The Prescott daily news., 1918-04-09

knew. was her only salvation. And so she got through the week. Saturday evening came, and she went home, dreading Sundays idleness, with It's memories. The people at Mrs. Stout's establishment, she plainly saw, were growing trifle shy of her. She had never been on terms of inti- macy with any of them during her stay there. hence their attitude troubled little after the first supersensitiveness wore off. But her own friends, girls with whom she had played in the pima fore-and-pigtail stages of her youth, young men who had paid court to her until Jack Barrow monopolized her she did not know how they stood. She had seen none of them since Bush launched his last bolt. Barrow she had passed on the street just once, and when he lifted his hat distantly, she looked straight ahead, and ignored him. Whether she hurt him as much as she did herself by the cut direct would be hard to say.
 When Sunday noon arrived. and the phone had failed to call her once. and not one of all her friends had dropped in, Hazel twisted her chair so that she could stare at the image of herself fin the mirror.
 You're in fair way to become q pariah. 1t seems" she said bitterly. what have you done, I wonder. that you've lost your lover, and that Alice and May and Hortense and all the rest or them keep away from you? Noth- ing-not a thing-except that your looks attracted man, and the man threw stones when he couldn't have his way. Oh. well. what's the differ ence? You've got two good hands, and you're not afraid of work"
 She walked out to Granville pork after luncheon, and found a seat on shaded bench beside the lake. People passed and repassed-couples. young. sters, old people, children. It made her lonely beyond measure. She had never been isolated among her own kind before
 group of young people came saun- tering along the path. Hazel looked up as they neared her, chattering to each other. Maud Steele and Bud Wells, and-why, she knew every one of the party. Hazel caught her breath as they came abreast, not over ten feet away. The three young men raised their hats self-consciously.
 Hello, Hazel!" the girl said.
 But they passed on. It seemed to Hazel that they quickened their mace trifie. It made her grit her teeth in resentful anger. Ten minutes later she left the park and caught car home. Once in her room she broke down.
 "Oh, I'll go mad if I stay here and this sort of thing goes onl" she cried forlornly.
 A sudden thought struck her.
 "Why should I stay herer" she said aloud. Why? Whats to keen me here? I can make my living any, where"
 But, mo-" she asserted passionately. "I won't run away. That would be running away, and haven't anything to be ashamed of. will not run" Still the idea kept recurring to her. It promised relief from the hurt of | averted faces and coolness where she had a right to expect sympathy and friendship.
 The legal notice of the beauest was mailed to her. She tore up the letter and threw 1t in the fire as if it were some poisonous thing. The idea of accepting his money stirred her to per feet frenzy. If she could have poured the whole miserable tale into some sympathetic ear she would have felt better. and each day would have seemed less hard. But there was no such ear. Her friends kept away. Saturday of the second week her pay envelope contained brief notice that the firm no longer required her services. There was no explanation, only perfunetory regrets; and, truth to tell. Hazel cared little to know the real cause. Any one of . number of