The San Francisco call., 1904-10-23
ByChanningPo oIlock

Copyright. 1904. by Claiming Pol
lock.)
~ ALLIE MARSHALL went to
~ Red Bank for her vacation al
Z most entirely because Frank
I Ewing was there. To her friends
in the sfiices of the American Opera
Chair Company she said that she felt
the quiet of the place TO be what she
most needed In point of fact, how
ever, what she most needed was the
love Of the young bookkeeper, who
had dropped his pen week before
with the aVowed intention of rusti-
eating at Red Bank.
The ordinary, sensible woman of 80,
which was the exact age of Miss Mar
shall probably would not have SYM
pathized with her much concerning
this requirement. Ewing was Just 2S
and his gray matter was not gray
because of maturity or overexertion
He was exceedingly good looking, ex-
ceedingly tall and broad and debonair,
and these virtues appealed at once to
little Miss Marshall, whose eyes were
accustomed to grayness of mind and
Of other things.
AhN0 MISS lOO, III d
patronizing sort of fashion, his regard
having been deepened considerably by
the discovery that she was mistress Of
double entry and not at all averse
TO double labor His affection never
melted into words. and it was suf-
nciently adjustable to permit of being
put quite out of the way when its
possessor met so fluffy and alluring a.
person as Nellie Carruth.
Frank Ewing's gone with your girl
again." Miss Marshall heard an idIer
remark banteringly to another as she
climbed the steps of the Globe Hotel.
She stopped to tumble a handker-
chief out Of her bag.
"Who2 Nellie Carruth ?" inquired
the youth addressed. Looks as If I
was cut out, doesn't it?"
That he was not the only individual
cut out" Miss Marshall learned i'm
mediately upon the return of the pair.
fluttering about the piazza she dis
cerned them at the end of the street
the bookkeeper hanging on the words
OF his companion as no amount of
mere appreciation Of wisdom ever made
man hang on the words Of woman.
Ewing was greatly embarrassed. too.
When ne saw Miss Marshall, although
she tried to seem uninterested alike in
his presence and in his attention TO the
plue-frocked girl to whom he presented
her.
Nevertheless, while presenting an i'm
perturbable front to that part of the
world at Red Bank, she suffered keenly
the next few DAYS. Miss Carruth and
her widowed mother occupied a cot
taee near the river, and between walk
ing, riding and booating she and her
new admirer were together almost con-
stantly.
This was the state of affairs when
a fire at the Carruth cottage upset
Red Bank and permitted to the book
keeper a display Of courage which
seemed 10 write ''finis' to his ro-
nance. The blaze broke out at dead
OF night and gained such headway in
the front part Of the dwelling that
there appeared scant probability that
the two inmates could be rescued. Red
Banks volunteer fire brigade propped
its ladders against the veranda be-
fore the bedroom windows. but very
wisely refused to mount them through
the blast furnace of the blazing
porch. Ewing went up one Of them
like a toy monkey on stick and car
ried both women TO places of safety.
Miss Marshall. who thought 1t
risky to be among the spectators at a
IRE, did not witness this deed. but
she heard Of It and her heart swelled
with pride. She had known all along
that Ewing was capable OF just such
heroism. Forgetting her previous re-
serve, she hastened to congratulate
him. bringing up. speechless and tear