Show aaa ao j 1 NOT A LOVE LETTER BY GEORGE MUNSON john benson rose hurriedly from the breakfast table and plunged for hia his hat then he plunged for his wife good by dearest he said clasping her as tightly as h could considering that he v was as holding a derby and a bag full of office papers I 1 must catch that 8 27 good by john said mary benton denton kissing him fondly I 1 do wish you didn dian t have to hurry away to that old office she added pouting it won t be tor for long said her bus band it if our great new advertising scheme goes through we 11 flood the country with notices of our new pat ent everybody will read them its it a my own idea cant stop to tell you now good by and with a hurried final kiss he was through the door and hastening toward the station mary sighed a little then smiled she and john had been married only elx six months and they were very fond of 0 each other she put away the breakfast things then still smiling at the thought of her husband husbands s haste she went into the lit tie room in which he worked at nighta nights upon the new advertising plan A piece of paper lay in one corner it had evidently fluttered out of his desk and fallen there unnoticed sha she picked it up and glancing at it felt her heart throb painfully she could hardly read the words that danced before be fore her eyes it was a love letter and it began my dearest sweetest test jack it waa was type typewritten ritten e evidently that the writer might remain immune immune against dincov ery worst of all it was headed 2247 an d dover over street her husbands business address mary benton denton had the quick temper which accompanies many lovable na tures she flung the letter into a cor ner and packed her bag she was de do ter mined to go home to her mother then at last she composed herself dabbed some cologne upon her eyes put the fetter in aier her bag and started down town she v be very quiet and very calm and give the woman no occasion to triumph over her she ALI D 1 4 Q aa she was determined to go home to her mother would request a few moments of john a time would walk in lay down the let ter ask him it if he had anything to say and then go home it was as nearly eleven clock beave befve before the slow moving car reached andover street she might have taken the train but she wanted to spin out the journey as long as possible she got down from the car and en the dreary office building high up on the seventh floor of which john had his business quarters she had never been there since their mar nage she knew that he had a book keeper a stenographer and an office boy when she went in she saw the same office boy and bookkeeper but there was aas a new stenographer N why hy mary I 1 john was at the door looking at her with a puzzled espres sion slon he was holding her hands mary what is wrong dear she could not help her tears send that woman noman away she said in a fal bering voice and the stenographer withdrew softly smiling a little she had seen men s wives go to their hus bus bands offles before mary benton denton entered put down her bag and stand ing like a recording angel flung down the ile letter silently john benton read it and suddenly began to laugh uproar bously x job john what do you mean meana can you offer any excuse at all alla what isbit john benton denton read solemnly my dearest sweetest jack when are you going to take me out to din ner again as you d d on the sweetheart 7 I 1 miss you every hour ol 01 the day more than I 1 miss habroff the new patent scissors for cutting your own hair when I 1 see my brothers chairoff I 1 think of your own dark lus ins trous arous locks I 1 oh pshaw said john throwing the letter down that s a mimeo graphed circular mary we re flooding the country with them everybody will read them and v want ant a pair look at those stacks of letters up there dearest they re all the same letter all those thousands of them and you thought you really thought but mary was past thinking now she was in his arms and her tears were those of relief happiness and hu initiation copyright 1912 by V G chapman i |