Geraldine Bonner

“ The ex-Queen of Denmark, always regally indifferent to the dinginess of her attire, ushered him politely in to a confusion of millinery and art, Miss Bessie being invariably discovered sitting at a table painting, and between whiles eating candy from a box at her elbow. While thus occupied she was not talkative. It was particularly disconcerting to Mr. Van Kull, when, in the midst of his discourse, she paused in her work and looked at him with round, absent eyes, evidently not having heard a word of his improving conversation. ”

“ G. was their Bessie and a life insurance policy of five thousand dollars. Bessie, with her crayon portraits and painted china bonbonnières and vases made the rest. A good girl was Bessie, hard-working and cheerful, if a trifle too Bohemian for a strictly refined standard.
Gearys’ flat was always at sixes and sevens. They never could find anything in it except what they did not want. When Mr. Van Kull climbed up there to look at his punch bowl he generally found Mrs. Geary in her dingy wrapper, making Bessie’s dresses. ”

“ Anyway,” and she tilted her head sideways—“anyway, even if I was willing to marry you, I couldn’t, I’m engaged to that man over there”—she pointed to the crayon portrait of the chief of the fire brigade. “We will be married when we’re better off. And you?—Why I only thought you cared about the painted bonbonnières. ”