Romance Of A Glove

It would have mattered little if Bill Harkei' could have kipt h s couttship to himself; he might have worsbiped in secret all his days, and no one have been any the wiser. lint the extravagant rush inlo polish betraycd the poor clerk. The dyed hair and abstracted air combincd; his deep blushes whenever the subject of love was mentioned, however casually; the romantic air that gat so ill upon him; his visits to the tlieaters, in hopes of a chance glimpse of his idol; the hours hc moancd about li.stlessly - all helpcd to make him a target for the jokes of his fricnils, and a fund of amusement for his "office." The irascible landlady frightcned Mr. Ilnrker out of his sevcn senscs nearly by sending a grim servant one evening (o nsk him "to be kind enough to just step in, if he would bc so kind, and just speak to the lady of the house." In no condition to face the liery looking female, he caught a glimpsc of, standing ready, in full battle array, on the door mat in tlie hall, the startled lover no sooner hcard the message than he bolted, as if he had purloincd the boarding house pi:, te. It would be, he argued, impossible to return aftel such an inglorious escape, exeept in disguise; and lo cali and boldly ask to see a lady whose name he could not give, was nn ic'iicvement the clerk could not venture on. What a stupid fellow Fipkins, one of 4l. . ,.(1.„„ A1n_l.n 4Hl.! 1 ■„.■I least Bill thought so, and how he disÜked him! "The enorraous impudenoe of that fellow," lie would ïnurnmr to himself. "I would givo a quarter's salary, poor as I ara, to bc like hira. There is nothing he would stick at. It isdisgiisting. But what a blcssing t must be to live on such ternis with oneself." Fipkins was very slovenly; no onc would have tolerated a clerk with such a shock hcad of hair except Oíd B. But just as Bill Harkèr had begun to persuade himself that his love snit was in vain, and that his best plan was to try and forget a passion that appeared so hopeless, this brassy Fipkins was suddenly seized with the fever he was recovering from. There was no mistaking the symptoms. Other motives might have indu?ed Fipkins to have had his hair cut; but only love could have indaced him to curl it. Those paper cuft's, clean even on a Saturday, were conclusivo. If not, that reckless disregard of office honra in the niorning, that restless looking at the clock in the evcning, could not be mistaken. Flowers, too! When did Fipkins care for flowera before? - while now the street Arabs watched for his coming. Harker noted him narrowly. Would this cad be successful in the thorny, mazv paths of love? He half despised aimself for ever loving, if so vulgar a creature as this Fipkins could be smitten or could smite. Then, when 7 o'clock struck, or rather was striking, Fipkins caught np the flowers from the bottle on his I a ; ].- wit lilbji rvl t -, -■ ■ t 1 i i i íiiiisi-íl , v ■ y 1 , ï . ll.. Jï., ir?Vt 1I1O tllSWJ UL JiUlll L11J Jll Ul& detestable liead and bade hs fellow clerk good night. Bill Harker followed rim almost the moment he went out, and, as he feit instinctively would bc the case, Fipkins made straight for Leicester Square and went straight into the Doarding house Harker had so often watched. But - and this staggered him - Fipkins went down the area steps jast as the potman might havo done witli beer. not at all like a gentemanly suitor for the hand of the namcless one. What could be the mcaning of this? ÏFas it a clandestine meeting? Scarce!y so; for he had gone in with tho assurance of an expected guest Poor rïarker paced the street ia agony. What could he do? To think of havinf lis loved one snapped off in this atrocious manner galled him to the quick. Wandering distractedly about, Bill Harker untorfúñatelj did not see his rival leave the boarding house, or he might probably have relievcd his feelngs by putting Fipkins hcad in "chancm-y." As it was, he waited and watehod lili he was weary, as well as drenched to the skin by the rain, vh ich had boen falling for soine time. rhen he raised the siege and wearily railed ofl' to Camden Town, reaching the lodgings a little before daybreak. "Is this yours?" said oíd B. next day, as he carclessly picked up a lady's ;love and threw it on Bill Harker's desk. Had he dropped a bombshell over the old-fashioned raiüngs it would scarcel3' have disconcerted the clerk more than this simple article did. He quietly answered his employer in the negativo, but the color mounted to h's pale cheeks and a wild light irradiated his glaring eyes. "Mr. Fipkins, perhaps, has dropped it," he said, with more bitterness and meaning than so simple a suggcstion appeared to cali for. Strange to say, Fipkins blushed too as he repudiated all knowledge of it. "Liar!" thought and nearly said Bill Harker as" he hcard him speak. Oíd B. toddled off to his tions, ami tne giove was lelt lying unheeded, apparently, on Harker's desk, wlüle lie wrote on furiously. Not till he was left alone in the office, nearly two hours