater."
"But but." sputtered the Mayor,
'we can't allow that, Mrs. Downs.
When a lady does us the honor to set
tle with us, she shouldn't have to
have to "
'So I think myself, Mr. Hennessey,
but I can't havs the storms and the
river eat away any more of my land.
There's a foot gone in places since I
came. So I contracted for these rocks
ind I'm making a temporary wall.
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Next summer r"
"Next summer, ma'am," declared the
Mayor, with sudden decision, "there'll
be twotmiles of as fine breakwater as
you'd want to see along this road.
And the city'll build it"
' "I'm sure I hope so," said Mrs.
Downs with skeptical dryness of In
tonation. .
"You have me word for it, ma'am,"
said the Mayor at a summer tempera
ture of embarrassment. Then awk
wardly enough he persuaded the lady
to permit him to drive her along the
road for a way, and he felt a thrill
of pride when, looking doubtfully from
her shabblness to his seal-lined ele
gance, she averred that "she wasn't
fit."
Back In the City Hall by-and-by, he
sent for young Donahue and for young
Wilson. Young Donahue learned that
he was to introduce a bill providing
for a breakwater along the River Way,
for a two-mile stretch of macadam
road, for the planting of new shrub
bery and for the cutting through of. a
street behind the few dwellings that
fronted oh the river. Nothing but the
boundlessness of his belief In his boss
saved him from panic.
"Do do you think it'll go through?"
he asked.
"It'll go through," answered the
Mayor shortly.
Young Wilson, tall, slim, blond and
Indolent, had, for his uncle's sake, to
draw a salary. But he was a foolish
youth, scarcely fit even for the orna
mental secretaryship created for him
In the office of the Commissioner of
Docks. TJo-day Mayor Hennessey de
cided that ho 'should "earn his keep."
Where are you llvin", Wilson?" he
demanded abruptly.
"Up at Mrs. Snyder's," replied the as-
Monlshed Wilson. "
The Mayor considered how to make It
up to Snyder. . '
"Like it there?"
"First-rate place," replied Wilson,
examining his nails carefully. He was
reported in City Hall circles to be ad
dicted to the manicure habit.
"Could you move to oblige me?"
said the Mayor. Mr. Wilson bestowed
sharper glance than usual on his
chief. I
"Shouldn't care to," he drawled. Then
he explained. "You see, I've been
there two years and It's homelike and
er " he finished with a simper.
"Making up to Snyder's girl, eh?
Well, what I've In mind would do you
no harm there. You'll get her all the
quicker for not beln' under her feet
the whole time, and I'll square it with
the missus. Now I want" and he
scheduled what he wanted.
Of course he had his own way. Wil
son might sigh and grumble and de
clare that it was too far out for a per
son who liked to Bee a little life of an
evening, but Wilson knew that he must
be pursuaded or lose the easy secre
taryshlp, and he was persuaded.
All that week the Mayor's obscure
agents were busy searching the titles
of the River Way estates and bargain
ng with the long-disgusted holders of
them. Had Daniel Hennessey appeared
as a purchaser the owners would have
suspected expensive schemes and would
have held their land dear. But only a
few poor fellows, not evpn real estate
speculators, wanted to buy. They had
to buy on small mortgages. The es
tates went very cheaply, and the mort
gages, were cleared with astonishing
speed after the transfers had been
made to Mr. Daniel Hennessey.
Then Mr. Hennessey worked with his
aldermen, his Common Council and his
Board of Public Works. They did not
see, at first, Just what was In It, but
under the guidance of their astute
chieftain their vision gradually cleared.
Nearly two miles of river-front land
in his possession; a breakwater and a
macadam roadway in front; a street
opened through in the rear; a branch
of the main trolley line running along
that new street; what more natural
than the formation of the River Way
Real Estate Company, the erection of
villas all chocolate-colored gables
and crushed strawberry porticos and
shallow cream-colored bay windows?
A great light began to break in upon
the municipal brains. Then there was
tho Point, three miles farther on,
where the river made its deep dip and
the land was a wooded promontory.
There was a beach there a fine sand
beach. Picture the macadam road and
the buttress against the water contin
ued to this point on one side and the
trolley buzzing through to it on the
other! Was there anything the mat
ter, the Mayor would like to know, with
organizing the Laurel Point Pleasure
Resort Association? The Mayor's
friends enthusiastically agreed that
there was not, only one Irrelevant man
venturing to point out that there were
no laurels within two hundred miles of
the little cape.
So the Mayor worked and manipula
ted and waited. To his allies he
seemed, as usual, a great and genial
organizer who never "forgot his
friends." But he knew himself for the
humbler wooer of energetic Maria
Downs. .
