The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1920-04-07


DID one of the sisterhood leave the
city and go to tho country to live.
wherefore, when May Dart, expert
board operator In the Bryant ex.
change, informed her friends, Gladys
Stein and Ethel Manning, that she
was quitting the job that night and
D going 70 Stonypert, away off in the
wilds OF Connecticut. to live, they
simultaneously gaped at her incred.
ulously, and with one voice cried:
Going TO the countree! To stay!
Gonna live with the squirrels aud be
hfck! For gawdsake, May, howdja
get that way?"
Aw, I Just thought I'd like to do
something different" replied May,
nonchalantly. Which was not the
whole truth.
DR.. McKfntry, who had practised in
the Ninth ward more years than May
was old, and who had known her par.
ents- eased their successive tubercu-
lous departures out Of the world, in
face-had cajoled, commanded, bui.
lied and finally thoroughly frightened
May into getting away from New
York before, as he phrased it, New
York got her.
And SO 1t came to pass that May,
having been given highly compli.
mentary recommendation by her
chief, after conference with thai
kindly official, had applied for a place
In the Stonyport telephone central
and had been enthusiastically accept.
ed. You're going in time" said Nc.
hjntry IF you come back In less
Than year, I'll throw you off the
Stonyport fluttered between the
condition of big village and the stat.
US OF a small city. 1t called itself the
latter, and its most sophisticated SO.
ctety women smoked cigarettes some.
times in the grills of the big Massa.
peag Hotel. But its people still term
the railroad station the depot" and
tradition and politics between them
had SO far succeeded in preserving the
bucolic Institution of a volunteer fire
department.
May, as an hereditary cockney, ex.
perienced sense of obligation, to
look upon Stonyport with amused toll.
erance; an attitude in which she per.
sisted, though she soon perceived that
a telephone station was a telephone
station, whether in New York or New
England. and that the limousines on
State street looked about as costly as
the ones on AID.
The Stonyport air, however, was
fresher and cleaner than the carbon
ICED mixture that serves New York.
and the big, airy three Widowed
room overlooking vista of gardens,
oil which May was the exclusive mis-
tress, furnished staggering contrast
to the tiny cell, smelling of gas, from
which she had looked out on the
dreary. walls of Bank street.
Also, Sbecause there was no GLADYS
and no Ethel and no Byrant Exchange
Dancing Club, and no long list of the
aires and no Coney-no anything, it
seemed-May got more sleep, and
sounder, than she had ever known in
her twenty-four years. So she knew
DR.. McKintry 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 Faxen into the life of
the girl at this lonely stage of it
should be epochal. Logical enough in
any event, inevitable when he was big
and good looking and had been
through the thick of the hell in France
and had come back to laugh over It
and tell funny stories about 1t by the
hour.
He was the nephew of Mays fine
old iandlady-th how their &C.
quaintance came about-and he was
Just starting in business, shining
model delicatessen shop. He had had
to start on shoestring, he confided
in May, and his "%op" landlord would
only give him misery two years
lease. But fellow learned to take
charge over there, II 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
hen.
The Stonyport post OF the American
Legion was giving ball, for the en-
hanctment of its building fund-a
big affair in the armory. May, re.
splendant in the salfsame black and
gold party gown that had almost made
enemies of Gladys and Ethel at the
Byrant Clubs reception six weeks be.
ASAk7Jl AOGeA4AS l4S6SGlluGu .luS StalTS 10
lind Faxon, in his service uniform,
Waiting in gaspins admiration in the,
iall.
You look wonderful" he exclaim-
ID Are you all ready? We're not
going to be5a minute too early"
AS soon as put on my wrap" May
lad scarcely uttered the words when
Bangl K-r.r- Bapgi Kr.r-r-Banki
The great bell in ,fhe tower OF the en-.
zine house three doors away was
.airly rattling the windows.
Goodness gracious! What's that?"
crted the girl. But the effect on Fax
IN was amazing. "Dam!-that is, ex-
;use mel Wait Be back. Fret" And
caring the door open, her escort was
gone.
What's more, he didn't come back.
II took ten minutes for May to realize
that Faxon had deserted her to go to
fire and to become fittingly indig.
, nant well, of all the low-down hick
trickslr she exclaimed. Even then
she supposed that he would return
Hpresently, all apologies, and was torn
between the desire to revenge herself
upon him and reluctance to miss the
much anticipated ball. But at the end
OF three quarters OF an hour, bitterly