The Ordway new era., 1911-02-03
The Hall
Bedroom Habit

resided In hall bedroom she would
have had to look. far back into the
years. Before she reached that stage
OF existence there had been a child.
hood Of two rooms for the family and
corner mattress for Sarah. When
she was fifteen she became a nurse
girl and then she attained the dignity
of the department store and the hall
bedroom.
The hall bedroom had seemed to
her marvellous apartment when she
first entered 1t and shut the door be-
hind her and felt that it was all hers.
That delightful sense of ownership
never again was quite equaled in her
life.
She walked over and pulled down
the cracked window shade with the
torn hem to shut out the world further
and smiled at the dim gaslight that
concealed the soiled spots on the wall.
paper. Then she touched the thread.
bare spread on the cot with hand
almost reverent. There were besides
a small walnut chair and a washstand
with a mirror hung over 1t and six
hooks on the hack OF the door.
Each morning she heated water in
a tin cup over the gas jet and made
tea. Coffee she did not dare make.
for its fragrance would have revealed
her crime to the prowling landlady.
She had piece OF bread with the tea.
Her lunch she got downtown at a Is.
cent eating place and at night she
carried home couple Of bananas, made
more tea and had bread and butter
and dried beef.
She never quite lost the feeling Of
luxuriousness at having her own gas
Jet to get her meals on during all the
succeeding years. Time and the mu.
tations Of the world occasionally
changed her address. but the room
remained the same in all practical
points. When people built houses with
hall bedrooms there must have been
just one architect. who made all the
plans. for they are all alike.
II Sarah Corbridge had been a pret-
ty girl doubtless fate would have
made her the wife OF the floorwalker
or Of the friendly clerk who bought
his necktie at the next counter. but
she was just ordinarily plain and pre-
ternaturally serious. Neither by beau.
ty nor by good spirits did she attract
A singular lack Of vanity kept her
from missing too much the frills and
furbelows which she passed In, the
store.
Sarah was steady. faithful. old re-
liable. and the girls at her counter
gave her a halting sort Of affection
for her recognized virtues. None OF
them precisely loved her. You never
could imagine anyone getting up any
kind Of violent emotion over Sarah
The other girls told her about their
troubles at home and asked her what
shade to buy for a new dress, but they
over what young men had said to
them. She was left out Of all that.
Sarah grew to be thirty. and then
surprisingly soon she was forty. and
she was still in the department store.
There had been for her % years OF
making tea over the gas jet and get.
ting down to work on time and
doubling In her fingers so the holes In
the tips OF her Isle gloves would not
show. Then a lawyer hunted her up
with the Information that her mothers
Oldest brother In an eastern state had
died and left his money to her.
1t was not big fortune. but It
spelled millions to Sarah. She was
like child to whom had been doled
out one piece Of candy week and
who suddenly has n whole ten.pound
box thrust into Its hands.
In a daze she kept on working. till
slowly she formulated plans for her
future. She rented n sixroom fiat
and furnished It.
She did It haltingly. breathlessly
and all by herself. None OF the girls
in the store knew what had happened
to her. She forgot nothing in the fur
nishings Of her nat. Somehow she had
absorbed In long years of glancing In
at show windows n sense OF the fitness
Of things. SO she picked out surprising.
ly correct furniture. The little living
room had a piano and art lamps and
pretty chairs and fair pictures and
even stiff row Of books. The dining
room had a golden.oak table with six
chairs and a .sideboard with half n
dozen silver knives and forks and
whole dozen spoons in the drawer.
She furnished the rest of the fiat as
completely and then she moved in.
1t was like wandering through
thousand-room palace to Sarah Cor.
bridge and she felt dizzy. She was
tasting afiluence-she felt the subtle
influence Of her surroundings. 1t was
all hers!
She walked back and forth through
the fiat till she was tired and then she
remembered that she was hungry. She
went out past the dining room and
the pantry with its shelves showing n
full set of china: into the kitchen with
Its gas range and pots and pans. a