Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-06-04


boriously answering the advertisers
Probably she had already arranged to
go to some working girls home, and
she would enter ON her task with tue
confidence of a novice.
He could trace the gradual growth
of disappointment at her lack of sue
cess, the dwindling of the seanty funds
and finally the abandonment to despair
And them Would she go back to the
squalid home--or would she stay2
It all seemed so real to him thai
she returned before he remembered To
put back the paper. She gracefully &C.
cepted his apology and rendered its
longer use in well chosen words, but
he blunderingly thanked her and re
tired in confusion to the diner for a
lunch he did not care for.
He braved the smoke from the drum
mers' cigars until the train had pass
ed Newark. Then he went back to his
seat with his mind made up.
But it was not until the train had
crept into the shed at Jersey City and
they were hurrying down the platform
between the tracks that he at last
found courage to speak.
81 beg your PARDON" he stammered
as he raised his hat. 81 suppose you
will think me meddlesome, but | could
not help seeing that you were interest
ed in the want advertisements"
They had passed the gate, and she
turned and faced him, polite inquiry
in her expression.
"You see" he hurried on, 81 don't
suppose that you-that is, your friend
realizes that most of the places ad
vertised are already filed. Now, If
er-your friend is looking for a steno
graphic position there is a vacancy in
my Office. If you will call-that is, II
your friend will call-tomorrow after I
perhaps it might be arranged"
"I thank you," she said gratefully as
she took his card. "At 3, you said?"
"At 8. The exchange does not close
until them
He raised his hat and turned away
He congratulated himself on that hc
ton of a friend. 1t had made it very
easy for him to speak. and he saw that
she understood.
They needed another typist in the of
fee. Within t~wenty-four hours she
would be installed In his employ
What might not the future bring
forth?
C~osgrove had never known time ia
drag so slowly. The hands Of the big
clock behind the chairman's little bal
cony seemed to stand still as he
moved impatiently about the floor OF
the exchange. Once when Sugden me
him and had begun to complain of his
typewriter Cosgrove had mentioned
the paragon he was to have in his EN-,
ploy.
He was ashamed of himself a minute
later, but the damage had been done,
and when the hands at last reached J
and the gavel fell Sugden headed a del
egation that would not be shaken off.
They burst into the outer office OF
Carman & Cosgrove and came to a
dead halt. C~osgrove gasped, but went
forward to greet a replica of the old
woman of the station.
She was, younger, and the plaid
shawl was replaced by a badly cut
Jacket. but she was her mothers
daughter. Cosgroye would have known
her in a thousand.
He hustled her into his private of.
fee and turned over the card she hand.
ed him. 1t was his own card, and on
the reverse was written, Introducing
Mrs. Behrman, In whose behalf you
were kind enough to speak last night"
It was some satisfaction to find that
she was a capable worker, with ortho-
dox ideas of spelling instead of hef
own system of simplidcatlon, and with
a brief arrangement as to terms Cos
grove rose to indicate that the inter
view was over.
Mrs. Behrman looked up.
"And it is really that I am engagedY
she asked
"Of course" was the impatient re-
Spouse.
The flood gates OF her tears were
open, and she raised her voice in home
ly expressions of gratitude to him and
to Helen Westervelt-
Cosgrove gasped as he heard the
name. 1t was at least a mercy that
he had employed his fiction Of a
friend. she had supposed that he I'M
derstood. for she was the prime leader
of all movements for working girls,
and it was only natural that she should
suppose that he knew her by sight.
The woman sobbed out her story.
She had run away from home to marry
Behrman. who had deserted her as
soon as he had obtained possession of
her slender savings. Her mother would
not forgive, and Miss Westervelt, in
terested in the case. had acted as am
bassadress.
1t was Mrs. Behrman's satchel b
was carrying, and she had been large
ly accountable for the mistake be had