Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-14
THE EVENING STORY.
Castle MakebeIieve.
Copyright, 1914. by W. werner.>

Copyright 1914. by W. Werner.l
Monica Talbot sat looking out Of the
car window as 1t wove its way up
town. The car was crowded, for the
s O'Clock rush was on. Fine. pelting
snow was dimming the lights every
where.
At certain cross street came the
inevitable tansle of traffic. The car
stopped and Monica saw that there
were other cars ahead Of it. A limou-
sine drew up alongside her window
and halted. Within sat an elderly
woman. a man and a girl Of Monica's
own age. The elderly woman was
looking straight ahead. She was visibly
annoyed. The man was looking at the
girl. but the girl was looking at Monica
She was dark, vivid. carmine tinted girl
In furs. orchids and jewels. AT a word
from her the man turned and saw Monica
and Monica saw him. They looked into
each others eyes. For one fascinated in
slant they seemed to draw near together;
then the car and the limousine moved on
and they were separated.
Other cars flashed by, but Monica did
not see them. She saw nothing more The
mans face apparently was before her
stilHclean cut. grave, keen eyed. She
still seemed to see that arrested express
sion of his as he recognized her.
d
pened. He was there in the magnificent
limousine and she street car. She
thought of the girl with the orchids and
OF herself and realized the great differ
ence between them Perhaps the girl was
his fancee. And that stern faced elderly
woman was certainly the girls mother
They were wealthy. of course. How odd
it all seemed. But then fate is kinder to
man than it is to a woman. man ike
Roger Lennon could be anything he
u-iS cd Rnf fnr haY-fharQ could
swift ascension of the heights. Yet they
had been born in the same country VII
lage: they had gone to school and grown
up together. Then Roger had gone to the
city to practice law. After her fathers
sudden death Monica had also gone to the
city to earn her own living, but never
in all the two years had she seen Roger
until tonight.
and Monica got off. So great was the
storm she was quite breathless when she
unlocked the door and entered the frosty
cherries hall, whittier the wind made
one last mad attempt to Follow her. Up
two flights Of stairs she climbed to her
room and went in and shut the door.
1t was the kind of room that may be
had for a few dollars a week in re-
spectacle locality in large city. Yet
Monica had made 1t express her own in
dividuality and something more-she had
made it look like home.
She took off her hat and coat and
gloves and put them away carefully she
had a string of hooks on the back of the
headboard of her bed. and that was her
closet Then she sat down on her luxu-
rious couch-a trunk concealed under a
padded cover of rose strewn chintz. She
was tired and needed to rest moment
before getting her own supper.
Her glance surveyed the room slowly,
which she never entered without feeling
of thankfulness. She called 1t Castle
MakebeIi we. In one corner behind a
screen was her kitchen outft-a tiny gas
stove and a packing box cupboard. In
another corner near a window was her
dining room. Here she had small ia
BILE with a paper table cloth and serviette
and a tiny fern growing in a glass dish.
The fern, dish and all, had cost a dime.
In the opposite corner. between the win
dow that looked out on the street and the
window that looked out on a blank wall.
four feet away. was her library.
Here she had her contest chair and her
bamboo bookcase and the reading lamp
she had brought from home In the