Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-18
"When a Girl Marries"
A New, Romantic Serial Dealing With the Absorbing
Problems of a Girl Wife

, NoIIeyS OllCeS-ne ndu come Dy
that through Doris West also. OF
course, the girls seemed to be elect
ing herself presiding genius of my
husbands fortunes. And the more
l profited thereby, the more l would
hate Doris West In failure and
poverty, there would be this con-
solation: | wouldn't have to owe
everything to her.
Jim's voice broke in on my
thoughts. Jim's voice in frantic
alculations-not to me but to the
unseen speaker at the other end of
the telephone wire.
Good enough! - Twenty eight p
I should say not-Hold on-No, of
course it won't flivver-Read the
report, man-No, l couldn't stand it
down there watching the ticker
Fire-call me every half hour
Twenty-eight and a half now!-
Didn't l tell you?"
Jim hung up the receiver and
turned to me with the still. tense
look ] had come to know meant the
excitement of the game and the
fever to win.
Did you hear that2 It's up to
tweney- eight and a half already
likely twenty-nine by now. Well
lidhS a hliiii6I <AllhS
BY Jove, girl; you're going to be
rich!"
He limped across the room with a
sort of hop and skip, seized my
hands in his. and balancing himself
firmly on his strong left ankle, he
twirled around in little pirouette
that seemed to bring cut all his
boyish sweetness. When he was in
mood like that. nothing Jim did
could seem wrong to me. And when
he held me off and began patting
my shoulders with quck, staccato
taps I began to feel as big a 'kid"
as my Jimmy-boy.
There were black thoughts ready
to possess me. but brushed them
away. OF course, / couldn't push
them off the rim of things, and they
lurked on the edge of my conscious
ness-ready to pounce.
What's the meang of Doris
Vests interest in your husband?"
demanded one.
WAS it her revelation that made
Jim resign from Anthony Norreys'
employ and quarrel with you about
it?" whispered the second.
But more insistent and nagging
than either of these thoughts
threatening my desire to be as care
free as Jim-was the third doubt
that assailed me:
Where did Jim get his $5,000?"
it kept isist:ns. "Who loaned your
husband all that money!"
Again the phone. Jim dropped my
hands and fairly vaulted across the
room.
Careful. dearl" I cried.
Fortunately he didn't hear me. He
wouldn't have liked my emotion.
| After a second he turned from the
phone, white-faced and drawn.
HAS it gone-against you
DOWN." managed to ask calmly.
"No-it's up to thirty-three. We
might as we'll have a bit of lunch,
Anne. Nothing'll happen down there
for the next half-hour."
But couldn't persuade Jim to
take anything to lunch except
three cups of scalding hot and Bit
terly strong tea. And he was back
at the phone again in a jiffy.
"Thirty-seven," he reported a
minute later Mind IL don't help
you with the dishes? I'll run out
for five or ten minutes-breath of
air. From two o'clock on I'll have
direct wire"
"a direct wire!" I cried. How
wonderful. Weren't you clever to
manage that! Run along dear!"
For a moment 1t seemed to me
that Jim stared at rme with a cer-
tain hostile intentness as IL to say.
you think you're clever, don't you?
But I'll tell you nothing I don't
want you to know"
But dismissed my foolish fancIes
when he kissed me on the forehead
second later and rushed pell-mell
from the place.
The phone didn't ring again until
Jim returned ten minutes later. He
took it up and reported, "Forty-six
and going strong"
Then he took his place in a chair
he drew up within reach of the re-
ceiver, and every five minutes. he
rose, took down that receiver and
signaled some one who seemed in
wait at the other end of the wire.
For almost an hour. Jim didn't
speak to me-but sat crouching in
his chair near the black box of the
telephone. His face was gray and
drawn, with spots of color riding
high on his cheeks under glittering
eyes. had seen him so before.
This was what gambling could be
to Jim. Wealth might be coming
to us; it might be poverty and
heavy burden of debt we were fac
ing. 1 was so frightened by Jim's
aspect and manner that I dreaded
r-both-anything we won in a
gamble.
When next Jim spoke to me.
glanced involuntarily at my watch.
1t was eight minutes past three.
''I sold out my Salt Water OIL
at sixty-seven." he said in a voice
that was dead and fiat. Then 1t
rose to sudden exultation: We've
started, Anne-we're going to be
rich, girl"
And Jim and stared at each
other-wondering. wondering. What
would money bring to us?
fTtn He C0ntfnue1l