Morris tribune., 1912-01-05

had occupied.
In response to his queries she briefly
set forth her experience in the work,
offered her references and stated her
price.
Ralph Turner nodded his head APP
provingly as he listened to her recital.
When she had concluded he asked with
less confidence than he had inquired of
Miss Cass
DO you wear blue ribbons in your
hair?"
Hester shook her head, suppressing
the smile that struggled to come to the
surface. No. she said gently.
You may think it a peculiar ques-
ton, but the fact is that I've lost five
| stenographers in the past two years
all because they wore ribbons in their
hair-married my clerks or my neigh
boris clerks or bookkeepers until I've
been continually breaking In new typ
lists. resolved never to hire another
young woman who was addicted to the
wearing Of blue ribbons in her hair"
"You may feel perfectly safe so far
as I am concerned" assured Hester.
"Will you be here tomorrow morning
at 8 o'clock?'' asked Ralph Turner.
| Eyes," she replied and went away
happy as bird at the idea of once
more being among the workers.
The next morning when Ralph Tur-
ner passed through the outer Office on
the way to his sanctum he nodded ap-
| prevail with a good morning to the
| slender, dark eyed girl sitting at her
desk. He noted that she wore a simple
dress Of some dark material and that
she wore no jewelry, and her abundant
hair was neatly dressed
| He spent considerable time showing
her what to do and explaining the ma
! ture Of the work she was to perform.
! She was to be his especial stenogra-
! pher, and instead Of working in the
| large room where half a dozen other
girls clattered away at as many ma
chimes Hester Dorman had small pri-
vate Office near that Of Mr.. Turner.
Hester soon fell in line with her new
work and grew to like it. She grew
to like Ralph Turner as well and to
understand that his outward air Of
gruffness covered an unusually warm
heart and whimsical turn Of mind
! that made him most interesting COM
panion.
1t was easy to see that Mr.. Turner
was not interested in women. To him
they lived and moved and had their
i being quite apart from him. The girls
! in the outer Office chartered with their
tongues, clattered at the type machines
and coquetted with the callow clerks
under his very nose, but he saw them
! not. So long as they turned out good
work and obeyed the rules Of the Office
he appeared satisfied. He accepted
them as inevitable results of woman's
hunger for buster life AS for his
personal stenographer, there he was
particular to fault. But he found lit
tie to criticise in Hester Dorman's ex-
quisite neatness of attire and her fault
/ less work.
Hester had been there three months
before Ralph Turner looked up from
his letters one day and really saw her.
1
allied that she was pretty-nay, more
than pretty; she was beautiful. To
gaze at her was like looking at some
lovely picture painted from life.
Hester Dorman never knew when
the transition from his Indifference to
interest took place in the breast of
her employer. She only knew that she
had never been so contented and hap
py in all her life before.
One morning as he passed her desk
Ralph Turner paused.
"Miss DOrman"- He hesitated
"You will recollect that when 1 en-
ployed you / asked you if you ever
wore blue ribbons in your hairT'
eyes, Mr.. Turner" she answered
wonderingly. "
"It was merely a passing fancy on
my part that my stenographer should
not do SO. If you-er-care to wear
them pray do so. l would not place
too many restrictions upon you," he
said awkwardly and went into his Of
fee.
''How funnyw thought Hester as she
ECSuQSU u0F WOTk. WHY SuOUlU uO
concern himself over the color Of our
ribbonsY"
Indeed, why? Because Ralph Tur-
ner realized that he loved for the first
time. He loved Hester Dorman, but
he doubted whether she could ever
care for him in the same way. There
were younger and more attractive men
in the Office, and perhaps if Hester
had had fair chance with the others
If he had not demanded that she
dress plainly or hint that such was his
wish-perhaps her beauty would be
more apparent to the other chaps.
Hester ought to have her chance.
He waited several weeks, and Hes
ter Dorman never wore blue ribbon
in her hair. But she wore pink sig
nails in her cheeks whenever she spoke
to him, and he was too obtuse to I'M
derStand their Significance. One day