, 1918-04-04
Coa1lesS
Monday
o1
BY R
Copyright. 1918. by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)

"Will you please get off the wireF
The voice, though young and feminine,
was not entirely pleasant.
~ believe / took my receiver off
first" came back good-naturedly. Il
am trying to get the janitor. Are you
the janitor's wife?"
How ridiculous! Where is the ele-
vator boy to answer the 'phonef 1
want the janitor."
A laugh came back through the
telephone. Everybody wants the JAM
tor. The last 1 heard he had gone
out to try and buy soft Goa l dare
say you're in the same boat that 1
am-frozen to death in your apart
ment. You know it won't do any good
to kick, but, like me, nothing else will
keep you warm"
There was no answer. Freda Ill
sons receiver slammed back on the
hook that held 1t, and If she had been
inclined to talk to herself in her little
apartment she might have muttered
something about an impairment
creature who dared to talk to a girl
when he did not know her, and that
she hadn't the most remote idea who
It was. That would have been a fb,
however, for she really did know that
1t 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 rem Of his apartment be-
Ing due to the fact that while he
managed to draw to himself a weekly
check for SIS for writing "thrillers" for
a popular weekly, h pounded a type
writer somewhere in the downtown"
district t. the tune of sixty a month.
To her, having an apartment of her
own, with a little place she could call
home, was a 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 a miser than a spend
thrift, and he would rather dine alone
on the simple fare that his visiting col
ored housekeeper made for him than
to spend many ducats in alluring res
t~aurants. Now it happened that the
typewriter hat 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 h felt
a 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 in the halls going home or ven
turing forth. 1t does seem strange
that Victor never sought the excuse,
for Freda 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 and wearing gloves on her
hands as she worked, she listened. in
tently for a ring at her doorbell that
would mean that the letter h was
waiting for had come. When all
chance of the delivery was over she
descended to the entrance to make
sure that the boy in attendance there
had not failed to deliver it 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. at is
perfectly ridiculous that on the one
day in the week when we have to be
home, and when 1t 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.
1t seems most extraordinary that my
manuscripts did not come by the mail
this morning. My office is closed, and
it is absolutely necessary for me to
typewrite some revised manuscript
that the editor was sending by special
delivery. Are you quite sure nothing
has come for meF"
The dusky skinned attendant nodded
In h negative.
"And is there no hope of any heath"
Again a negative nod.
swell. then, the only thing for me
to do is to go and get some oil. Thank
goodness, / bought a stove"
Now 1t was Victor's inning. Having
heard Freda's plant and the unsatis-
factory replies, he did not mention the
frigid atmosphere that prevailed in his
apartment as well as in hers.
81 say, Obadiah-beg pardon, l for.
got your name was Hannibal-you
haven't seen anything of a stray mes.
senger boy with a typewriter, have
you? OF course o haven't. But,
you see, the place / usually dictate my
copy is closed. and I was going to
pound it u for myself today. so |
sent for a typewriter. Blu l guess they
had too many orders before mine. We'll
L IL .la.ainA 49,. L.. LA-L m I---.-