Maria Downs did not know him so.
Had he Informed her that a sea-wall
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mam seveie conuuiua. nunuon s aiarrn-
don't take it but write to us and enclose
money order, and we will send you a
liberal offer to refund your money if it
was building because she had stood
one windy morning directing two rude
masons before her house, or that "re
stricted villaB" were rearing them
selves in pink and yellow-gabled an
gularity that she might have neighbors
of the safe sort, or that a trolley line
ran to her back door that her board
ers might travel to and fro with ease
and her venture prove successful, she
would only have thought him a more
elaborate liar than she had been al
ready taught to believe him. And
perhaps her skepticism would have
proved more nearly true than his fan
cy, for certain it Is that his active
mind had more pleasure in this indi
rect pursuit of her than the chase of
an inamorata often affords a man.
The Mayor was a frequentjvisitor at
the big boarding-house, where he mar
veled to' find her cpen fire more at
tractive than his gilded radiators. He
wondered, too, why her homely work
basket seemed so much more of an or
nament on her red-covered table than
the Jade card-reoelver on his marble
top at home. But, slow to unfamiliar
sentiment and awkard In her actual
presence, he never put the questions to
her. The years when women had not
mattered to him had done their work.
As the third Christmas of Maria's
residence in Crowley approached, the
Mayor took a great and courageous re
solve. Something softer than usual In
her self-reliant face, a little touch of
pensiveness about her firm lips, a cloudy
glamor sometimes before her gray eyes,
inspired him with a more tumultuous
sensation than ever, when he was with
her, and with a greater restlessness,
when he was In his own barren house.
He looked upon what he had done for
her and he was glad and proud. He
would claim, his reward! A humbler
mood prevailing, he 'would decide to
beg her to take pity on his loneliness.
He would ask her to play hostess at
his New Year's reception.
"An' If she mentions clothes an'
things'," he said to himself, as he drove
along the rehabilitated River Way by
the white brilliancy of the December
stars and the great arc-lights, "I'll tell
her we'll go over to Paree the week
after, an' she can get what she wants."
The old Blair place beamed rosy and
yellow out into the white radiance of
the night. The Mayor's heart thumped
painfully and his fingers bungled as he
fastened the weight to the bit. His
voice was a little thick as he asked for
Mrs. Downs, and the smiling maid ad
mitted him.
Mrs. Downs came In after a brief
delay. There was a flush on her cheek
like a young girl's, and her eyes were
starry. Her plain frock was exchanged
for something that fluted and fluttered
about the throat. The Mayor surveyed
her with an agitated pride.
They wished each other a Merry
Christmas and drew their chairs be
fore the fire. The Mayor tugged at his
big moustache, and cleared his throat
many times. Then he played with the
cat. Mrs. Downs gazed silently at the
blaze. Suddenly she turned toward
him.
"I want to tell you something," she
said with her old directness. "You're
my oldest friend here; you gave me my
start with the dray and the driver and
and my first boarder. You remem
ber. Well I'm going to be married."
Daniel stared at her, his big red
face expressionless, his eyes like two
bits of dull blue china. She hurried
on nervously.
"It's Ed Mr. Wilson.i You're re
sponsible, you see, for it all."
A slow amazement crept over Dan
iel's face. He was galvanized Into
speech, and with one sentence showed
how Vast a gulf lies between tact with
men and tact with women. v
"Why, he's nothing but a boy!" he
blurted out.
Brickish red traveled slowly up
Maria's sensible face.
He is older than you think," she
said stiffly, "and maybe I'm not so
old."
Daniel looked at her with drooping
Jaw for a minute.
Maybe," he acquiesced finally, but It
was the acquiescence of an unbeliever.
"And you don't know," she hurried
on. ashamed of her brief animosity,
"how a woman who's had a hard time
and none too much pleasure or
liking In her life, wants it when It
comes. You see," she wound up with a
flnnal attempt at gayety, "you're a
hard-headed business man and a poli
tician, and I don't believe you know
about romance."
The Mayor stared at her from glazed
eyes 'for a minute. "I guess you're
right," he agreed at last He rose and.
going to the red-curtained window,
looked out across the sloping lawn,
flecked with lights from the house.
The smooth road above the river shone
white in the night. He could hear, the
water softly beating the stone defense
he had made against it. There was a
dull weight in his chest.
"I guess you're right." he said as he
turned back to the room and stretched
out his big hand In congratulation. "I
guess you're right. Romance ain't In
my line."
Copyright by S. & Mccfure Coi