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She Married Both

She Married Both image
Parent Issue
Day
9
Month
November
Year
1894
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Mr. Wüberforoe Trott, lawyer, of the , Qrm of Lunkeusteiu & Trott, was the j picture of prosp-ity and conten traen t, sittiug in his oiïico in the most j uriantly appointed office building in j town. His private office, where we fiud hita, was a poem in hard wood and stucco, but it8 spiek and span cleanliuesr; denoted its nowness. In f act, Mr. Trott had not always ocoupied quarters :i '.: ? : .'icio. Indeed as he sat in his rotary sl:a'r, pufflng the smoke from a Colorado i i iro With a sultanic air of limitless vrealth, Mr. Trott's elegant surroundings bore the gloss of a week's existence and not a day more. Not that he wore i the new conditions with auy the less j grace on that account, however. Auy one to have observed him critically would have acknowledged the aristocratie repose of his regular features and the exquisito taste of his f ashiouable apparel. But the fact remains that Mr. Trott a week before had been a struggling young attoruey with au inchoate practico and an uureliable sequence as to meáis. As there are no such things as fairy wands to change hungry lawyers iuto j well fed barristeis, the truth may as well be admitted - Mr. Trott had hit the races. The -1 0, 000 retaiuer from a delightfully niysterious Corporation in i the west, which lie assurod his friends I was the basis of his new magnificence, was in reality a winning of that amouut on cluster horses upon whose combined speed he had made a bet after the mauner current among the poolrooms. For all this Mr. Trott was by no means a "sport." He was unquestiouably a young man of talent who would be heard from one of these days, and who knew what it meant to "toil terribly. " The reason that we do not fiud him atworkwith his books directly concerns our interest in this lucky youth, for Mr. Trott's thoughts were floating back over five long years of professional vicissitudos, as dreamily as the smoke that curled aloft over his blond head, uutil they rested upon a face of dark, healthy beauty, surmounted by curling locks as black as the tender eyes whose depths he had once ceiebrated in a f eeble quatrain, with the opinión that they rivaled the glories of a starlit night. He had truly been despcrately in love with Alice Monroe, a fact that had been fully appreciated by that dainty little despot, who not only accepted all his attentions in the way of theater tickets, balls and bouquets, but pouted for more. All of these things had been the despair of poor, young Mr. Trott, who wondered how he was ever to marry a girl whose trivial expenses per week exceeded his income at the bar per month. To render the situation even more poignant she repeatedly declared that the man she married vsould have to have money. In her heartless opinión love in a cottage was unqualified bosh. Of ten he had exclaimed to the four walls of his dingy room : "She is vain, flaunting, extravagant and uuworthy an houest fellow'a toil. " On every fine Sunday afternoon, for her sweet sake, he had hired a yellnw cart and a large black horse with a stride like the course of empire, whose tan colored harness was the swellest thing that graced the Ciifton drives on that day. The swellest? Alas, no! There was one rig that excelled that of Mr. Trott, even as the white glory of the diamond excels the dull gray of the topaz. And in that rig sat the bete noir of Mr. Trott - the one being on earth whom he hated with the cheerful, cordial hate of a lover for a rival. The name of this party was Messerschmidt, a cool, imperturbable gentleman, the unruffled impudeuce of whose small, steady eyes had taken Mr. Trott's measure on the night that they had first met in Miss Monroe's parlor aud were ever since noting the details of Mr. Trott's suit with a stolid Teutonic amusement that b'etokened their owner's confidence in his owu supremacy. As a rival Mr. Messerschmidt was indeed peculiarly dangerous in the possession of a gigantic soap factory, inherited from a simple miuded parent who would have turned in his grave with astonishment had heseen what his sou had done for the old concern since its founder's death, for the plant had undergone the mysterious process known only to the subtle promotor who capitalizes a small enterprise into a colossal oue by the hocus pocus of the ' 'street. ' ' Never in his life had Mr. Trott clnimed the society of the capricious Miss Monroe on one of those bright afternoons but what Mr. Messerschmidt could be seen in his gorgeous turnout, riding insolently alongside or else taking the road in a manner even more insolent just in front. This gentleman's presence was not only obtruded upon thein at these times, but he seemed to divine by a diabolical instinct just when and where to fiud them together. If Mr. Trott took Miss Monroe to the theater, the other party iuvariably had a seat ueaiby which he would change for one irnmediately next to the couple and engage them in conversatiou with a mild, insinuating assurance that used to irrítate the young lawyer to the point of insanity. When he took Miss Monroe to the Art museum - a favorite ruse of his to get her away from possible intruders - bis ubiquitous rival was there also, suave, calm, entertaining, agonizing! Just why Miss Mouroe tolerated this in8idious personage had been more than Mr. Trott could understand. She averred that he bored her, and that she was disgusted with his social