El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-12-26
Helen Loses a Ten-Dollar
Bill and breads to Tell
Warren About 1t.

TT ELEM took off her coat and put It
with the handbag and bundles
on a chair beside her. Thes sha
drew off her gloves united her veil and
leaned back with a sigh of relief. She
was tired, very tired.
1t was the last day Of her Christmas
shopping. She had started out al ~
this morning. Now il was almost 10
and she had come Up 10 the restau-
rant on the top floor OF the big depart
ment store for a light luncheon and
few moments rest.
The place was crowded. Everybody
looked tired and everybody had bundles,
The mattresses were rushing back ana
forth with orders OF chicken patrles1
lobster salad, chocolate cellars ana al
the other things that women have when
they lunch alone.
broth as something quickly served ana
eaten. The waitress put IL down before
her, scrubbed off a check for so cents
and hurried on
1t was interesting TO watch the wo-
men-and they were all women In the
whole Of that huge lunch room there
were hardly half a dozen men And
what tired, worried, unattracttve look
ing women
Instinctively Helen drew out her
pocket mirror, smoOthed her hair and
rubbed leaf from powder book over
her face. There was nothing that made
her more uncomfortable than feeling
Of untidtness and a consciousness OF
shiny nose.
She was not rested; she would have
liked to linger longer over the tea but
there were still many small things TO be
bought and il took so long now TO get
waited on. Slowly she drew on her
gloves and gathered up her packages.
When she opened her purse TO pay the
check, she suddenly discovered that IN
stead OF having a SO bill and some
change-she had only the changed
The Lost Money.
With a sick sinking at her heart she
searched breathlessly through her
purse, handbag, muff and under the Ia
bic. Again she searched through her
purse, handbag muff. under the table
but still no bin WOmanlil1e she was
futilely repeating this same process fol
the third time, when the waitress came
up
Lost anything, ma'am?"
oh" excitedly, I've dropped a $40
bill sOmewherei I don't know where
Did you have it here, ma'am2'
81 don't know where I had it last.
I only know I started out with s15-a
$40 bill and five Ones-and I've only
spent the five.
And again Helen began her nervous
search through her purse, handbag, etc.
1t is a curious fact that when a woman
loses anything she will search over and
over again in the same places and in
the same way.
Now the head waitress came up with
perfunctory sympathy, and a perfunctO-
ry moving back of chairs and looking
under the table.
With a last lingering look about, Hell
en- went down TO make inquiries at the
lost and found department. And yet she
felt the hODelessness of finding II there.
NO $40 bills been turned in here"
said the man 1t the desk. with a note
of amused tolerance in his voice that
any should expect there would be.
And Helen hurried on. Where could
she have lost itl she asked herself for
the twentieth time. Did she drop TT out
of her purse when she was paving for
some purchase Or could she have given
il out as a 81 bill2
At length she started to leave the
store. She might as wei go home; she
had no heart to shop any more now
and no money. Her mind was fun Of
all she could have bought with the $40
As she made her way out Of the shop
every attractive article she saw now
stood IN her mind as something she
might have had-if she had not lost
this money.
Couldn't Ask for More.
Helen was not mercenary as all this
might imply. But above everything
else she dreaded to ask Warren for
money. 1t was humiliation from
which she had always shrunk Each
month he gave her a certain amount
for the house and for herself And she
always managed most carefully to keep
within this amount, preferring to do