, 1918-12-19
When Money
Talks
80
By BERTHA R.
Copyright. 1918. by Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)

Syndicate.)
The little music teacher ran up the
steps of the boarding house with a flut-
tering heart, for she had seen the gray
coat of the postman disappearing
around the corner. The futtering
quickened into a brisk tattoo like the
beating of tiny hammers, and by the
time she reached the hall table where
the letters were always laid it was like
the pulsation of a mighty engine.
Yes, there was a letter, but the writ
ing was not familiar. When she
reached the sacred precincts of her
w room she read 1t and had just cast
it aside with a most contemptuous
sniff when there came a timid knock
at the door. When she called Come
in the maid brought another letter
which in her haste she had overlooked.
Again her hope beat high, but this was
a more bitter disappointment han the
first.
'Sickening-both Of them !" she NUT
tered. why must 1 be made the tar
get for such pifle?"
Angrily she thrust them inside her
desk, closed it with a bang and went
down to dinner. That evening, after a
brisk walk through s. little park near
by, the keen October air having
soothed her ruffsed spirits, she donned
a comfortable dressing gown and wrote
to her old FRIEND. Mrs. De Voss:
Dear M%ollykiHs: 1t rests me just
to write your name. 1t carries me bach
to the days when You were my sympa-
thetic mother confessor, and, Molly
kins, I've got to talk to you now, for
you are the only one who will under
stand. I've worked so hard this past
year to build up my class and you've
heard how I've succeeded even beyond
my widest dreams. But success isn't
everything. Even here 1 seem destined
to be nauseated with impossible things.
I've just had two of the most sickening
proposals by letter that any girl ever
received. Possibly I might have read
one or the other a second time had l
not been sure that each man Is counting
IN my income to help support him.
Peace to the ashes of their unsolicited
adorationi 1 tell you, dear, 1 shall
marry for money. I've seen the folly
of not preparing for a rainy day and 1t
has colored everything in the world
for me. When I put my head into the
matrimonial moose it will be when the
future Mr.. Bess CORTLAND is ready to
hand me a checkbook on a nice, fat
bank ccoun AS it is, epistolary eff
forts such as reached me today only
serve to fragile my disposition. Buck
cts of slush,' Billy would call them. 1t
Is needless for me to tell you where
my heart lies, and he has never writ
ten me a line in all this long year. 1
thought, of course, when our crash
came and father died that Billy would
be the first to come to me, and when
he left for Colorado without so much
IS a good-by 1 was broken-hearted.
Now I've Joined the ranks of those
who believe hat money talks. I can
hear you call me fiinty of heart, but
so will you be, Molly. if ever you come
to feel the dull, ~sickening thud of the
fall from the lap of luxury to the cold,
stone floor of poverty. I hope you
never may. Write me on-yo let
tiers are such comforts. Lovingly,
"BESS."
That night the little music teacher
cried herself to sleep and the next
morning she said to herself, as she
surveyed the pale face which looked at
her with weary yes from her mirror:
Don't you let me catch you weep
ing again over Billy Dempster. He
doesn't care a fig about you and he
wouldn't weep over anybody"
d, BY the time she reached the studio
she had fully made up her mind that
she hated Billy cordially and that IL he
should ever see fit to write her a letter
she would return 1t to him unopened.
1t was several days later that a special
delivery letter, bearing a Colorado
postmark, reached Miss CORTLAND,
and, after the messenger had gone, she
stood gazing at the envelope, scarcely
able to believe her eyes. while the
waiting pupil at the piano wondered
what was about to be disclosed.
"Billy's writing" gasped the teach-
er. "No-no-Tm getting foolish. of
,,ourse-it can't be-he doesn't know
my address, and yet +"
"Why don't you open it?'' suggested
her pupil, and forgetting her late de
termination to put Billy Dempster out
of her life forever, Bess tore open his
letter with fingers that trembled as
though she might have the palsy.
Dear Bess," she read. II wrote to
Molly De Voss two weeks ago for your
address n just got 1t today. How
are you, anyway? II seems a lifetime
.f.oo 4 cu-, yxyt..A lH--