after, did lie touch the glove; but then he presscd it to his burning lips, he noted its dainty size - unused as he had once been to reiuark such matten - and observed that, though now redolent of tobáceo, it had been scented. But with joy only to be appreeiated by a lover, tliere in this glove, flung as it were in his path by a secret rival, seenied to be the very clew he had been vainly seeking. The name was written in it, or a name. Whose should it be but hers - Foussi? That, coupled with the half legible F on the blotting pad, he accepted as conclusive, poor fellow, little dreamiag in how many other gloves he could have found the same name. So now then he could wrile to her. And write he did, that samu evening, at Camden Town, a manly though passionate letter, detailing his love, his trials, his hopes, and last, if not so fully, liis pogition. This, duly addressed to "Miss Foussi," he posted, and waited with what fortitude he could inuster for an answer. He had been out of patience. It was a week before he knew anything, and then his own letter carne as a returned one from the dead letter office, the envelope playfully annotated with "Try Fishy," "Kot known," "Fussy,"" "Try Lcicester street," "Rd." - and so on. Harkcr groaned. So near his object, yet so strangely bufllcd. Oh, the agony of that week of suspense! A whole week gone - lost! And that horrid Fipkins so jubilant; day by day growing so luxurioiis in liis habits; living on the fat of the land, if his lunchcuns were a fair sample; talking so vulgar about letting out his waistcoat - tmiinphing in such coarse fashion over him perpetually! Bah! He wovild hear it no longer. He feit it was maddening him. He would flr from the ncighborhood before he was tempted to do something desperate. Bill Harkcr took a commission on the road. He visitad the west of England. It was three nionths or more before he ventured to set his foot n London again. The first time he did so he encountered Fipkins by accident in Grove road, Stockwell. The rivals started. Their meeting was like the traditional one of the strange cats in the garret. Fipkins' brass for once stood him in good stead. He was the first to speak. He held out lus hand cordially. "How are you, old fellow?" he said frankly, as if Dothing was the matter. "Whoever would have thought of seeinjr you in this part of the world?" Harker did not strike him, did not repel his friendly advances. In truth t 1 111 Ci II '11 I c Hl í i "i t li m 1 f(Y i lï a in nr ml np of his wonnd. And then Fipkins looked so happy, hc didn't have the heart to distress him. They adjourned to the nearest bar, and, in the course of aseries of "refreshels," Fipkins told of his intended niarriage, which was to take place the next week at St. Giles' Church, Camberwell. It grated on Harker's feeling to notice that Fipkins in some sort looked upon the unión as a sacrifice. "ïhere are propcrty consideratious," he said several times in a half maudlin sort of way - "property considerations, my boy; and folks can't aflbrd to lose sight of those in hard times like these." Mercenary wretch! How llarker despised him, even while h fraternized with! What a strange power the fcllow always had over him! He could neither understand nor escape from it. He found it hard to realizo, after Fipkins had left him, that he had actually promised to be his "best ! man" at the wedding. But it was so; there was the entry in his own order book - in an nnsteady hand - that Fipkins had insisted on his writing at the bar. He had not the courage to uuuiiuu il, uiu, na ne ikui jhoiimspu, honor and curiosity both prompted liiin to see the drama to tlu? end. As the two ex-clerks stood waitiag for the bride's arrival on the auspicious mornitig one might have beard Harkfr's hcart tbrob: it beat like a drum with intense excitement. But astonishment overpowered every other feeling whcu, as the bride entcred the church, a perfect inountain of fiuery, he recognized in her the dragoon-like, fiery-faced boarding house proprietress, and knew that it was she l'ipkins had chosen from "propcrty eousiderations." Confuscd as he feit, Harkcr could understand that in her oase, weighty as shc was, something in the shape of bonus would be acceptable. He had little time to tliink of all this, howevcr, for the lirst biidesmaid, he found tohis great joy, was the nameless one! Her white-gloved littlo hand rested on his trembling arm as they walked down the aisle after the ceremony, in the wake of Mr. and Mrs. Fipkins; and before they reached the hotel, where breakfast was laid, he diecovered, among other thins, that his fair compainon's name was not Foussi, but Castleton. Harker still calis his model of a wife Foussi; but the glove he had treasured did not fit her. Oíd B., who had picked it up, raight first have dropped it. One thing is certain - he aslonished everyone by marrying, before the year was out, a mere child; and her hand, as it rested in his on the wedding day, looked smal] enough to have been his daughter's.