The Ordway new era., 1916-02-18
CHAPTER XIV.
The Message From New York.

The Message From New York.
II was good to be home, Gail won
dered that she could ever have oeen
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 series of gay
eties which would have made an aver
age hard-working man anticipate them
with an already broken constitution.
The house was full of them, morn
sng. noon and night: young girls. Sc
date and jolly. and all of them excit-
edIy glad that Gail was among them
agsfn; 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 r;ate.
fy. black-haired Arly. and voted her
q tremendous beauty, and stood slight
fy 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
the unusual. and vastly appreciative.
she deliberately cultivated them; fiat.
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 then
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 lives!
No group OF young people could re-
sist such careful work as that. espe-
cially when performed by a young
woman SO adroit and so attractive,
and SO we'll gowned; SO they lost their
awkwardAess with her, which removed
any sense OF discomfort Gail might
have felt, which was the aim to be ac-
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 politer 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.
iecting chocolate. the box OF which
bore New York name.
Mrs. Matson's ice skating ball is
tonight" A sidelong glance at the
busy Gail. 'She always has such orig
snai affairs
Doesn't she!" Gail draws her san.
1aled feet up under her and stretches
down her pink negligee, SO that she
looks like stiff statue in tinted
ivory.
And such interesting people. That
rev artist Is certain to be there
What's his name? Oh. yes, vlodow.
q could adore him.
You're mere verbal adorer."
laughs Gail, studying anxiously over
the problem Of whether she wants
another piece of chocolate or not. Al
lison had sent such good ones. "ylo-
dow eats garlic"
That's why adore him, from a
distance OF course all the nice reeu.
9ar fellows will be there-Dick, Rod.
ley md Ted. and Houston, and oh.
Dhi forgot to write Gerald" and with
swim passins kiss somewhere be-
tween Calls ear and her chin, she hur
ries into her own dressing room. with
n backward glance to make sure that
CAL y staring. with softened brown
eye4 dDwn into her chocolate box. and
Aseine there amid the confections. the
4 tilG suiriins skaters "a Hrs.
n N q glf6tsning ballroom. There
1 Mo would ~ ~ IT that
- M nty. emith Boyd.
u = 81 ~ plg " 1Ile. "A
atit w 3 ~ gatl