Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-06

buy all these pretty things for! Jove! that
girl can actually raise her arm! You can
count the muscles with full appreciation
of this achievement
The Advertising Managers cheeksawere
glowing softly, and her breath came in little
gasps. The cramped office had grown sud-
denly spacious, and its ceiling reared to the
stars, before this miracle of miracles, the
mating of thoughts.
"And when I think Of the work it means,
don't wonder, Laughing indulgently. miss
Ellsworth tells me you re frightful worker.
Miss Ellsworth. The joysjust trying its
wings dropped back to earth. "She-they
have you forgotten they're expecting you
up there now-at little party9'
,@Are they?' said Collins easily. If only
she knew how tired he was of being expected
eagerly expected-at little parties! why
"Why, II was" she faltered unhappily;
3but left few moments ago. I-they-I
found" Her voice broke Involuntary.
The recollection was still too recent. Here
was one to whom she could lay bare her soul,
and she had no skill to weave wells for it.
Collins was regarding her with troubled
eyes. "All my life" he said abruptly, @I've
been wishing could meet girl who knows
what days work means. But that doesn't
mean, his jaw set, 3that you should be-a
packhorse. Why, you poor little girl, don't
believe you've ever learned how to play!'
There was something so tenderly, init
mately protecting in his look that she could
only turn aside brokenly.
"Look here!- said Arthur Collins very
gravely. II suppose I must 60 on to Boston
this evening; but if stop over again to-
morrow couldn't you, won't you please, take
dinner with me, and we'll have little party
of Our own?" The Lilac Linen would not
have recognized the quick note of eagerness
in his tone.
lOH!" cried the Advertising Manager in
choked little voice, but bracing herself
instinctively. In a moment he would realize,
he would be gone, and it is harder to turn
back into the shadow when the sunrise is
shooting glory. She raised eyes full of un-
shed tears; full too of something else,-life-
hunger and clamor for slice, just little
slice, of the pleasure and youth denied her.
@But-but it's all mistake" she faltered.
| "You can't mean me. Think of Ka-think
of all the other girls you know"
Il am thinking of Them" agreed Collins
decidedly. @That's why I'm asking you"
"But I'm not at all the kind of girl people
| take out, she repeated wanly. SIN just
not! I've no conversation. I've no dim
pies L We IlO ClOCllcS hIiOW IillS lldI ID d
dub!' vindictively. II knew it when 1
bought it; but had only five minutes.
And don't know Morgan loans or Assem-
blies or Coup Jacques. All know" drear
lily, 4is-white space, all smudged up with
ink. And I've never been to Palm Beach.
or Aiken, or even the Bellevue" with fierce
little burst of shame, "in all the three years
I've been in Philadelphia I've never even
been inside the Believed"
Oh, he did not look mystiied or appalled,
or astounded or plying even plying
at this shameful revelation! He just reached
out naturally and gathered her tired, limp
fingers into the rallying clasp of warm, Vi
brant hands.
@Of course you haven't been playing" he
said simply. "Youve been Warrington me
to teach you how to play. And we're going
to the Bellevue this very evening. Not to-
morrow, but tonight! won't 60 on to Bos-
ton: I'll stay over. Now let's see, will six
thirty be too early for you to meet me in the
Pink Room?'
| The next story in this series will appear in
Our SUNDAY MAGAZINE of April 20