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Page 56
"To Mr. J. D. Dimmidge.--Hope you're still on R. B.'s tracks. Keep
there!--E. J. D."
The editor wrote down the line, and then, remembering Mr. Dimmidge's
voluntary explanation of HIS "Personal," waited with some confidence
for a like frankness from Mrs. Dimmidge. But he was mistaken.
"You think that he--R. B.--or Mr. Dimmidge--will understand this?"
he at last asked tentatively. "Is it enough?"
"Quite enough," said Mrs. Dimmidge emphatically. She took a roll
of greenbacks from her pocket, selected a hundred-dollar bill and
then a five, and laid them before the editor. "Young man," she
said, with a certain demure gravity, "you've done me a heap o'
good. I never spent money with more satisfaction than this. I
never thought much o' the 'power o' the Press,' as you call it,
afore. But this has been a right comfortable visit, and I'm glad I
ketched you alone. But you understand one thing: this yer visit,
and WHO I am, is betwixt you and me only."
"Of course I must say that the advertisement was AUTHORIZED,"
returned the editor. "I'm only the temporary editor. The
proprietor is away."
"So much the better," said the lady complacently. "You just say
you found it on your desk with the money; but don't you give me
away."
"I can promise you that the secret of your personal visit is safe
with me," said the young man, with a bow, as Mrs. Dimmidge rose.
"Let me see you to your horse," he added. "It's quite dark in the
woods."
"I can see well enough alone, and it's just as well you shouldn't
know HOW I kem or HOW I went away. Enough for you to know that
I'll be miles away before that paper comes out. So stay where you
are."
She pressed his hand frankly and firmly, gathered up her riding-
skirt, slipped backwards to the door, and the next moment rustled
away into the darkness.
Early the next morning the editor handed Mrs. Dimmidge's
advertisement, and the woodcut he had selected, to his foreman. He
was purposely brief in his directions, so as to avoid inquiry, and
retired to his sanctum. In the space of a few moments the foreman
entered with a slight embarrassment of manner.
"You'll excuse my speaking to you, sir," he said, with a singular
mixture of humility and cunning. "It's no business of mine, I
know; but I thought I ought to tell you that this yer kind o' thing
won't pay any more,--it's about played out!"
"I don't think I understand you," said the editor loftily, but with
an inward misgiving. "You don't mean to say that a regular, actual
advertisement"--
"Of course, I know all that," said the foreman, with a peculiar
smile; "and I'm ready to back you up in it, and so's the boy; but
it won't pay."
"It HAS paid a hundred and five dollars," said the editor, taking
the notes from his pocket; "so I'd advise you to simply attend to
your duty and set it up."
A look of surprise, followed, however, by a kind of pitying smile,
passed over the foreman's face. "Of course, sir, THAT'S all right,
and you know your own business; but if you think that the new
advertisement will pay this time as the other one did, and whoop up
another column from an advertiser, I'm afraid you'll slip up. It's
a little 'off color' now,--not 'up to date,'--if it ain't a regular
'back number,' as you'll see."
"Meantime I'll dispense with your advice," said the editor curtly,
"and I think you had better let our subscribers and advertisers do
the same, or the 'Clarion' might also be obliged to dispense with
your SERVICES."
"I ain't no blab," said the foreman, in an aggrieved manner, "and I
don't intend to give the show away even if it don't PAY. But I
thought I'd tell you, because I know the folks round here better
than you do."
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