The Press., 1918-03-14
R MOna COwIa

| day morning at Congressman Pragg's
 office at the DaVenporte."
 Perhaps the single afliction of being
 dumb without being deaf is not a rare
 one, but fin Washington on the Sunday
 that this advertisement appeared in ' the local papers, women so handi-
 capped were not numerous. Or, if they were, they were not stenogra-
 phers in search of a job. Of the half ! dozen dumb applicants, there was one i whose hearing was keen enough and
 whose stenography was good enough
 to justify the congressman's young man seeretary-whO sized them up when they came to the ofdce-in refer ring her to the congressman himself.
 That was Mardy Mapes. and she was not entirely what the congressman had
 asked for in the advertisement. She
 admitted to the secretary in writing, on the small tablet of paper that she carried around with her, that she was
 under thirty. and anyone could have told at a glance that she wasn't even
 twenty-five. However" she wrote to the cOngressman when he objected to her on the score of extreme youthful ness: q am old in my ways and l can look much older it dress in plain dark clothes"
 The congressman drowned a little at her to show his disapproval, but consoled himself with the thought that if he kept her in his employ long enough, she would eventually reach suitable age. On general principles, 1t seemed, Congressman Pragg had an objection to young women. Some peo- pie whispered that this was because of some early disappointment in love, but those who knew him better knew that; in the cougressman's uphill climb from: . poor farmers boy to the leading man of his state, there had been no time for filtration or love-maliinG.
 You may consider yourself cm- ployed," said the congressman, and. the smile that came over Mardy's face showed that she heard perfectly in spite of her total dumbness. "Now, |; want to explain why wanted dumb stenographer. have had several women in my employ-good stenogra- phers they were, toO-but they drove me almost crazy with their innocent babbling. When they weren't chatting with my secretary out there, they were talking over the telephone to the girl downstairs at the switchboard or ar ranging with the people at suffrage headquarters to make street-corner speeches on such and such a night. And after hours they babbled to their friends all my business, or tried to retail inside political information to their g ap-hox audiences. Washington Is nothing but village in lots of ways, and people soon get to know that Miss SO-and-So is working for Congress man Thus-and-So, and the first thing I'd know people would be telling me over at the capitol more about my own business than I knew myself. These women didn't do it mahciously, you understand, but they were so fond of hearing themselves speak that they couldn't heln lt. That Is why wanted a dumb stenographer Your youthful ness is against you, but I don't sup pose can do any better-never mind fhe references-you look honest, and my secretary says your stenography is more than fair. Report here tomor- row morning at half-past nine"
 Although the ambitious young man from the eongressman's home town had the distinction of being his sec retsry, Miss AIRpes soon did practical Iy aI the work that is usually con- nected with that post. and the young man in question occupied his time largely with meeting the congress- mans callers, mixing with people whom the congressman might find 1t useful to know, In hotel lobbies, club rooms or wherever he might contrive to find them, and making hurried trips back and forth from various of the eongressmsn's constituents to Wash ington.
 MaFdy Mapes seemed not to have a responsibility or tie in the world-at least in shisgton-outside of the eongressman's office. She boarded somewhere over in the northeast-an indefinite section so far as the con- gTessmaR was concerned, and "trol- ned'' back and forth from there to the congressman's office in the hotel, where he lived, near the White House. She never worked overtime" because sll her time, presumably, was possible office time. And if she stayed in the congreSSman's office till midnight talk ing down notes for an important speech that he was to deliver or IiS- tening critically to him as he re- heSrsed such a speech to her, tongues in the hotel never wagged to her dis credit because of it. Perhaps this WAS because poor Mardy's own tongue itself was incapable of wagging. She was pretty and she was young, but her dumbness and her very somber and demuTe mode of dressing were a pro- tection against islander or less mali elous, gossip.
 More than if Mardy had expressed herself in words, did the congressman make q habit, of studying her face, j and before many months had passed there was need for very little tablet writing in their conversation. He could detect in the most minute varia- ton of expression her meaning, and this constant studying of her face came to be. as much 6 pleasure to him as anything else that made up his busy days. .---..
 Then, as spring came on, the con- gressman became more than ordinarily pensiye. Even at the capitol it was commented on that Pragg had some cause to worry, and MRrdy's most in- uuIrin0 and svrnDa fhafic Ioolr oP an- treaty did not draw his secret from his lips.
 One day when Mardy arrived in the she found the congressman already at his desk-something entire ly unprecedented-an Mardy seemed to know when she first caught his glance, that at last the time had come for her to know his secret care.
 'I have something to tell you,"' he |