Gilpin observer., 1906-11-08
mo one could ever call you 'plair
Mary" he said. absently. and started
to find himself thinking aloud

mo one could ever call you 'plair
Mary" he said, absently, and started
to find himself thinking aloud.
And if perchance, l might wish to
address you-one never knows what
may happen-what-" her dancing
eyes questioned him.
For ease in conversation I'm Rich
ard" he assured her. Just poor
Richard"
Poor Richard in an automobile"
she laughed.
He ordered sweets with the coffee
and she munched them with the aban-
don of child. Then with a sudden
return to schoolgirl naivete, she ex-!
claimed, as she filled her wisp Of a.
handkerchief with almonds:
"Oh, dear, 1 forgot that plaguey old
school. And now I've got to go back
The girls will be just crazy when Il
tell them. And I'm going to take
those to prove it, 1t was lovely din
ner. And you've been lovely, too."
Then she added slowly, What must
you think of mel"
What must he think of her Dilling-
ham wondered if she would be very
angry if he told her all that he
thought-about the Pickering dent of
dimple and the sweet harshness of
her voice and the tantalizing witchery
of her eyes and the pointed oval Of
her chin-and-oh, well.
But it is what you think of me
that is worrying me- he finally as.
sured her. forgetful of the fatherly ad-
vice.
Il want to go home" said the girl,
and at the unsteadiness of her tones
Dillingham; jumped up repentantly.
When Dillingham; returned three
minutes after, the little table looked
desolate with its disarray of emptied
dishes. He looked about uncertainty.
Where she had sat pink coral stick
pin stabbed torn corner of the menu
card to the table. He picked it up
and read:
Il never saw Grayham Manor. There
is no Annabel Morris. You were
only you-and nicer than 1 deserved.
1t was all-fiction-except that 1 was
hungry-with no prospect of dinner
tonight or breakfast tomorrow. Good
by. Plain Mary"
Dillingham; wondered next day and
again at intervals all the succeeding
week why she was hungry, and his
heart stood still at the thought that
she might be hungry at the moment of
his thinking in some obscure corner of
the city.
Then one night, gloomy and morose,
he dropped into the Modern theater
to watch the opening night of a new
;-.T1 h. o+ry, NI hi r~a
ballet in mismatched stockings and
powdered wigs come prancing on.
Then his glance wandered restlessly
over the audience and back again to
| the stage.
And there-winking, disappearing,
winking again, in the face of girl at
the end of the front row was tiny
dent of a dimple near the left eye-a
dimple which he foolishly felt he
owned by right of discovery.
An hour later she walked swiftly
| from the stage entrance, her manner
stiffly repellant, and ignoring the wait
| ing groups of men about the door.
One lifted his hat and smiled broadly
at her
silly idiot" she murmured beneath
| her breath as she escaped his hear
ing.
Naughty. naughty, plain Mary" a
voice chided in her ear, and she
wheeled suddenly, rosy from chin to
forehead.
OF course, in the saffron journals it
was headed "Millionaire's Romance
Begun at Stage Door Ends in Orange
Blossoms but Dillingham;, himself,
knew from the first that the stage
door was really the finish.