The Press., 1919-04-10
When Money Talks
 ~o oDnrrYA D Acn0NAID
Bv BERTHA R. MCDONALD
(Copyright, 1918. by Mcclure Ne"spapei
 Syndicate.)

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 Syndicate.)
 The little music teacher ran up the steps of the boarding house with nut tering heart, for she had seen the gray coat of the postman disappearing around the corner. The fiutterlng ouickened into 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 mighty engine.
 Yes. there was a letter, but the writ ing was not familiar. When she reached the sacred precincts of her own room she read 1t and had just cast ii 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 overlooKeo. Again her hope beat high, but this was A more bitter disappointment than the first.
 1 "Sickening-both of them!" she mutt tered. Why must be made the tar get for such piffle?"
 1 Angrily she thrust them inside her desk, closed 1t with g bang and went down to dinner That evening, after ] brisk walk through a little park near by. the keen October air having soothed her ruffled spirits, she donned a comfortable dressing gown and wrote to her old friend, Mrs. De Voss:
 1 Dear Mollykins: It rests me just to write your name. It carries me Dack 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 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 not been sure that each man is counting on my income to help support hlm
 
 adoration! I tell you, dear, l 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 1t will be when the future Mir. Bess Courtland is ready tc hand me a checkbook on a nice, ia,
 bank account As 1t Is, epistolary eff
 forts such as reached me today only
 serve to frazzle my disposition. Buck
 cts of Slush,' Billy would call them. Il
 is needless for me to tell you where
 my heart lies, and he has never writ
 ten me line in all this long year. thought, of course, when our crasl
 came and father died that Billy would be the first to come to me, and Whel he left for Colorado without so mucl as good-by I was broken-hearted Now I've joined the ranks of thos
 who believe that money talks. l ca
 hear you call me fiinty of heart, bu Q so will you be, Molly, if ever you com to feel the dull, sickening thud of tn fall from the lap of luxury to the colo : stone floor of poverty. I hope yo ;, never may. Write me soon-your lei . ters are such comforts. Lovingly, "BESS." , That night the little music teache c cri. d herself to sleep and the mex Il morning she said to herself, as sh h surveyed the pale face which looked a l. her with weary eyes from her mirror
 Don't you let me catch you weeI l. ing again over Billy Dempster. H 9 doesn't care a fig about you and h e wouldn't weep over anybody"
 e By the time she reached the studi s she had fully made up her mind tha d she hated Billy cordially and that If should ever see fit to write her lette
 she would return 1t to him unopene'
 It was several days later that speci'
 delivery letter, bearing a Colorad
 postmark, reached Miss Courtlan ,, and, after the messenger had gone, sf M stood gazing at the envelope, scarce ' able to believe her eyes, while tf
 waiting pupil at the piano wondere
 what was about to be disclosed. W "Billy's writing!" gasped the teac le CT. "No-no-I'm getting foolish,
 course-it can't be-he doesn't kno
 my address, and yet T."
 O.. "Why don't you open it?" suggest' Q, her pupil, and forgetting her late d he termination to put Billy Dempster O -. of her life forever, Bess tore open h d. letter with fingers that trembled ., though she might have the palsy. h. Dear Bess," she read. "I wrote
 Molly De Voss two weeks ago for yo
 address and just got 1t today. He are you, anyway? It seems lifetir since I saw you. What are you doi aud how do you like living in CT " cago? Molly didn't answer a sing
 question I asked, so I shall wait ar ay iously to hear direct from you abo SC your work, your husband-if you ha m one; in fact, tell me all about ever he thing. As ever, yours.
 an BILLY
 Miss Courtland's black eyes snapp he and she crushed the letter in her hal he "To write me letter like that" s 1t gasped, "after waiting whole year d. even ask for my address!"
 ca During the following week she wr' or six replies to Dempster's letter a lat tore each one to bits almost as soon 're it was finished. The seventh $ ne thought somewhat tart, but c0nclud -'' it was better than he deserved anyw 'u rh .innll1 Htlt t. 5':t
 we "., ar Billy CT w'nl; l p:','i,: '- 't II