The Huttig news., 1916-07-08
THE REAL AND ONLY
By IzoLA FORESTER.

get to know your regular peoPlo. De sides, Larry had the inquisitive TO- mantle sense. and he often wondereo whether some day the Girl, the real and only, would walk up and ask him for a ticket, and maybe he'd be ab- seat-minded and let her get by with out recognizing his fate.
 And after all, it was Marty who no ticed her first. Marty took the tickets and could see everybody up and down the platform One night about 40, as a train pulled out, Marty strolled over and said: "He was right on time tonight, wasn't he?"
 "T missed it," said Larry. What IS 1t"
 She's been waiting here regular and frequent for three nights now, and he comes at 5:45. Some girl, be- lieve me, Larry"
 The next night Larry watched for her. When she came to buy her ticket it was She! He didn't have to be told twice All he did was look at her. She was slender and lissome. Somewhere Larry had read about girls who were lissome and winsome and the kind that just took the heart out of you without asking.
 For three weeks or more Marty and he watched the progress of her TO- nance. Neither one approved of the man. He was too young and sure of himself. too nonchalant, Marty said. That was the word. Nonchalant meant you didn't give a rap whether she was there to meet you or not. Sometimes he was late, but she never was. And finally, when the 5:45 Harlem express pulled in one night. she saw him through the window with another girl, and he didn't get of that night.
 She must have been crying, Larry reasoned 1t out afterward. The steps were icy that night anyway and slip pery. but when she turned around to go down them to the street she fell, and 1t was Larry who reached her first and carried her back to bench in the warm waiting room.
 I'm not a bit hurt" she faltered. Only shaken up little bit. can go home."
 Whereat, with great emphasis on the impersonal business responsibility he felt, Larry told her he got off at six and would see that she reached her home safely. And Marty whistled as he saw them board the uptown train together. By the time he left her at her door up on Eighty-sixth street, near Madison avenue, they had made wonderful strides III acquaintanceship.
 All the way back to his room, Larry said her name over, Alice Carlson. Perhaps she had inherited that blonde spun-gold hair from some Morse an- cestor, he thought, and her rare, clear coloring.
 Marty was the first to notice the Yeering of the wind of romance. She failed to appear on the platform for the 6:45 Harlem express. Several times the young man in gray got off and looked about, but she was not there, and he seemed troubled. Then came a night when he waited around until the 6:1O. which Larry always took. and he saw her.
 And. just as he approached, Larry tucked her under his lee, so to speak, and put her aboard the train She was bit white, but game, with her head uplifted and her lips smiling at Larry, and when they had gone several sta tions she said:
 Did you see that young man in gray? II4 know him. He's often in our store He's salesman"
 Yes" said Larry pleasantly Seems to be what we used to call up home sort of spruce looking"
 She laughed, and shook her head.
 q don't know. don't like that sort. somebody like home folks, don't you know? New York's so strange, you almost lose yourself in it''
 You have to keep fearfully busy so you don't get homesick," he laughed down at her. That's the way to win in anything-you just hang on."
 She looked up at him admiringly, her eyes sparkling with interest-look. ing until something in his own blue eyes brought the color to her face.
 Mother said she'd like to meet you" she said shyly. "If you're not too busy Sunday evening""
 I'm not" Larry broke in buoyant. ly. But don't be too nice to me or I'll be glad you tumbled that first night"
 The wind swept around the corner as they came to the street and she bent to face it. her huff pressed close against her face, her eyes full of a new light.
 I'm awfully glad" she said softly. What funny little things kind of kind of change lives around, don't they?"
 They are not funny little things" Lafry whispered. holding her for a minute at her door. "They are glimpses at the great machinery. Can't you try to believe that it just had to be, preordained and all that-you to tumble and me to pick you up and he to go by with that other girl-''