stupidity, but Mr. Trott noticed that shedisplayed far inore cordiality toward him than was consistent with tlnsc assertiocs. fiaving the teinerity tü tax her with this pnble fact one evening, s'ue petulantly admitted tha4 the only obtsucles that lay betweeu herand theomnipotent Messerschmidt was his name and his business. Sh" did et fancy becomiug a queen of society uuder the title of a soap factory that had to have its works extended In order to ruake room for the name on the buildings. She would uiuch rather marry tho mau who had become tho most celebrated jurist of his time. Sayiug this, she had looked wistfully at the modest Mr. Trott, who had beeu trying to convince her for several weeks that su-,was his brilliant destiny; that he was In faot, already on the highroad to succtiss and revenue. As his mind dwelt on that scène Mr. Trott's visage lost some of its tranquil contontment on this morning as ho sat in the office, dreaming of what might have been, for he rather blamed Provi(ience for having failed to place hini on the suprem9 benoh at 23. Acciflentally his eye rested on the polished oak cover of his typewriter in the corner, and he smiled bitterbyat the associations eonjured up by that implenient of modern correspondence. Well he remeni'.red a certain morning in early June wheu Miss Monroe took it into her capiicious hoad to visit him at his palatial quarters - as he had represented thein to her in order to keep pace with the plutocratic MèsserBohmidt. As ususal, that worthy was tagging placidly at her side. Mr. Trott shuddered with retrospectivo horror as he thought of the hideous catastrophe of that visit and pictured the sceue before him. There was Alice, as blooming aud richly handsome as a Jacqneminot rose, radiating a delicate perfume, like the flower itself, which fairly intoxicated the young lawyer. The oomplaisant and phlegmatic Messerachmidt near by woie his usual smile of racaut uibauity, but in his small gray eyes shone the light of a demoniacal triumph, and as he watched Alice sweep the office with her keen eyes and gather in every shabby detail of the office, from the bare floor tó the dilapidated desks, he visibly exultcd at the disgust in her counteuance. Then she spoke. She had just dropped in to pay her respecta as she passed the building. She was delighted to fiud his quarters soverycoinfortable looking! Theu Messerschmidt sniffed at the atmosphere like a warhorse that scents the aroma of battle afar. Unerringly those little gray eyes fastened upon the cover of Mr. Trott's typewriter. "What make of tpyewriter do you prefer, Mr. Trott?" asked Mr. Messerschmidt, inuocently raising the cover and disclosing - uot a typewriter, but the meager and unsightiy remains of some corued beef andcabbage, on which Mr. Trott had beeu dining. That had been five years ago, and Mr. Trott had not tasted a dish of corned beef and cabbuge since. The odor of that barbarous mixture used thereafter to make him both sick at the stomach and sick at heart - he, who had once been so fond of it! Messerschmidt married her that f all, but Mr. Trott had never called upon them since the eveut. # Suddenly he threw bis cigar from him and exclahned: "Hang it! What do I care? I'll hunt her up and cali for the sole purpose of showing her that" - - His vehemence came to an abrupt stop. He started erect and listened like a man transflxed to the sound of a soft, anxionsvoice in the other office that was inquiring: "Is this a lawyer's office?" "Yes, madam," returued Mr. Trott's partner affably. "What can we do for you?" "I wish to get a divorce, " said a voice, more timidly still and trembling on the verge of tears. "My husband is a wretch" Mr. Trott interrupted the speech, radiant, precipitate, his voice vibratiug with unmistakable joy. "Alice!" he cried as he opaned the door with a rusü. The young lady rose in astouishment at the figure bef ore her. "Is it possible?" she faltered. He took her hand and drew her inside his office with gentle force, leaving his mystified partner staring speechlessly at the vacated seat. "What has he been doing to you, Alice?" cried Mr. Trott, holding her hand and looking as vindictive as a Corsicau. "He'sbeen desertiug me," she said. "What, that harruless looking, moou faced idiot!" "Was a horrid, despicable scoundrel!" retorted Mrs. Messerschmidt, with appropriate tact. Aud thei!, whiie Mr. Trott listened and held her hand, she poured forth a tale of such heartrending oruelty that he wept also. "Did you ever hear anything like it, Wilber?" she asked appealingly, contracting his name as she used to do when he had pleased her. Mr. Trott replied with an impulsive embrace and au uuexpected kiss. "But I am Mtb. Messerschmidt!" she exclaimed in demure alarm, drawiug from him. "That's so!" said Mr. Trott soberly. "The disability will haveto be removed before a prior courtship can be reinstated - ahem! By the way, Alice, have you seeu my new typewriter?" uncoveriug the machine with a mischievous grin. "What do you think of it?" "It doesu't look as palatable as the oldone, Wilber, " she said, laughingand drying her tears. "But it isn'tnearly as embarrassing, " he returued. "Your petition for absolute divorce shall be prepared upon it - without alimouy - for I wouldn't touch a cent of his oleaginous money, coufound him!" "Just as yon say, Wilber," she said reeignedly, dropping her eyes, with a blush. And Mr. Trott's partner ín tho outer office took his eye from the keyhole and observed coutentedly:

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News