The Ordway new era., 1918-05-10

gone IluSStl-Slltll uuI uIlU an
other day a hat that had been sug-
gested by the cOlors and shape of
spring onion. Upton had had them for
dinner the night before and had actu-
ally carried one to his room. put it in
water and taken his design from life.
That also was among the failures.
Upton knew that onion hat of his
was original. Still some one else must
have designed it Spontaneously. For
week later as Upton sat at dinner
he looked up and there two tables of
the very pretty golden-brown blonde
who dined alone and seemed to have
few friends-Upton had seen her often
and not infrequently recalled her face
and coloriGg when summoning up i'm
aginary models in his room-there. sat
the little blonde wearing the onion hat.
Yes, 1t was eactly like the hat he had
designed, with the colors as given in
his sketch reproduced exactly. An ex-
pert milliner could not have repro
duced the sketch more faithfully, and
the little blonde was just the model for
that hat. Upton was In fever of ex-
element. He wanted to tell his friends
of the coincidence. but to do so
would have necessitated telling of his
own role ms n hat designer.
Then-and this was really too much
for Upton's peace of mind-the little
blonde appeared one tempestuous
spring night when the rain was pour
ing outside and the wind could be
heard rushing around the window
panes-she appeared in the hat that
he had designed when thinking of an
airplane raid at night, and in the
eyes that seemed all tenderness
and mildness under the spring onion
hat there was now haunting look of
distress and sorrow. But it was un-
mistakably Upton's hat. Then appeared
the real masterpiece-the mussel-
shell hat, and this seemed to suit the
little blondes face better even than
the others. 1t was marvellous hat
and II was worn by n wonderful model
Upton noticed the eyes of other diners
focused on 1t and he realized then his
success in designing it, though he
could not guess how the hat had been
made. There was nothing at all strik-
ing in the cut or coloring of the hat
in the usual acceptance of the word.
That it attracted attention was. Upton
knew, simply because 1t was distinc-
tive.
After that Upton's models were all
alike The little blonde face haunted
him and the millinery manager asked
him to try and vary the type of hats
he designed. They were all made for
the same type of face. Upton began
to lose sleep. 1t was not so much the
| mystery of the matter, though it was
| odd enough to have another person eX-
tract ideas from your mind in this way
| and bring into realization so success
| fully your thwarted dreams. The thing
was that Upton was very much in love
with the little blonde and that the
| little blonde was not absolutely indif-
| ferent us to his existence he might
| have learned to his own satisfaction
from the way her eyes dropped to her
plate whenever he looked toward her
at dinner.
Finally after she had been wearing
the three hats for three weeks he
could stand the suspense no longer.
| and he bravely followed her out of the
dining room one night, and with the
manner of an old friend bade her a
| good evening. Not being repulsed, he
| sat talking with her In the hotel re-
ception room.
Upton was very direct sort of per-
son and even before he sought to solve
| the mystery he told her that he was
more interested In her than he had
ever been in any girl before, and she.
sweet. frank child that she was. told
him that she was very glad of that. for
| she was lonely in the big city and
didn't know any nice young men. That
| was encouragement enough even for n
| faint heart. and Upton's was not faint.
| Then Upton spoke of the hats. When
| he told her that he had designed them.
| she turned very scarlet and said she
| didn't know that 1t was from his room
| the chambermaid had got them. She
| said she had come to the city to study
millinery, as the only talent she had
ever displayed was that of making her
own hats. SO she had come and had
expected to succeed in the school until
she discovered that to begin with the
pupils had to draw their own designs
of hats and she simply could not draw.
She told the chambermaid her troubles
because she had no one else to talk to,
and was all but decided to return home
discouraged when the chambermald
brought her the crumpled drawings
from one of the waste baskets. She
had taken them to school and passed
them Off as her own work. 1t was dis
honest but she was eager to succeed.
Then she had worked out the designs
and she had taken every prize the
school offered. One of her hats was
going to be sent to the international
millinery exhibit-the mussel-shell
one. The instructors were wild over
1t and a very well-known artist who