Grand Forks herald., 1917-01-23

oAAAeAAA AoSS"d Ol6 IlOSC IlOS uASlS
made. a wide. thin-lipped mouth. and
long chin-and her eyes. looking
very straight out through gold
trimmed spectacles. had a penetrat-
Ing brightness about them that was
a little formidable. It was not what
one would call a good-natured face.
But good-natured sentimentality was
the last thing Rose was looking for.
What can do for you?" she
brisk as the rest of her.
I'm looking for job" said Rose.
Miss Gibbons came step closer,
and her bright look pierced little
more deeply. "So!" she said. you're
the actress, are you?"
Rose smiled at that. I'm not a
real actress" she said, ''but I'm who
YOU mean. I was a chorus girl with
that company that broke down here"
rest OF them did," the milliner de-
manded
II decided didn't want to so on
being chorus girl" said Rose, land
thought there was as good chance
OF getting other work here as in Chi
cago."
THAT was sort of fool idea. I
guess. wasn't it," Miss Gibbons sug-
gested.
ut seems SO. up to now." said
Rose. Il spent the morning on Main
street without having any luck. I
went to five places, and I asked Mr..
Culver to hire me as a waitress"
And reckon" said Miss Gibbons,
that he told you he kept n respect
able hotel. He may have put some
frills on it. but that's close enough
to go on. isn't it?"
Rose nodded. III her relief at find
Ing her situation SO we'll understood
she was turning little limp.
Why did You come to me?" Miss
Gibbons demanded
Mr.. Culver suggested Though
he warned me it wouldn't do any
good" Rose said, smiling a little.
Il suppose that was his fool idea
of being funny" the milliner COM
mented. 'He thought it was chance
to get me poison mad"
Rose nodded little wearily. YES"
she said, II suppose that was it.
anyway. though you saw Culver
meant it for joke. Why did you do
that?"
Il don't know" said Rose. 81
thought I would.
"And you haven't told me yet," said
Miss Gibbons. that you're really
straight and respectable. What have
you got to say about that?"
Nothing much" said Rose. 1T am
straight and respectable. But I sup
pose a woman who wasn't would pre-
tend to be. So you will have to decide
about that for yourself"
"Humph!" grunted Miss Gibbons.
Il don't know why I asked fool
question like that unless it's because
like the rest of them, live in Cen
tropolis. I know what you are as
we'll as you do yourself"
The words were brusque. and the
infection of them not much gentler
but thev fell on Roses heart like
rain. She caught her breath, and,
to her CONSERVATION. felt her eyes
flushing with tears. She hadn't re-
allied the tension she had heen un-
der until 1t was relaxed She gave
q shaky. half suppressed sob, and
then made a desperate effort to pull
herself together.
Now look here!' said Miss Glib
bons. In tone harder and dryer than
ever. "I'm not going to take you in
and pay You wages Just because
you're cat IN a strange garret and
don't know where to turn. I'm not
even going to do it to spite John Cul-
ver But If you've got any sort Of
gumption about hats. I am going to
do it, and the rest Of this fool town
can say what it likes and do what it
pleases. So the thing for you to do
is to quiet down sensibly and show
me whether you can trim hat
1t took Rose few minutes to car
ry out the first part OF this injunc-
ton. The rush of relief and graft
tude and happiness shook her. Given
carte blanche to design special
angel from heaven to come down and
give her just the comfort and en-
couragement she wanted, she
couldn't have imagined one as good
as Miss Gibbons-with those keen,
straight-looking eyes that had OBJ
served her fellow citizens Of Centrop-
oils for the past half century or so
not in vain: with her courageous
common sense. and with that dry.
cool. astringent manner, which lay
with a pleasant healing sting on the
decorations Of Roses soul.
At last. when she thought she
could trust her voice not to break
absurdly. she smiled and said:
What sort Of hat do you want me
to trim? I mean, for what sort of
person?'
What sort of person." echoed
Miss Gibbons. and gave Rose rather
a keen look. why" she said. after
hesitating a moment. there's silly
old maid in this town. She amt
more than ten years younger than I
am. but her hairs stayed short or
fluffy and yellow. and she's kept part
OF her looks, though not as much of
them as she thinks. She was a
beautiful girl at twenty. I'll say that
for her. But she was little too
sure of herself. and took too long
deciding among the young men of
this town. until all at once she found
that nobody wanted her. She's been
trying ever since to show she doesn't
care: and she posters the life out Of
me twice year trying to fit her out
with hat won't let her go around
the streets looking like giddy young
fool and that's what she's deter
mined to do. So If you can suit her
and me, you will be doing pretty
we'll"
The description made a picture
for Rose And the picture in her
mind'e eve was s"rmounted nv a hat;
a hat that conceded some Of the years
that Miss Gi'ho,s had insisted upon
and her client was unwilling to ac-
knowledge and vet retained a
'auntioess
She 'i','+ t-ow whether she could
execute TIE thi,e she saw or not, ont
cF the sto71, o' waterfalls at her dis.
oos-l But It hadn't cost her a
thon@ht or an effort 10 see the hat,
"Al1 right" she said. after a bit.
''I'll see what I can do If you will
show me where the things are"
1t was much humber sort of job,
of course, designing hat for a mid
dle-aged village spinster. than max
ing those dozen gowns for Gold
smith and Block had been. But this
never occurred to her.
She found, and was not even amazed
to fsnd. the same thrill Of exhilara-
ton in conquering the small problem,
that she had found in the larger one