The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1913-11-13
CHAPTER III.
The New Mr.. Rawn.


1t was a wholly different John Rawn
who' at forty-eight, found himself
seated at the vast and shining desk
or the president of the International
rover Company, in the city of Chi
cago. The past was so far behind
hin thai he could not with the utmost
striving reconstruct the picture of it.
He was a wholly new, distinct and diff
ferent man. He had not as yet ever
worked at a desk blessed with a row
or push buttons, and was ignorant as
yet, and very naturally, in regard to
the particular function Of each Of
these several buttons whose mother
OF pearl faces now confronted him.
Resolving to take them seriatim, he
pushed the n farthest to the right;
which, as 1t CHANGED, was the one ar
ranged to call to him his personal
stenographer.
The door opened silently. John
Rawn looked up and saw standing be-
for him a young woman whom he had
never seen before Il beg pardon,
Madam" said he, half rising -"
didn't know you were there. How did
lis there anything l can do for your"
i am the st~enographer assigned
for your work, Mr.. Rawn. until you
shall have concluded your own ar
engagements in the Office" answered
the young woman.
She was almost tall, certainly and
wholly shapely; young, but fully and
adequately feminine; womanly indeed
IN every well curved line. Her hands
and feet, her arms-the latter now
disclosed by half sleeves-all were of
good modelling. Her hair, piled up in
rather high Grecian couture and con-
fined by a bandeau of gold-brocaded
ribbon, was perhaps just in the least
startling.
Virginia Delaware, Mr.. Rawn's per-
sonal stenographer, was born the
daughter of a st. Louis baker. She
had, however, passed through that
epoch of her development and by
some@means best known to herself
and her family, had attained a good
education, ended by three years in a
young ladies' finishing school in the
east.
Il was just about to say" he went
on, that | intended to have the bow
get my car ready. Would you tell him
to have it at the door in fifteen min
utes? Then come back. There are
one or two little letters"
A few moments later the young
woman was seated at a small table
near the end of the desk. Without
any nervousness she awaited his pleas
ure.
Mr.. Rawn's long and shiny car was
waiting for him when he stepped with
stately dignity down the broad stair
of 1.-the National Union Club
Threading it's path through the
crowded traffic OF the side streets the
car presently turned up the long
northbound artery of the great west
ern city. Mihs OF cars carried hun
dreds or men Y miles of mansions. In
less than an hfr, from town to home.
John Rawn ala pulled up at the en-.
rance to his hme. Speed limits are
not for such aaMr. Rawn.
This residend yet another of these
pr~etentious Missions, top-heavy on
Its inadequate Limitations, and done
by n of the post ingenious archi.
tects to be foul for money, was as
new, as ~hideousas barbarous as any
that could be find in all that long
assemblage of vied proofs of archi.
tectural aberratns. 1t was as new
as Mr.. Rawn himself. The brick
walks were harry yet firmly settled.
the shrubs wereot yet sure of root,
the crocus rowan the borders still
showed gaps. Lge trees. transplant
ed bodily. still lre sick at heart IA
their new surrouings.