Next to the Miniature painted on Ivory, the Modern Photo is the prize Bunk of the Universe.
A successful Photographer, who has learned the Tricks and made a slight Study of Human Nature, can take a Gra.s.s Widow of 48, who is troubled with Wild Hairs and other Excess Ornaments, and by tampering with the Negative, he can make her out to look something like Ethel Barrymore. Then she can send the Picture to her Relations who live a long way off and they will never know the Difference.
The Girl sent Harry a High Art Panel of herself, in which she was looking at something in a Tree, and when he gazed at it, he had a Palpitation and said, "This is better than I thought it was."
He told himself that it would be a Pleasure and a Privilege to walk up to something like that the 1st of every Month and hand it the Envelope.
He got a clean Shave and put on his Other Clothes and went and had himself Taken by an Artist who charged $8 a Dozen--$4 for the Pictures and $4 to square his Conscience.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Artist._]
This Specialist could take any Set of Misfit Features and rearrange them into a Work of Art. He put Harry in front of the Bull"s-Eye and scrooged him around so as to blanket the White Wings as much as possible and then he told him to think of Money and look Pleasant.
When the Pictures were delivered, Harry realized for the first time that he was a Beautiful Creature. He sent one to the Girl and wrote that it was a b.u.m Likeness and did not do him Justice, and so on.
In acknowledging Receipt, she cut out the "Dear Mister" and came right at him with "Dear Friend," which gave him such a Stroke of Joy that he did very little Work that Day.
Harry did not have Gumption enough to evolve any deep System for landing a Tid-Bit, but he had accidentally hit upon the Cinch Method.
So long as Courtship consists of sending idealized Cabinets and exchanging Nice Long Letters, there is but little chance of making Miscues. He never drops in of an Afternoon to find her in a Blue Wrapper and drying her Hair and she never catches him smelling of Cigarettes.
When it comes down to close Work in a Parlor, there is always the Risk of having Herbert b.u.t.tinsky on hand to make his Party Call. He who tells his Love by U.S. Mail never hears anything about the Third Party. He lives in the sweet Delusion that he has bought up the whole House.
Harry"s Letters to the Girl and the Girl"s Letters to Harry became more and more on that Order, until at last they began to burn holes in the Mail Bags.
After comparing her Picture with all the Parlor Favorites that he met on his Social Rounds, he realized that she outcla.s.sed all other Representatives of her s.e.x.
In her cosy Flat, far away, she had him propped up on the Piano in a Silver-Gilt Frame and featured to beat the Cars. Any one who dropped in to see her was made to understand that he was merely an Understudy, who was being used as a Time-Killer.
She used to write to Harry and tell him about her Callers and what Chumps they were, and then let him draw his own Conclusions as to who was the real white-haired Papa.
Finally Harry took an Overdose of Nerve Food and asked her right out, would she? The answer came back by Wire and the same Day he sent a sealed Express Package containing the Ring.
After which they began to lay Plans to have a Wedding and become better acquainted.
To be continued in our Next.
MORAL: Absence makes the Heart grow foolish.
_THE MARRIED COUPLE THAT WENT TO HOUSEKEEPING AND BEGAN TO FIND OUT THINGS_
Once there was a Happy Pair, each of whom got stuck on the Photograph of the other and thereupon a Marriage was arranged by Mail.
Shortly after taking the Life Risk, they started in to get acquainted.
Up to the time that they moved into the Arcadian Flats and began to take Orders from the Janitor, he never had seen little Sunshine except in her Evening Frock.
He had a sort of sneaking Suspicion that she arose every Morning already attired in a Paris Gown and all the Diamonds.
And she supposed that he went to the Office every Day in his regular John Drew effect with the Folding Hat.
After she began to see Hubby around the Flat in his Other Clothes the Horrible Truth dawned upon her that he was not such a Hot Swell as he had looked to be in the Bunko Photograph.
Sometimes, on Rainy Sundays, he would cut out the Morning Service and decide not to Shave, and then when she got a good long Look at him, she would begin to doubt her own Judgment.
And so far as that is concerned, there were Mornings, after they had been out Late to a Welsh Rabbit Party, when she was a little Lumpy, if any one should ask.
Love"s Young Dream was handed several goshawful Whacks about the Time that they started in to get a Line on each other.
For instance, the first Morning at Breakfast it came out that her Idea of a Dainty Snack with which to usher in the Day was a Lettuce Sandwich, a Couple of Olives and a Child"s Cup full of Cocoa, while he wanted $35 worth of Ham and Eggs, a stack of Griddle Cakes and a Tureen of Coffee.
She was a case of Ambrosia and Nectar and he was plain old Ham and Spinach.
It used to give her Hysterics to see him bark at an Ear of Green Corn, at the same time making a Sound like a Dredge.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Inhaling It._]
For Dinner she liked a little Consomme en Ta.s.se and then a Nice Salad, while he insisted on a Steak the size of a Door Mat and German Fried to come along.
They did not Mocha and Java at all on their Reading Matter. She liked Henry James and Walter Pater and he preferred Horse Papers and the Comic Supplement. Sometimes when she would wander off into the Realms of Poesy he would follow her as far as he could, and then sit down and wait for her to get through rambling and come back.
If they took in a Show she was always plugging for Mrs. Fiske or Duse, while he claimed that Rogers Brothers were better than Booth and Barrett had been in their Prime.
She could weep over a Tosti Serenade, and he would walk a Mile at any time to see a good Buck Dance.
When they got around to fixing up Invitation Lists, there was more or less Geeing and Hawing.
All of his Friends belonged to the Hitemup Division. Their only Conception of a Happy Evening was to put the Buck in the Centre of the Table, break a fresh Pack and go out for Blood.
Wifey found her most delirious Joy in putting pa.s.sionate Shades on all the Lamps, and sitting there in the Crimson Glow to discuss Maeterlinck and Maarten Maartens and a few others that were New Ones on the he-end of the Sketch.
When they had an Evening At Home up in the Flat, it was usually a two-ring Affair. She would have the Cerebellums in the Front Room looking at the New Books and eating Peppermint Wafers, while he and the other Comanches would be out in the Dining-Room trying to make their House Rent and tossing off that which made Scotland famous.
Sometimes it would take half the Night to get the Smoke out of the House.
Although she feared that she had turned up the wrong Street while searching for her Affinity, the Partnership Arrangement had to stand.
They came to the Conclusion that Married Life is a Series of Compromises. If he did well while sitting in with some of his Friends, he would divide up with her and she would take the Money and buy Art Pastels.
He would spot the Afternoons on which the Ethical Researchers were due at his Premises and he would go to a Dutch Restaurant.
She permitted him to have a Room and call it his Den, so that he and his Friends could do the Escape in case somebody in the Parlor started a Reading.