The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-06-27
THE EVENING STORY
THE ROOM OPPOSITE.

Copyright. 1913. by W. Werner.)
Their were violets and daffodils on
the street stalls and Julie glanced at
them l~ingeringly, longingly. as she
crept past on ore feet. Her way led
to Mrs. Morley's boarding house,
three stories high. with a basement. Of
red brick. with green shades. and a
front door which sadly needed fresh
varnish. But that front door had al
ready become the most familiar and
welcome sight in the whole city to
Julie. 1t meant security and shelter,
both OF which she had learned in the
space of three weary months to value
as never before.
Julie had her own latch key and
she let herself into the dark hall. in
which a refined nostril could detect
onions n burned fat.
Three flights of stairs after a whole
day of standing behind a counter is
mack breaking business. but Julie fl
nally reached her own particular cub
hHho1e. II was close and musty, for
the spring sun had warmed the brick
walls all dag. Ugh she said. Then
she ran to the window and up went
h sash high n wide. She parted
the dingy sash curtains and looked
out. A wide open window had meant
q Sto VI odl0ool
things. Here it meant only a view
of another window with a coin dot
ted sash curtain and a green shade
in a red brick wall. Julie vaguely re-
membered hearing somebody say
somewhere that the building was an
other boarding house n a strong
rival Of Mrs. Morley's.
The cool inflowing air freshened the
room and Julie. reviving. remembered
YhoS III no l,,.--,
posed to take her meals out. but sly
means she did not manage in hel
room. Those consisted Invariably OF
a sandwich and a cup Of tea. Las,
night she had Struggled in by way O;
her pillow muff a loaf Of bread. half 9
dozen presumably fresh boiled eggs, 8
small bag of cakes and some peanu
butter. Her regret now was that she
hadn,t smuggled in more. for with
out there was no longer the
slightest excuse for a muff.
Her housekeeping tools. which SHE
kept out of sight in the closet in case
Mrs, Morley or that Bridget of hers
should take a fancy to prowl. consist.
ca OF a tiny frying pan and porcelain
basin. Her kitchen fire was, of course
the gas jet. She made her some tea
and set her dinner out upon a corner
OF the bureau reserved for that pur.
pose. A book, which she had go,
from the public library, companioned
her. 1t made her forget the stuff she
was eating, and also the fact that she
was eating alone.
She was in the act Of sprinkling sal,
on her second boiled egg when she
heard a sound that nearly made hel
drop the egg on the questionable car.
pet. Somewhere near by a man hao
begun to sing in a rich. flowing tenor
Such a voice! So moving. So ex.
quisite. 1t brought tears to her eve:
made her SILVER deliciously-al.
though she could not yet make out a
word of the song. Julie listened for a
moment in awed establishment before
she REALIZED that those glorious sounds
came in through her open window;
then h perceived that the voice
came to her through the window OF
the room opposite. She could now
indeed. hear eac word perfectly
They We're the words of a love song
jules voice got tangled in a sob
Her head went down. She got up and
went back to her cold boiled e and
her cooling tea, but she no longer had
appetite for the food. And while she
sat bordering whether she should try