The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-10
The ReaI-EStdte Lady
By GELSTON SPRING

By GELSTON SPRING

e might have changed her views of Bill,
i Prior I'm going to marry her." h
declared.
The girl had told the man the truth
She had lain bare her soul to him. Sh'
:. knew she was right: she knew she wa.
justified. She had lived with cipher,
too long. Her father-she shuddereC
when she thought of him. Her father
: with his old battered desk; with &
cheap desk-room, in a cheap old build
ing on side street down town; with
his name printed on cardboard, tackled
to his desk: alfred j. Whiting, Rea
Estate - Insurance - Loans. Notary
Public. Commissioner of Deeds" She
recalled, still shuddering with what
awe. as a child, she had realized that
her father was a commissioner OF
deeds, a notary public. At the age OF
fifteen she had discovered that a notary
got twelve cents for taking afidavits
and a commissioner twenty-five cents
for acknowledgements, and that their
respective duties usually ended there.
And her childish respect had dropped
from her. 1t had never come back
She had soon found out that Real
Estate and Insurance" and Loans"
were quite as unimportant in their
way. and that her father was the most
,unimportant thing about the whole
business
Poor father" she would sigh, but
without real tenderness. Poor Billy
Prior she. would add, and her eyes
would slowly fill with tears. Oh, if she
were only a man! She would show
them. If she could go into business,
now, and
She was a teacher in the Bartlett
Avenue school, She earned seven hum
dred and fifty dollars year. They
told her she was a success at teach
ing. She felt, indeed, that this was
true. And she knew why. She loved
children. She knew how TO handle chill
dren. But teaching-it would never do
for her.
I'm a marrying woman" she would
tell herself She was right She want
ed to marry. She wanted to marry
Well And she wanted to bring up chill
dren. Among the forty children in her
class she could pick out about five
whose mother she would like to be-
The Warrener kids; twins, they were.
Twinsl She laughed to herself as she
thought of it, and her heated face.
broke into color all at once. The War
rener twins, with their neat blue and
white linen and Bingham, and their
plump bare legs, popping out of the big
red automobile in the morning, and
scrambling into it again in the after
noon. And the little Skinkle boy. And
Maisie Watterson.
TN a marrying woman" she would
say, again, ''who will never marry
she would add.
Why not? She well knew. Because
there was nobody who wanted her save
Billy Prior, and she would never mar
ry him.
You can marry anybody you want |
to- her fellow teachers told her, envi- |
ousIy enough: "of course you can. With |
your eyes. and your hair, and your
figure. and the way you talk. Why, /
you can twist 'em around your little I
finger, woman"
But she only shook her head. MAR |
riage is a lottery" she told them. Its
all luck. Some of us marry, and some |
Of US don't That's all"
Luck, Miss Pope of the Third Room,
who was engaged, simply sniekered. |
Get busy. girl" she said, they wont !
come after you. You've got to go after
them. That's the difference between
the successful married women and the
oldmaid failures. The married women
are the ones who nab 'em as they pass.
That's all"
Genevieve- shuddered once more. She
vaguely wondered if they We're right;
wondered whether she might no. be
tainted with this disease of failure; |
wondered in her soul whether real
women really did arrange these mat
tiers so that-Why, she had never had
anybody but Billy Prior.
Her father died. And her father took
with him into his grave, his daughters
love: not her admiration, not her gen.
uine respect. Nothing but love and
pity, that were genuine enough in their
way. but still were incomplete.
Poor father That was all she
strong father. Not well-wnown, we'll
liked, universally respected father. And
ne left behind only his daughter, and
the old battered desk with its old card
board sign tackled on-all that re-
manned of the Real Estate. Insurance,
and Loan business. The Notary Pub
ic and the Commissioner of Deeds
vas thing of the past. Her father
mad lived his life; had married wo-
man. who had died. And he had left
behind him nothing save his daugh-
er-no name, no memory. To her it
would clench her hand and smite the
IF I were man" And. then. of a
sudden it came to her. The idea.
She would be a man! She would
never marry. for there was nobody
,ut Billy. and she was too much of
woman to do what her fellow teach
RS had suggested, Somehow, she :
couldn't nab 'em.
But I'll show EN-" she told her
elf
Her father had left a thousand dol
ars of life-insurance money. She had q
,aid most of the premiums. To her
his thousand dollars stood for some
hing. 1t was a sign. It spelled 'Op- r
,ortunity." It was a command to do ,
hings She proceeded to do them.
The had her fathers old desk sent up =
o her fiat; she had it chopped up,
nd burned. along with its useless q
urden of pigeonholed papers. Fail
ire was dead and out of the way.
low. for good. Her course was clear,
I'm be a man." she announced to
.c.seIf. "a real-estate man" :