Kilo : being the love story of Eliph' Hewlitt, book agentButler, Ellis Parker
General
Kilo : being the love story of Eliph' Hewlitt, book agent
Butler, Ellis Parker
Book industries and trade -- Fiction; Love stories
The next morning Eliph' Hewlitt purchased the two-pound box of candy in
the pictured box that had long been considered by the druggist a foolish
investment. For months it had reposed in the end of the toilet soap
case awaiting a purchaser, and had acquired a sweet odor of scented soap
mingled with the plainer odor of cut castile, and no one had been so
extravagant as to buy it. Once the druggist had tried to persuade the
candy salesman to take it back in exchange for more salable goods, but
after taking it from the show-case and smelling it the drummer refused.
At the opposite end of the case the druggist kept his plush manicure and
brush-and-comb sets, with a few lumps of camphor scattered among them
to discourage moths, but the odor of camphor did not hurt the candy. The
scented soap protected it from the camphor. When Kilo buys scented soap
she likes to have it really scented.
Miss Sally, when the small boy Eliph' secured as a messenger had
delivered the box of candy, knew well enough what it meant. The neatly
written card, “From Yours very truly, E. Hewlitt,” did not suggest much,
perhaps, but in Kilo friends do not scatter two-pound boxes of candy
recklessly about. To receive a two-pound box on Christmas would have
been a suspicious circumstance, for a smaller box would have done quite
as well between friends, but to send a two-pound box on a day that was
no holiday at all, but just a plain day of the week, could stand for
but one of two things--the giver was insane, or he had “intentions,” and
Miss Sally knew very well that Eliph' Hewlitt was not insane. Unless on
the subject of Jarby's Encyclopedia.
She carried the box of candy to Mrs. Smith, and showed her the card.
“How lovely!” cried Mrs. Smith, an exclamation which might have meant
either the box of candy or the sentiment that inspired the sender, and
then added, “How odd! It smells like soap!”
“That's a sign it's good candy,” said Miss Sally. “The candy Rudge sells
always smells of soap, an' he handles only the best, so when you see
candy that smells that way you know it's good. This is Rudge's candy,
sure enough, for I know this box by heart. Rudge has had it in his show
case ever since the firm was Crimmins & Rudge. It must be some stale by
this time, but the box is pretty.”
“I don't suppose Mr. Hewlitt knew it was stale,” said Mrs. Smith, “He
evidently tried to get the best he could.”
“Yes,” admitted Miss Sally. “He wouldn't know this box of candy so well
as we town folks do, him bein' a newcomer here. I suppose Rudge gave him
a discount off the price on account of the box bein' soiled a little.
I hope to goodness that man wasn't so foolish as to go an' pay straight
sixty cents a pound for it. He got cheated if he did, an' I'll tell him
so when I see him next.” She slowly untied the red ribbon that bound the
box, and rolled it neatly around the fingers of her left hand, to lay
away for future use. “Now, what do you suppose that man sent it to me
for?” she asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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