Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-03-13

Naturally the new boarder had been
seated beside the landady's favorite.
Miss Imogene Goldberg. Mrs. De Ian
cey firmly believed that Miss Gold
berg's high blond pompadour and rhine
stone dog collar lent eclat to her estab-
lishment
But, oddly enough. Jane Williams.
whose hair was parted demurely in the
middle and who wore her grandmoth-
er's old fashioned locket under her
plain pongee shirt waist. realized that
the fine gray eyes of the new boarder
We're looking her way frequently and
intently
She tried to analyze her feelings with
the salad. and when the cOffee-such
thick yet spiritless coifee-was served
she decided that IT. was embarrassment
and not n memory which stirred her
whenever the gray eyes glanced her
way.
Still at the conclusion of the meal
she climbed three uncompromisilfg
flights of poorly carpeted stairs TO her
hall room and drew from her trunk her
small but treasured box of photographs.
There they were; the father who had
died the year of her graduation, the
mother who had left her alone to fight
the world only twelve months before.
couple of aunts who had forgotten
her in the needs and pleasures of their
own children. several teachers and
three girls in her class at the high
school.
But there was no picture with mas
culine eyes that could possibly have re-
semb!ed the gray ones which had
watched her grayely across the table
in the dinGy dining room.
81 am getting moody" she said to
herself as she prepared for bed, 81
| must turn over new leaf. Tomorrow
is my birthday. | can't afford to turn
| sour and old maidish at twenty-one.
| When / go back to the Office on Mon
day morning I'll be more pleasant and
make friends with the other girls. I've
been living too much in dreams of the
past"
Yet when she fell asleep it was the
dream again OF the past. IT was her
birthday, the first party in celebration
of that day which she could remember
with any sort of distinctness.
She was dressed in pink tulle all
| spattered with paper stars. and there
| were pink candles on the birthday
| cake. No one knew why an ordinarily
| well behaved and unmischievous child
should do such thing, but she sud
| TO al inf Ina, Il mi I'm Cr
room and light the birthday cake be-
fore the party came in"
| The match sputtered and jumped.
She tried to climb quickly from the
chair, but the tiny fame was quicker
still. In flash the pretty pink tarla-
| tan blazed up far above the candles.
and then she forgot everything in her
fright until she felt some one rolling
her over and over on the carpet ana
battering her with his coat, and that
had been Willie, the cavalier of her
wee girlhood.
She remembered how her mother
kissed Willie and cried over him. and
he had "poohpoohed" with very red
face and shutting feet. Their adven-
|
traditions of the town, but when she
was twelve Willie went away to live
with his Grandfather Grey in the far
west
Later they had gone to Mexico, and
Jane had lost track Of them. although
never forgetting in her own hard
struggle for a livelihood.
And Willie had big gray eyes. just
like those of the new boarder. She
woke with start Now she knew
why this man had attracted her atten-
ton. OF course the world was full OF
men with gray eyes There were not
coiors enough to go around. Some
must be duplicated. and it was very
silly Of her to think about Willie any
more. Doubtless he was married even
now to some dusky senorita whose fa-
Their owned valuable silver mines.
So she turned over and fell asleep
again, not to awaken until some one
tapped at her door and the maid, with
new respect in her bearing, entered,
carrying q huge purple box.