The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-03-10
Euening Story
Mrs. Garrity's Parlor.
BY DORA NOLAN.


ing houses. Rita hemingway. in
search of a place to hang up her mar
mot coat, and so call home" rang the
bell at No. 8. simultaneously, at No
40, Mrs Clarity turned with salts
fled sigh from her account book.
which showed a substantial balance
on the right side, to answer a ring
at the phone.
Now No s. and No 40 were almost
a block apart, yet fate had ordained
that Rita's fur wrap should find at
least a temporary resting place in the
clothes press of Mrs. Garrity's third
floor front Therefore Rita rang the
bell at S, and the intervening bells as
well, to no profit.
Mrs Garrity was stout and placid.
No one credited her with especial as
tutenesS. Yet the reputation of her
house was the envy of the street. 1t
was we'll known that she rarely had
a room vacant longer than day. Yet
she broke every established tradition
of her competitors.
- She turned down the cream OF the
trade, single men. She took only bust
ness girls and she allowed them many
privileges. And she was the only
landlady on the street who voluntarily
sacrificed that plum of rooming house
income-the rent of the front parlor
It could not be hired.
But Rita Hemingway was ignorant
of all this when she rang Mrs. Gar
rity's bell. She only thought the out
side appearance of the house neater
than most of its neighbors and prayed
that it might contain one unoccup1ed
room sans green carpet and red wall
paper She had seen a dozen such in
the last hour.
There was a vacant room, Mrs. Gar
rity assured her caller. She led the
way thru Eeat halls, up two flights of
immaculate stairs and into room
where the soft brown of the floor har-
monized with the tan of the walls and
the curtains were erispy fresh.
"Oh. how meet" exclaimed Rita;
"but it's occupied, isn't it?" For an
open magazine lay upon the couch
and basket of sewing stood on the
table.
ut was up to fifteen minutes ago."
replied Mrs. Clarity. Then Miss
Green, who had it. phoned me she
was being married this noon. l don't
understood. That's the fourth to leave
for that reason this month. Have you
beau, my dear?"
Rita turned resentfully from her in
spection of the room. So this was to
be the fly in the ointment OF such an
attractive house-a nosey landlady!
But Mrs. Clarity was proceeding:
! 1t is always open to my roomers and
their gentlemen friends"
why. yes; 1 have a friend" Rita
found herself saying, who will proba-
bly, come to see me. We are not
that is-anyhow. If we're ever married
| it will not be till he is better estab-
| lished in his business And for the
telling of SO much of he- Affairs to
this perfectly strange person, whose
concern it certainly was no., Rita was
promptly ready to bite off her tongue.
"M-mmi" commented Mrs. Gar
rity, with the air of physician who
understands the symptoms and is sure
of the treatment.
It ended in Rita engaging the room.
| Five minutes after closing time in the
kbis offices of tho Underwood Insur-
ance company sne told Charlie Win
terss all about it. Charlie was waiting
for her at the corner.
-"Oh, blazes! And I've got to see you
in a confoundeJ public parlor with a
lot of other couples sitting around,
and everything Why didn't you get
into a private house, Rita? We're
going to miss the comfort of your
aunt's apartment believe me-"
Who's going to miss it most? ?" de-
manded Rita. II took the only decent
room 1 could find-Tye got to live in
my room. Is it my fault that Aunt
Belle moved west? If yoi don't want
to come and see me, you needn't If
JOA W. IL . nv aoOulAl s1NC Tue. mere 3
my carr And Rita departed abruptly.
Despite Charlie Winterss antipathy
to rooming house drawing rooms, it
was no later than the following even
ing that he presented himself at No
40 and was ushered by Mrs. Clarity
| herself into the lovely" parlor, which
she left him to admire while she sum-
i moned Miss Hemingay. Rita found
the young man standing rooted in the
spot where Mrs. Clarity had left him,
gazing speechlessly about him. She,
too, let her eyes roam about the apart
ment- They fell upon green and
yellow figured carpet, upon glaring
red wallpaper forming background for
crayon portraits of impossibly ugly
human beings, upon two dusty artifi-
cial palms, upon feeble looking chairs
i brightly gilded and decorated with
tages, upon screaming plush, upon
rioting varnish.
Gee whiz." breathed Charlie. God
bless our home!"
There were quick tears in Ritas
eyes. "Oh, Charlie, isn't it awful 3?
This is the first time I've seen it, 1
can't understand it at all-the rest of
the house is-why, it's really and truly
dear. I'll find another place to-
morrow"
well. let's beat it out of here now,
anyhow. and go to the movies" pro-
poseo OHdrlie. MAYBE we can dope
out something before we get back"
For in the five minutes that he had
spent waiting for Rita, young Mr..
Winters had learned something more
than he had known about the life of
business girl.
IT was on the way home from the
film show that Charlie and Rita rnu-
tually agreed that it was all a mistake.
this notion of waiting for by and by
They might not be able to start in
their own bungalow. as Charlie had
hoped. but they could give that horri-
tying parlor of Mrs. Garrity's a thou
sand mile start and beat it TO a fragile
And what had to be done soon might
as we'll be done now. So they made it
the next day but one. and young Mrs.
Winters sent for her things at Mrs.
Garrity's after having been an occu-
pant of 40 South avenue for Just
ninety-six hours.
Five in five weeks exclaimed