The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-08-09
The Euening Story
Cupid in the Credit Department.
(By Catharine Cranmer.)


preached his desk. Between the up
per rim of his spectacles and his
bushy, gray eyebrows he stared out at
the small, white pique-clad young wo-
man who was perched upon the wood
en- railing that inclosed his depart
ment. She was swinging one tiny foot
and just barely managing to touch
the floor with the toe of the other.
She hoped down with the lightness
of a sparrow, tucked her head de-
murely and flashed her brown eyes in
/ a way that made a passing bookkeeper
SO oblivious to where he was going
that he bumped squarely into the pres
ident of the firm. The girl gave
half-smothered giggle,. and Grover
| frowned disgustedly as he dumped the
correspondence on to his desk.
/ I'm Lydia Raymond, the new stem
| ographer," said the now sedate young
woman. Mr.. Wilson brought me
over, but he was called away to the
| telephone"
Wilson'S a bird when it comes to
hiring help muttered Grover, of
whom it was alleged around the office
that his middle name was Crouch
| Turning toward Lydia, he grudgingly
extended a pudgy hand. Growers
my name he said bluntly. you'll
find notebooks and pencils in that
| desk there, and we always find plenty
| of work to do in this credit depart
| ment?'
"Oh, just as easy" And Lydia smil-
| ed bewitchingly, but it was pearls be-
! fore swine for Grover didn't see the
smile. Feeling that no smile should
| be wholly lost, she gave the very tip
end of that one to a salesman who
| stood outside the railing, and Grover
| looked up just in time to see it.
''All right, now; let's start on this
pile and We'll see what you call easy"
And Grover launched into his most
vigorous dictatiOn pace while Lydia'S
fingers fitted over the pages, leaving
hiarnOIUnhins ho wondered
whether she would ever be able to
read. He decided to have her run of
a few letters at once to see whether
she really possessed skill or was mere
| 1y taking it. With only an occasional
glance at her machine she clicked out
the letters speedily, and to his surprise
their neatness and accuracy made him
sigh with relief. AS he looked up
sitting with her hands clasped around
one knee and looking straight at him.
She began to move her body in an en-
barrassed rhythm, tucked her head
bit lower and smiled up at him.
I'm awfully glad you aren't
grouchy,'' she said, with childish can
dor. AT first L thought you were the
very man who put the ouch in
crouch, but I guess it was just a Mon
day morning crouch, wasn't it?"
81 guess we haven't got time to talk
nonsense; look at this pile of work.
Lydia turned her head and frowned
just little.
"Oh. but look how well we work to-
getherI I'll tell you what let's do"
enthusiastically. Lets work real fast
and get that whole pile finished and
then We'll take the ouch out of
crouch, and put the sense in non
sense. Shall we?''
eve might" said Grover with an
awkward smile and a bungling move
ment to get hold of a letter that
would give him a chance to fasten his
eyes somewhere.
A month after Lydia's advent the
credit department was running so
wearing a satisfied expression that
was a nine days wonder to the OBJ
servant office force. He had even been
seen to look pleasant a few times. Ly-
dia'S smiles were of countless freQuen-
cy and of countless kinds of charm,
but there came a rainy, malarial morn
ing late in August when she came
droopingly to her desk, with swollen
eyes and a colorless face. She tried
to smile as they began their morning
work, but made such a pitiful failure |
that Grover pushed the pile of letters
away and looked intently at her.
"Child, there's something wrong, can |
be of any he1p?"
I'm afraid you can't, for I've spoiled
her notebook before she could find her |
handkerchief. Then she continued: |
Last night when Clarence started |
home, Clarence is, you know, or was
Yes yes, I know; and what did |
he do?''
"Oh, 1 was the one to do the mis-
chief. Clarence said if 1 didn't take |
off a suffrage pin 1 was wearing he |
NOTWITHSTANDING bid me goodnight. |
said I'd promised Miss Bee to wear
the pin a week and tell her what peo-
pie said about it. He said Suffra gists |
were lot of old cats who went around
saying spiteful things about men, and |
told him the men returned the spite |
full things with interest when their |
turn came. Then he said 1 was get |
ting crazier every day, and that he |
wouldn't be surprised to see me
marching in a parade, and if I'd rather |
be a crazy freak walking about the /
public streets than to be his wife at |
home, where I belonged, just to go |
ahead, but that he wouldn't listen any |
longer to my nonsense. L didn't say a !
word then, but after a while 1 said |
There doesn't seem to be any nom
sense to listen to except when you are I
talking He whirled around and |
rushed out of the door, and L was
full voice concluded, latter I'd waited
long time and he didn't come back I |
looked down at that old pin and just
boo-hooed."
well, what in the dickens does that
ranting suffragette mean by placard-
ing you as one of her kind ?'' growled
Grover.
s'Oh, but Miss Bee doesn't rant. and
she isn't a freak, and she knows near
ly everything I asked her once if her
head didn't ache from holding so
much She's a public stenographer
and makes loads of money, and she's
going to build her own home in two
years She says she wants women to
learn about business and tic have suf-
frage and everything like that, for the
more they know about things outside
the home, the more they'll appreciate
a good home And she says when
men get use to seeing women in BUSH
neSS and politics they'll StOD rantiuZ