Show A BACHELORS DILEMMA 88 by J A WALDRON P george matthew adams service ERALD STILSON was a G GERALD young YOU ng professor in a college near enough to new york to permit an occasional weekend week eek end in the fascinating city new york is an educational town from any viewpoint college professors may find in it matters related to any an abstruse subject or if they are more worldly than the legends say they may discover numberless things thing s that variously interest multitudes that do not run to brain this young professors stipend was still modest even after slight attention to college salaries by con science stricken millionaires and although he had the tastes of a coupon cutter I 1 gerald managed on weekends week ends long periods apart to make it go 90 enjoyably and rationally for he was a bachelor and away from his books looked the leisurely joy seeker there were times of long abstinence from expenditure when gerald could pass a weekend week end at the most expensive hotels in a style which did not set him apart from typical units of the smart mobs that affect such hotels he always dressed well and he had a manner that kept him in the picture and profound subjects were taboo to the professor during these moments of leisure the theater was his chief object and that charmed him most when the rising curtain disclosed girls he could get all the shakespeare he desired in regular editions As to girls remember that the professor was a bachelor on one of his long planned so bourns in town professor stilson encountered harry mynard in the hotel lobby they had not met since they were boys together back in a western town in which harrys father was more potent than poo bah the elder mynard had owned about everything in view in that town except the railroad shops which had preempted pre empted a part of a suburb which he coveted but he was a benevolent despot and he died full of local honors leaving several millions to harry and his daughter susan whom the census recorded as a spinster the professors father of minor distinction in the town had a flair for wall street by long distance and died minus means just as gerald became a freshman in an eastern college through which the boy worked his way with an antipathy to the place of his birth As their boyhood companionship had been ideal the greeting between gerald and harry was warm its a shame we forgath ered before said harry 1 I was going to run up to your college to look you up anyway this is lucky yes well im glad you forgotten me although we have so little in common these days what do you mean old man I 1 1 I understand youre loaded with money one who has to keep busy spending his income has little time to renew ancient and commonplace acquaintance this sort of thing geralds gesture indicated the fashionable crowd is regular with you while it is unusual with me yet geralds smile showed no covetousness ous ness ill wager youre far happier than I 1 am at that but I 1 had a purpose in m seeing you gerald and should have looked you up as I 1 say A purpose yes A strange one if we been boy intimates I 1 never should have presumed to broach it do you remember sue your little sister no longer little of course yes why dritt I 1 remember sue S me he was always tagging us about and M I 1 loved the child although we sometimes thought her a pest I 1 suppose she is married ard and settled by y this time harry regarded gerald closely and for a moment seemed embarrassed 1 I feel that riot not misinterpret anything I 1 may say and will understand from old times sue married ashes nearly thir it ty she was four or five years younger I 1 remember not old enough to ch ase around with us as she tried to do 41 YO ou just remarked 1 I loved the child 61 As edid idid I 1 did harry she was so clever C ever well gerald that reversed is the answer 1 I what do you mean ia As a child sue was infatuated with you she has had a dozen chances ances to marry I 1 believe in my beart for I 1 have studied died her close lv that at her young yng love for you de vp vel i e ped Olied into a permanent affection although though she seen you in years rs she has kept track of you that explains tiei hei single state tosh day Non SM it possible that S she he should have grown up away from me and still held a childish chia tancy fancy a n v if she ever had iti it on the contrary ary I 1 believe it is the t truth I 1 want you to meet sue you are 8 a man m on the trea treadmill im I 1 m speaking plainly you will never attain ease in life unless you marry yoney money professors do not win it 11 blooded but this harry is a bald pro proposal dosal cold be sensible gerald romance is au all right in ills its place and there may even be romance in this if you will consent to see sue to study her she is very dear to me and she is is a woman in a thousand marry someone sometime why not gamble on this chance for h happiness appi and ease its a strange notion something out of my habit of thought something not exactly regular if she is really sentimental about me id stake my life on that as a fact think it over in all seriousness gerald how long shall you be in town until tomorrow night very well see me tomorrow decide in the meantime and consider my love for my sister an excuse for my obsession harry put out his hand which gerald took absently and they separated the young professors holiday was robbed of impulse he had intended to go to the theater instead he went to his room lighted his pipe buried himself in a chair an and d began to think he pictured geralds sister as he had known her long ago he remembered that she was freckled that her hair was reddish that her nose was what was called a snub that she was tall for her years and infinitely awkward that her hands seemed always red and often grimy and that her eyes were rather queer and she was a tomboy by no stretch of his imagination could he picture her as grown to comeliness still he remembered that she was mentally alert and as full of mischief as an egg of in meat eat then he tried to imagine what he would do with money in quantities money that marriage with her would bring As he thought he became disgusted with himself for any sordid calculation on the subject he would decide at once and in the negative he could not love any woman to order or with an ulterior purpose he wondered if he could get harry on the phone he tried and had a quick response hello Is this mr mynard professor stilson gerald speaking yes well harry ive decided already sorry mighty sorry but I 1 cant further consider what we were talking about goodby good by old chap it had all taken but a few min minutes he could still go to a matinee there was a new music comedy he wanted to see he would exclude the other subject from his mind returning to the hotel after the performance gerald decided to dine there he spruced up a bit and after a pipe sauntered into the dining room taking a seat near the entrance he ordered modestly and thought how unsatisfying the show had been he had secured a seat in the front row the lines of the comedy had been trite and silly and the music old stuff simply jazzed mazzed gerald was a good looking fellow and two or three of the girls had made eyes at him their makeup was destructive of all illusion what futility I 1 there were few in the dining room as it was early gerald noted a woman two tables in front of him facing him she had been observing him but turned her eyes away as he looked at tier her under her table he could see her feet perfectly shod and ankles silk clad that were also perfect As she sat she seemed a tall woman and her costume modish but in fine taste suggested geste a strikingly shapely alg figure gure her hair he thought wonderful and her face beautiful while her eyes as she turned them his way again even from the di distance stancL thrilled him how different he thought was this well bred and handsome creature from the girls he had seen As gerald studied her trying to eliminate any suggestion of flirting from his manner harry mynard entered with a throng seeking tables harry came over to gerald with outstretched hand ah howdy I 1 wonder if you have any object objection ione gerald to meeting sue for formally millY just for old times sake sakei no objection in the world harry said gerald rising well here hiie she is and in in a moment gerald embarrassed to the point of incoherence was stammering a greeting to the wonderful had been admiring he wom woman in |