The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1918-08-08
COalleSS
Monday
HA<D
BY MARCIA MEREDITH
Copyright, 1918 10y the Mcclure Newspa-
| per Syndicate)

/
"Will you please get Off the wireT
The voice, though young and feminine
was not entirely pleasant
81 believe took my receiver of
first" came back good-naturedly. u
am trying to get the janitor Are you
the junitor's wife7"
"How ridiculous Where Is the ele'
vator boy to answer the 'phone2
want the janitOr."
A laugh came back through the
telephone. Everybody wants the janl-
tor. The last | heard he had gone
out TO try and buy soft coal. dare
am--frOzen TO death in your apart
ment. You know 1t won't do any good
to kick, but, like me, nothing else will
keep you warm"
There was no answer. Freda Til
sons receiver slammed back on the
hook that held II, and If she had been
Inclined to talk TO herself in her little
apartment she might have puttered
something about an impertinent
creature who dared to talk to girl
when he did not know her. and that
she hadn't the most remote idea who
II was That would have been iib,
however, for she really did know that
II was the young man who dwelt in
bachelor state in the somewhat more
spacious and luxurious apartment in
front Of her own, the greater luxury
and higher rent of his apartment be-
ing due to the fact that while he
managed to draw to himself weekly
check for so for writing "thrillers" for
popular weekly, she pounded type
writer somewhere In the downtown"
district to the tune of sixty month.
To her, having an apartment Of her
own, with a little place she could call
home, was luxury that she had
earned by much economy in the way
Of amusement and pretty clothes
His living there was put down to his
New England origin, for Victor Paige
was more Of miser than a spend
thrift, and he would rather dine alone
on the simple fare that his visiting col
orod housekeepor made for him than
to spend many ducats in alluring res
taurants. Now II happened that the
typewriter that Freda TilsOn pounded
was located in the very Office whittier
Victor Paige occasionally strOlled to
deliver his manuscript. and mayhap
chin with the editor. Perhaps she felt
secret grievance, because though
she had noticed the coincidence that
he frequented her Office and also abode
under the same roof, he had sought
no excuse to speak to her as they
passed I'm the halls going home or ven
turing forth. II does seem strange
that Victor never sought the excuse,
for Frcda would have been good TO
speak TO. And there was nothing re-
polling in her round blue eyes. But
then, Victor came from New England.
AS Freda performed the task of
busting and STRENGTHENING up her little
apartment, clad to the chin in a
sweater aud wearing gloves on her
hands ms she worked, she listened in
tently for a ring nj her doOrbell that
would mean that the letter she was
waiting for had come. When all
chanre of the delivery was over she
descended to the entrance to make
sure that the boy I'm attendance there
had not failed to deliver 1t to her.
Strange that Victor Paige should
have gone forth at the same time. He
waited while she made her complaint.
'In the first place" she said, "it is
perfectly ridiculous that on the one
day Ia the week when we have to be
home. and when IT would really seem
that apartments and houses ought to
have enough coal TO make them com
Portable, we should be made to suffer
In THIS way. How | am ever going to
write on my Typewriter, with hands
stiff frOm cold, Is more than | can tell.
II seems most extraordinary that my
manuscripts did not come by the mail
this morning. My Office Is closed, and
II is absolutely necessary for me to
typcwritc some revised manuscript
that the editor was sending by special
delivery. Are you quite sure nothing
has come for me?"
The dusky skinned attendant nodded
in the negative.
"And Is there no hope of any heat?"
Again negative nod.
"Wcll. then the only thing for me
to do Is 20 20 ana get some oil. Thank
goodness, ! bought n stove"
Now II was Victors inning. Having
heard Freda's plalnt and the unsatis-
factory replies, he did not mention the
frigld atmosphere that prevailed in his
apartment as well as IN hers.
81 say, Obadah-beg pardon, for
got your name was IIannlbal--yOu
haven't seen anything OF stray mes
senger boy with typewriter, have
your or course you haven't. But,
you see, the place | usually dictate my
copy Is closed and | was going 70
pound II out for myself today, so I
sent for n typewriter. But guess they
had too many orders before mine. Well
If there's no hope for heat I'll have to
burn OIL"
And he returned to his rooms, call
Ing the name of Dnah, who came
every day at noon to keep house for
him, blessed, because she nad sug-
gested to him that when steam heat
failed the temperature could be i'm
proved by burning oil stoves.
The fact that fate had some deep