The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-15
THE EVENING STORY
Penny,
(By Clarissa Mackie.)

(By Clarissa Mackie.)
"Penny-Penny Mulligan!'' whis-
pered Miss Cabin of the notion coun-
ter.
The young girl with two long, thick
braids of red hair leaned down from
the bundle counter overhead.
"Well?" she replied crisply.
"Have you seen the new floor
walker?"
Nowhere is Mr.. Freer?"
Transferred to the upholstery.
It's a shame, too. He certainly is
gentleman" Miss Cabin patted the
blond puffs of her elaborate couture
and sighed audibly. HE certainly is
HE isl returned Penny. She
turned back to her labors of wrapping
parcels. Her slim, nervous little fin
gers flashed in and out of paper so
swiftly that her tasks were completed
while the stout, stolid girl beside her
still struggled, with one package.
"You certainly are swift, Penny"
murmured the stout bundle girl, as
she flung her bundle into the carrier
and saw it disappear in the tunnel
like opening of the chute.
TITS a duh day.. said Penny, yawn-
ing.
die counter she could look up and
down many of the aisles of the big
department store. There was a watch
full expression in her great violet eyes
and the dimple in her chin occasional
ly stiffened into unexpected firmness
as she caught sight of form that
looked familiar, but invariably the
man or the woman, as the case might
be, turned out to be an utter
stranger.
Ever since she had run away from
her home in the middle west to be-
come an actress, Penelope had been
on the lookout for people from home.
hn
uncle and aunt, telling them that she
was earning her living and when she
said that she was acting how could
that unsophisticated couple suspect
very practical one of bundle counter
girl in a department store?
Penelope had not told them that
theatrical managers had laughed at
her and told her that she could not
act and that she was too small for a
showgirl and that she had no style!
Penelope simply gritted her white
teeth and got job in the department
store and lived on next to nothing and
made her own clothes. Her utter in
experience had shut her from better
paying positions in the store, and so
she had let down her splendid hair In
two brafds and shortened her skirts
and passed for sixteen when she was
twenty
Mulligan,s when in fact she bore the
charming title of Penelope Marston.
"I don't care what happens If he
doesn't discover me here!" Penny
would murrrlur to herself in moments
of passionate regret.
Arthur Preston had asked her to
marry him and had been haughtily |
dismissed by the stage-struck girl Il
cannot marry any one, Arthur, she
said, condescendingly. II have a ca
reer before me, yoI know!
"Pooh!'' the practical Arthur had |
said--he was a real estate agent and |
very live and up-to-dae in his native |
honey, you can't act!
81 will show your Penny had SAID |
Down deep in her heart she might |
have had dreams of Arthur coming to
New York in search of her. Every /
time she saw pair OF broad, gray
clad shoulders and black head tow
ering over the crowds, her heart jump |
ed pitifuIly If she had seen him 1T Is /
very likely that in her pride she would |
: sPenny-Penny Mulligani" shrilled |
Miss Cabin during another lull in the
business of this rainy day.
ssWhat is it?'' asked Penny languidly |
as she leaned over the rallng-
'sThere he isP'
whom do you mean?" Penny was
not interested, but she strove to be
polite. 80.
.sThe new f1oorwalker. He's standing
there by the perfumery-his back is
this way He's lovely looking
Penny looked and saw a tall. mas i
sively built young man CARRIED in the
conventional black of the store stand
ing with his hands loosely clasped be-
Lind his back. He looked-oh, so much.
like Arthur Preston, but of course that /
was absurd
yes, isn't he ~ she managed to say
carelessly in response to Miss Cabins |
last remark.
Later she happened to glance down
H. -~~- - = L
cool gaze of the new foorwalker His
glance passed from her face to that of
the other bundle girl, and then he
passed on his IeisureIy way down the
store 1t was Arthur Preston.
When she had an opportunity she