The Press., 1920-07-15
MAY TRIES
 BEING A HECK
By WILL T. AMES

l g.. Among the girls of Manhattan island | there Is tradition, immutable as the laws of the Medes and the PerSians,
 that never yet save through the opera
 ton of extreme violence and utterly E. against her own will did one of the sis
 terhood leave the city and go to the
 country to live. Wherefore, when May
 Dart. expert board operator In the Bry-
 ant exchange. informed her friends.
 Gladys Stein and Ethel Manning. that | she was quitting the job that night and ] going to Stonyport. away off In the
 wilds of Connecticut, to live. they si- multaneOusly gaped at her incredu-
 lously. and with one voice cried: 1 Going to the countree! To stay l
 Gonna live with the squirrels and be
 nick For gawdsake, May. hawdja get
 that way?"
 "Aw, just thought I'd like to do
 something different" replied May. non- | chalantly. Which was not the whole truth.
 Doctor MacKfntry, who had prac- ticed In the Ninth ward more years than May was old, and who had known her .parents-eased their successive
 tuberculous departures out of the world, In fact-had cajoled, command ed, bullied and finally thoroughly : frightened May into getting away from
 New York before, as he phrased 1t,
 New York got her. And so 1t came to pass that May.
 having been given highly compliment tary recommendation by her chief. af- ter conference with that kindly otfi-
 cial, had apl. led for a place in the StonypOrt telephone central and had been enthusiastically accepted. "You're going in time," said MacKintry. If you come back in less than year I'll throw you off the dock"
 Stonyport fiuttered between the con- dition of big village and the status of small city. It called itself the lat ter. and It's most sophisticated society women smoked cigarettes sometimes in the grllls of the big Massapeag hotel. But its people still term the railroad station the depot" and tradition and politics between them had so far sue cecded in preserving the bucolic insti- tuition of volunteer fire department. May, as an hereditary cockney, ex- perienced a sense of obligation to look upon Stonyport with amused tolerance; i;
 an attitude in which she persisted. though she soon perceived that tele- | phone station was telephone station,
 whether in New York or New England,
 and that the limousines on State street looked about as costly as the ones on
 Forty-second.
 The Stonyport air, however. was fresher and cleaner than the carbon ized mixture that serves New York, and the big, airy three-windowed room overlooking vista of gardens, of which May was the exclusive mistress, furnished a staggering contrast to the tiny cell. smelling of gas. from which she had looked out on the dreary rear walls of Bank street.
 Also, because there was no Gladys and no Ethel and no Bryant Exchange Dancing club, and no long list of the aters and no Coney-no anything, 1t seemed, May got more sleep, and sounder. than she had ever known in her twentyfour years. So she knew Doctor MacKintry for the wise old owl that he was-but she wasn't having good time and again she voted Stony port a jay town.
 It was inevitable, of course, that the coming of Fred Faxon into the life of the girl at this lonely stage of it should be epocha1. Logical enough in &oh hn jo and good-looking and had been through | the thick of the he'll in France and had come back to laugh over 1t and tell
 funny stories about 1t by the hour. He was the nephew of Mays fine | old landlady-that's how their ac- 1 quaintance came ~about-and he was | just starting in business, shining
 model delicatessen shop. He had had | to start on a shoestring, he conided
 to May. and his "wop" landlord would
 only give him a miserly two years lease. But a fellow learned to take
 chances over there, if he didn't learn | anything else" Perhaps 1t was be cause the chances of success were not less hazardous-his prospects in life | better-that May caught FaxOn look ing at her so wistfully every now and | then.
 l The Stonyport post of the American
 Legion was giving ball, for the en-
 hancement of its building fund-a big
 affair in the armory. May. resplendent | in the selfsame black and gold party | gown that had almost made enemies of | Gladys and Ethel at the Bryant clubs | reception six weeks before, regally de- | seconded the stairs to find Faxon. in his l service uniform, waiting in gasping ad-
 miration in the hall.
 You look wonderful" he exclaimed. Are you all ready? We're not going | to be a minute too early"
 "As soon as put on my wrap" May | had scarcely uttered the words when | Bang! K-r-r-r Bang! Krr-rBang :! | The great bell in the tower of the en- | zine house three doors away was fairly ] rattling the windows.
 "Goodness gracious! What's thatY' criec.>the girl. But the effect on Faxon
 was amazing. "D-nl that is excuse mel Wait. Be back. Fire!" And | tearing the door open, her escort was gone.
 Whats more, he didn't come back. | It took ten minutes for May to realize | that-Faxon had deserted her to go to a fire and to become fittingly indig- ant. Well. of all the lowdown hiek .icksI" she exclaimed. Even then sa.
 supposed that he would return present
 ly. all apologies. and was torn between
 the desire to revenge herself upor
 him and reluctance to miss the mucf
 anticipated ball. But at the end o'
 three-Quarters of an hour. bitterly re
 gretting that there was no one abou
 to whom she might express her feel
 tngs-Mrs. Hewett was out at churci
 festival-the outraged Miss Dart be
 took herself to her room and to bed
 And before she went to sleep she de
 termined that she had had abou
 enough of hick gallants and small towI