Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-06-03
A Girl Fools
Copyright. 1908. by Daily Story Pub. Co.,,
By HATTIE PRESTON RIDER

| | XKTHATEvER is troubling you, l w Elsie, you have given me the right to know it, and I shall assume the right to straighten it out for you," he said.
 Miss Lester, the stenographer, sat mp, with a long, quivering sigh.
 Tt is nothing that anybody can help me about,' she said, drearily. "Least of all you, MT. Grant, kind as you are" Her blue eyes were fll- ing again.
 Distressed at her tears, Grant sat 1 down beside her., I 'This is nonsense, Elsie!" Ten- derness vibrated in his deep voice. ''You speak as if something serious were the matter, and yet you would have me stand by like graven image, not lifting a finger. Darling,' g softly, "you say you love me, and you accept my little gifts for my loves sake; yet you shut me from your heart like thatl"
 She moved one hand little Nway toward him on the desk. He took it eagerly.
 II did not mean that I could not tell you" she said, flushing sweetly and warmly. "Only that you could not help me. My mother has been very ill and my brother has lost his position caring for her. They have written me for help, although had sent them nearly all my last months salary" Her lashes dropped. But Grant leaned back with huge sigh of relief.
 "How much would 1t require to tide them we'll over till your brother is on his feet again?" he askeGs
 She hid her face in her hands.
 About two hundred dollars" she answered in a smothered voice. Grant got up with a1acrity and went over to his desk. A pen scratched. Then he came back and laid the magic bit of blue paper on her desk. He took her hands from her face and held them.
 'I have fixed it, Elsie," he told her with ill-concealed satisfaction in his voice.
 She glanced down at the check, looked at him shyly and rose, the flush on her cheeks deepening. "You may go and attend to this matter now," he said, with an effort at self-control. "Bayley can help me out for the rest of day" He went to the door, opened 1t, and after a short barley walked away with the visitor. Miss Lester folded the check carefully in her purse. Then she went lightly out and closed the door. Nolan got up from behind the big safe where he had been kneeling, completely hidden from view by the great iron door. On his c1ean-cut, hoyish face was the look of one who has received his death blow. He had not dreamed that his entrance a quarter of an hour before was un- noticed by the other two, but the role of eavesdropper thus unex- pectedly thrust upon him was the least of his dismay.
 Opening side door he went back to his desk. The woman he loved and the employer in whose honor he had trusted!
 The day dragged, a nightmare of misery. An hour before closing Grant came and laid a sealed note on Nolan's desk. "You pass Miss. Lester's boarding place on your way home, do you not, Nolan?" he said. Would you be kind too ill to work this morning and I have arranged to give her to-mor- row also"
 Nolan drew his days first free breath. It sounded like reprieve almost to his surcharged heart. And yet
 "Certainly," he answered without looking up. He put the missive in his inner pocket Grant went back into his private office. .
 Half an hour later Grant left At the hour for closing Nolan rose and, taking a handful of letters from his pocket, sorted them over carefully and placed part of them in his desk. Among the remaining ones Grants note lay uppermost and Nolan saw that his nervous fingers in handling had broken it's imperfect seal, so that it lay open in his hand.
 The hot blood mounted to his fore- head and then receded. Jealous mis- cry makes short work, sometimes, of a mans fine sense of honor. It wrought in Nolan that hour, the deed his sane self would have re- jected with scorn. Deliberately he took out the note and unfo1ded it. The words ran together in letters of fire;
 sSnaaros+- }it41a erir1-
 "I shall call for you with a car- riage this evening at eight.''
 "Devotedly yours,
 e."
 Nolan refolded and resealed the letter and put it back in his pocket. He locked the office and passed out to the street like. a statue gifted with 1ocomotion. With bent head and contracted brows he went, pass ing without a glance the house