The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-09-09
6/5e MYSlTRY
Of MARY
GI~Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
AUTHOR S"rARcN SCHUYLER" "PHoEBE DIANE"
DAWN OF TH[ MORNING" ETC g
ILLUSTRATIONS o. ~ VAkTz1z
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G. s-.-SA
I eagerly TO examine them. Piles Of
somber skirts, blue and black and tan
They were stout and coarse and scant,
and not of the latest cut, but what mat
tered it? She decided on a seventy
five cent black one.
Growing wise with experience, she
discovered that she could get a black
sateen shirtwaist for fifty cents. Rub
bers and a cotton umbrella took an
other dollar and half She must save
at least dollar to send back the suit
case by express.
A bargain-table of odds and ends OF
woollen jackets, golf vests, and old
fashioned blouse sweaters, selling off
at dollar apiece, solved the prob
lem of a wrap. She selected a dark
blouse, of an ugly, purply blue, but
| thick and warm. Then with her pre-
cious packages she asked a pleasant
! faced saleswoman if there were any
| place near where she could slip on a
walking skirt she had just bought to
| save her other skirt from the muddy
| streets. She was ushered into a little
| fittiug-room near By.
| Rapidly she slipped off her fine, silk
lined cloth garments, and put on the
| stiff sateen waist and the coarse
! black skirt. Then she surveyed her
self, and was not i'll pleased. There
! was a striking lack of collar and belt
She sought out a black necktie and
pinned it about her waist, and then,
with protesting frown, she DELHI
/ nr2fnIv tnrn q CfriO from ha a1n Of
one of the fine hem-stitched handker-
chiefs, and folded it in about her neck
in turnover collar. The result was
quite startling and unfamiliar. The
| gown, the hair, the hat, and the neat
| collar gave her the look of a young
nurse-girl or upper servant. On the
whole, the disguise could not have
been better. She added the blue wool
len blouse, and felt certain that even
her most intimate friends would not
recognize her. She folded the rain
coat, and placed it smoothly in the
suitcase, then with dismay remem-
bered that she had nothing in which
| to put her own cloth dress, save the
few inadequate paper wrappings that
had come about her simple purchases.
She folded the dress smoothly and laid
1t in the suitcase, under the raincoat.
She sat down at a writing-desk in
the waiting room, and wrote: 81 am
safe, and l thank you" Then she
paused an instant, and with nervous
haste wrote MARY" underneath. She
opened the suitcase and pinned the pa
per to the lapel of the evening coat.
Just three dollars and sixty-seven cents
she had left in her pocketbook after
paying the expressage on the suitcase.
At her first waking, in the early gray
hours of the morning, she had looked
her predicament calmly in the face.
She had gone carefully over her own
accomplishments. Her musical attain
ments, which would naturally have
been the first thought, were out of the
question. Her skill as a musician was
so great, and SO we'll known by her
enemy, that she would probably be
traced by it at once. The same argu-
ments were true if she were to at.
tempt to take position as teacher or
governess, although she was thorough.
ly competent to do so. A servant s
place in some ones home was the only
thing possible that presented itself to
her mind. She could not cook, nor dc
general Homework, but she thought
she could fill the place of waitress.
With brave face, but a shrinking
heart, she stepped into a drug store
and looked up in the directory the ad
dresses of several employment
agencies.