The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1920-12-25
The Red Hat
By FREDERICK HART
s, 1920. by Mcclure Newspaper syndica'


The hat was red-a particularly dis
| tressful shade of red Nellie Bates
/ shuddered as she contemplated herself
| in the mirror And the dreSS-she
didn't like 1t at all. Why, oh, why, II
| there must be girls on magazine COW
erS she thought, must they wear such
awful clothes? And yet they didn't
look 50 awful when they were trans
ferred to the artists canvas or printed
and smiling from thousands of news
| stands.
But while she didn't at all mind
posing for these saccharine misses, she
did object to wearing clothes when
4 did not harmonic with her appear
/ ancp
For Nellie knew particularly well
Just what did. harmonic. She was
pretty-there was no denying that
and she had studied herself in the
| light Of the examples she saw around
her every day on Fifth avenue ana
others avenues. She knew-oh, she
| knew!
y
not gained her far-famed glory as the
model for all the pretty girls on the
magazine covers without making arts
tic sacrifices that cut her to the core.
She loathed the hats and the gowns.
They were good-looking enough. In
their place, but their place was dis
tinctly not on Nellie. SO she thought,
o.
Elected her thought as she stepped from
the dressing room into the big, airy
studio.
Arthur Warren was mixing colors
on his palette when she appeared, ana
he merely looked up with brief
"Good morning, Miss Bates" as she
entered
AS impersonal as thatl Heavens,
thought Nellie, how could he be any
thing else with that hat in the fore
ground? Anybody would be imperson-
al to hat like that.
Of course she didn't want him not
to be personal-certainly not He
was her employer and she was to pose
for him so that he could make thou
sands and thousands Of dollars by sell
ing her counterfeit presentment to ed1-
tors for the covers of their midsum-
mer numbers.
And he was a gentleman, even If he
did have nice eyes. No, that wasn't
what she meant; she meant that he
did have nice eyes, even if he was
gentleman. What an awful bat! She
swept to the models stand defiantly.
1t was set with tea-wagon on which
was an enhancing outlay of glittering
china and silver. Teal 1t was the
fifth time that week she had posed
at q tea-wagon. "If all the tea I'm
supposed to have drunk" thought Mel
lie, "were laid end to end 1t would
fill the Atlantic ocean and slop over
on the Rocky mountains" From
which it may be deducted that Nellies
ideas were a tri1e mixed.
"Ah-Miss Bates" Arthur War
ren's even voice broke In on her jan
gled thoughts, twill you please move
that tea-wagon over toward you lit
tie. There-that's it. Now sit in that
big willow chair and offer me a cup of
tea. want to get the position worked
out-there! that's good! Can you hold
that for minuteT
Miss Bates could and would. She
held the tea out, smiling mechanically;
but her grin was a grin of rage.
Just across the room was an antique
pier-glass, which had been acquired by
VI yn Of
free to let her eyes wander where
she would, happened to glance across
the studio, and for an instant saw her
self reflected in the depths of the clear
mirror. She stared at what she saw
for q full minute. Then suddenly she
drew back her arm and with full
sweep sent the cup HURTING through
the air full at the image.
The fragile china struck the mirror
full fortunately the tea in it was
purely imaginary and smashed into
4 million pieces Warren looked up
in startled amazement to see pretty
Nellie Bates collapsed in a bundle of
green dress and red hat on the model
stand, sobbing as though her heart
would break. His wrath at the smash
ing of one of his favorite tea cups
quickly vanished at sight of her tears,
and he fastened to give her comfort.
"Why, Miss Bates! What on earth's
the matter? You mustn't break down
like this. Here, here-pull yourself
together. Don't cry-for heavens
sake! What Is the matter with your"
But Nellie would have none of his
comfort. The matter with her really
was that she was nervously exhausted !;
the strain of many trying days of hard
work. coupled with the repression of
secret, had undermined her, and the
red hat was just what was needed to
touch off the mine. The secret?
All, Nellie herself could hardly have
told you that; for she herself was at
times scarcely aware of its existence.
But it existed, as she was presently
to find out.