The Winslow mail., 1910-09-10

bis sick nerves quivercd. Yet how
could he explain to this girl. an utter
stranger, that she mustn't mind, he
cause really he was half an invalid!
Ard why should it make any differ
ence to him what she thought of him?
Yet he writhed as he stood there, his
order ended. watching her. Suddenly
she lifted her eyes as with an effort.
She was very pale now and he fan
cied there was hint of appeal in
her gaze Was there on earth an
other creature of such varying aspects
and moods?
He glanced around the little shop
desperately and bought an armful of
magazines at random. The shock
headed boy waited on him and the
girl retired again to her tiny office,
but bent over the desk Still daZed,
he left the shop and dropped into the
drug store. He had made friends
with the queer old proprietor.
who is she?" repeated the old man
as Drillman lighted the cigar just
purchased.
Say, that girls ali right! Her dad
owned that store, no-account he was,
but he worshiped Judith. The only
thing that kept him at work at all was
that she wanted to go to college, and
he had to earn that money. And in
the middle of her second year he up
and died, and after the funeral. when
she found that store was all she had
in the world, why, she just naturally
started out to run it, That was three
months ago. Of course, she isn't
much on business, but she gets along"
"She impressed me as being decid.
edly able to take care of herself"
Drillham found himself saying little
curtly.
The old man laughed. "Judy's got
way with her." he said "She al
ways carried her head high. But I've
seen her cry over robin with bust
ed leg when she was younger and
lordy, but she can run from COW!
She's just a girl after ALI"
Bayard Drillham walked back slow
ly to his quiet boarding place, He
vas trying to imagine Judith White
frightened, appealing, tremulOus, and
could not Yet as he pictured her
face, tempestuous, naughty and COM
manding, he remembered suddenly
that odd little quiver to her lips, and
her pallor It was curious combina
tion.
1t was so curious that the following
day found him back in the little shop,
I. -
quite unabashed at the memory of his
yesterdays purchases. The boy was
away and Judith herself waited on
him, cool, reserved, polite. She wore
dark blue, with white collar and cuffs,
knew she looked as if she we're
dressed for a part in play. Some
how his attempts at conversation,
while frankly met, never got any.
where, and he found himself going
out when he most decidedly wished
to stay in.
And for many days the little scene
was repeated. He told himself it was
merely an idle curiosity to see if he
ever could catch the goddess off her
guard. to find if she really were like
other girls. A mad idea of hunting
up a broken-legged bird possessed
him. And each day brought him more
firmly under tbrall Of her deep, dark
eyes. her aloofness, her superb abll-
fty to care for herself.
Never had Bayard Drillham so pa
tiently tried to make friends with any
| man, to say nothing of woman, for
all his life he had fled from them, and
never had he encountered such an in
passahle wall So constantly were his
thoughts centered on the amazing girl
in the stuffy little shop that he forgot
to think of himself and his illness and
the result was that health sought him
out Yet he stayed on in Perch Har-
Dor. Once he said to her half fiercely,
"Do YOU intend to waste your whole
life here?'
why. not?" she had countered in
dienantly. 'T was born here! l be.
long here!"
Judith was paler these days, and
one morning Drillham, vaguely wor-
ried, entered the shop only to find it
empty. There was no sound, and he
stepped to the door leading to her lit
/ tie office. There with her head down
on her out-spread arms was Judith.
AS he looked her shoulders heaved.
With one bound Bayard Drillham
was beside her, drawing her to him as
one draws a weeping child. What
is it, Judith?" he asked terrified.
what has happened?'
The fact that instead of repelling
him she half clung to him in limp
sort of despair added to his terror.
"Oh," she gasped hopelessly, I've
| had to give up. I'm beaten! I've
fought and been conceited enough to
think | could do things, but ] guess
YOU were right! There's been no sys'
tenn or c-c-common sense in the way
I've run the business, and now I've
run it into the ground! The stcre'l
be closed tomorrow"
Bayard Drillham looked down at the
+oorctained face with a great thrill