The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1915-11-05
CHAPTER XIV.
Tho MESSAGE From New York.

The Message From New York.
1t was good to be home! Gail won
dered that she could ever have Deen
content away from the loving shelter
Of her many, many friends. She had
grown world weary In all the raise
gayety of New York! She was dis
illusioned! She was blase. She was
tired of frivolity; and she immedl
ately planned or enthusiastically
agreed to take part in a series of gay
eties which would have made an aver.
age Woodworking man anticipate them
with an already broken constitution.
The house was full of them, morn
ing. noon and night; young girls, Sc
date and jolly, and all of them exclt-
eddy glad that Gail was among them
again; and young men, In all the de.
grees from social butterflies to plod.
ding business pluggers, equally glad.
Good. comfortable home folks these,
who were deliciously nice to the state
ly, black-haired Arly, and voted her
tremendous beauty, and stood slight
ly In awe OF her. The half cynical
Arly, viewing them critically, found in
them one note Of interesting novelty
a certain general clean.hearted whole.
someness, and. being a seeker after
he unusual and vastly appreciative,
he deliberately cultivated them; fat
tering the boys, but not so much as to
make the other girls hate her. To
the girls she made herself even more
attractive, because she liked them
better. She complimented them indi.
vidually on the point of perfection for
which each girl most prided herself;
she told them that they were infinitely
more clever than the women of New
York, and better looking, In general;
for the New York women were mostly
clothes and makeup and. above ALL
she envied them their truer livesI
No group of young people could re-
Bist such careful work as that, espe-
cially when performed by a young
woman so adroit and so attractive,
and so well gowned; so they lost their
awkwardness with her, which removed
any sense Of discomfort Gail might
have felt, which was the aim to be &C.
complished. In those first few days
Gail was the happiest of all creatures,
In spite Of the fact that the local pa
pers had carried potter echo Of that
despicable slave story. At nights,
however, beginning with the second
one, when the girls had retired to the
mutual runway of their adjoining
suites, the conversation would turn
something like this:
Let's see, this is the seventeenth
isn't it?" thus Arly.
yes; Tuesday" concentratedly Sc
lecting a chocolate, the box OF which
bore New York name.
Mrs. Matson's ice skating ball is
tonight" A sdelong glance at the
busy Gail, "She always has such orig
inal affairs"
Doesn't she!" Gail draws her san
daled feet up under her and stretches
down her pink negligee, so that she
looks like a stiff statue in tinted
ivory.
And such interesting people. Tha
new artist is certain to be there
What's his name? Oh, yes, Vlodow
l could adore him"
You're mere verbal adorer,
laughs Gail, studying anxiously owe
the problem of whether she wants
another piece of chocolate or not. AL
lison had sent such good ones. "Vlo
dow eats garlic"
That's why | adore him, from
distance. OF course all the nice regu
lar fellows will be there-Dick, Rod
ley and Ted, and Houston. and Oh
oh! forgot to write Gerald, and wit
a swift passing kiss somewhere be
tween Calls ear and her chin, she hui
ries into her own dressing room. wit
a backward glance to make sure tina
Gail 10 staring, with softened brow
eyes, down into her chocolate box an
seeing there amid the CONNECTIONS, tn
laughing. swirling skaters in Mr.
Matson's gliStening ballroom. Their
were some who would not be at tha
baii-Allison and Rev. Smith Boy,
and-Arlene has plenty of time
write her formally dutiful letter witt
out disturbance.
Gail has lAtters. too. as the day
wear on. She scarcely has time Il
them amid all the impromptu gazette
hu, she aoss find chance to rea
them soma ~ them twice. II sue