The Washington herald., 1908-07-27
MELINDA'S KNIGHT
By CECILY ALLEN.


Melinda had come from up State. Be
fore her arrival in the big bUstlng city
she had studied stenography and type.
writing in an upstate business college.
She was a good stenographer too, and
would have done well in the clty-lf she
had stuck 70 stenographic pot hooks and
cGrIycues.
But Melinda would read novels. And
when she had secured d position and
settled herself in a ballroom at the work
Ing girls club. the novel habit reasserted
itself more strongly than ever. This. per
haps. because there was a secondhand
book store just around the corner. where
she could buy novels for 10 cents and ex-
change them for different ones by payins
just cents more In fact. it was a
circulating library system that made
Melinda feel particularly elegant and in
dependent and saved her a tri-weekly trip
10 the city library. a mile away.
Melinda did not care much for the girls
she met at the working girls club. They
talked shop and shirt waists. and most o.
them worked in factories Gt less salary
than Melinda received She would no;
have remained at the club only sbe had
TO send her widowed mother some money
every week, and the working girls club
was a stern necessity in the adjustment
OF her finances. Melinda was also
bored with conversation about shirt
waists. because she had 70 make the
ones she had brought from home do her
all season So what was the use Of dis
cussing bargain counter styles in blouses
II was much more fun 70 read novels
particularly the sort OF novels most com
Ill5a at the secondhand bookshops
stories OF English working lassies and
chival-ous lords and dukes. who aban-
doned scented drawiug-rooms and red
coated hunting fields 10 besiege the hearts
Of the aforementioned honest working
lassies-
just about the time that Melinda had
absorbed her 2s9th novel the bookkeepei
gave her couple OF passes for The thea
ter. Il was jus- his luck, he explained
that the baby had the wh0oplng cough
when those passes came his way. but. oi
course, he wouldn't leave his wife alone
OF an evening under such circumstances
Melinda did not stop 20 consider that IL
a humble. twsutieth-ceutury fashion this
was rather g. KnigLtIy thing for an under
paid bookzeeper 20 DO, but she took the
tEeater tickets gratefully, and invited the
assistant uatrol az the home 20 accom-
pany her % The theaJer-
Il was a wonderful play, called This
Road 20 Yesterday" and the natural eli
max OF MeI.nda's course in novel reading
For II Z a young girl and her lover and
many other FOLK were transported bach
20 years and did all the things Of which
one reads n novels centuries old It's
mlraI-or one Of them-was that the old
spirit OF kuiEhtHo0d lived IN the twentieth
l century man. though lt sometimes had
rather a practical way OF mal!fesung IL
self
From that night. perhaps because 0f the
play and perhaps because dog days set tn
Melinda read less novels and hunted
methodicaIy 1or her twentieth century
knight II was TOO hot for her 20 Ig-'
the gas n the ballroom, or even 20 burr
a lamp and .t was Just riEht 20 ST on
the stO0p and watch passing figures that
might suddenly blossom cut IS knights
So many Of che figures sl0uched OF
stopped that Melinda got a bit disc0ur-
aged and began 20 look for -Eem by day
Eght-in the big Office building where she
worked
But things had been going badly or
the market and most OF The men whC
held possibilities OF Erighth0od hurried
past E5r with quick. nervous strides. low,
cred heads. and desp-ri1ged eyes Hel
f, Fellow workers IN the Office were all mar
RED. The junior partner was engaged q
a girl who had millions. q clubfoot, ans
had taste IN frocks, 50 he held no knight
ly possibilities To be sure. there way
the boy who ran the elevator after
p. n. He always held the car when III
saw Melinda coming on those nights on
which she worked overtime But hs
was scarcely over i've feet three. his
cheeks were a bUcollcsI pink n hue, and
his nose was freckled. Besides he was