New-York tribune., 1920-09-12

| y
suppose there won't be time. So
where shall we begin?"
He could hardly have replied,
when one comes to think of it, other
wise than as he did, with the sug-
gestion that they begin at the top.
At any rate it struck her happily.
"I'm sure that's right" she said.
"Father'd have done it the other
way. He'd be perfectly happy in
the shabbiest suit if he knew he had
on silk underclothes.
1t was at this moment that young
Burgess got his first notion, made
quate, to be sure, of what he was in
for, and he experienced just momen-
tarily panicky impulse to flee. 1t
wasn't precisely that he was shocked
at her explicit mention of under
clothes nor at the implication that
he was to be made a partner in a
delicate and intimate enterprise, al
though it might have been that. He
hadn't any sisters and he was the
sort of boy-this is the best posi-
Bile description Of him, really
whose innocence young girls are in
stinctively careful of. What really
frightened him was the unexpected
and quite illicit emotional surge
which he felt sweep over hin1--a
feeling he'd have said an hour ago
impossible to a man engaged to
Enid Case. So far as he knew, you
see, he was still the Bob Burgess
who had existed yesterday and would
continue to exist tomorrow. He
didn't realize that he was merely
temporary manifestation.
However, he didn't run away. He
took Dorothy's arm instead and
timed her entrance neatly into the
jaws of a revolving door. But once
inside the store it was she who
clutched his.
, "Look" she commanded. "Look
at that girl as hard as you can."
1t was an easy injunction to obey.
The object of her regard, intently
buying a veil at a nearby counter,
was distinctly a decoration to the
scene.
"Look at everything about her
you can see'-Dorothy was very
much in earnest about this-"every-
thing she's got on. You know how
people ought to look. Are her
things right? Can l be dressed like
that?"
"She looks all right to me-" said
Bob.
Dorothy indulged in one last look
and sigh of contentment, then.
"Come," she said. "We1l begin
with the hat. l hope we have time"
The elusiveness of her ideal in
hats just about destroyed this hope
at the start. There were hundreds
of thousands of hats up on the fifth
f1oor--vast rooms filled with hats,
and Bob, who entered into the quest
with enthusiasm since the time limit
made it a good sporting PROPOSE
ton, was at first constantly crying
Eureka. But Dorothy, who came
running up hopefully each time, was
invariably disappointed in his dis
coveries. Finally he protested.
"This ones exactly like it," he
said. "It's got the same color fur
around the top and it's little bit
boat-shaped-pointed fore and aft,
you know, like the one you want"
II know" Dorothy admitted. cit
is the same, but it looks different"
Enid, thank the Lord, Bob re-
fected at this point, was not unrea-
sonable like that. And the rehec-
tion must have been legible in his
face, because, with a look and an
appealing touch on the arm which
melted him instantly, she said:
"Oh, know Pm not sensible, but
it's the first chance l have ever had
not to be-
And with that they walked on,
not knowing what they were get
ting into, through a curtained door
way into walnut paneled drawing
room, where there were hardly any
hats at all, only great mysterious
cabinets that seemed to give a prom
Use of them, and little bright mir
rored cubicles containing one chair
apiece, where they could be tried on
"1'm trying to fnd," Dorothy said
eagerly to the somewhat dubiouslv
approaching saleswoman, "I'm try
ing to find little hat with fur
around the top, and pointed"
fell back confidently on Bob's
phrasc-"fore and aft like a boat,
you know"
The perfect hammered salcswom-
an indicated one of the cubicles,
ushored Dorothy into it, held the
chair for her, and, once she was
seated, removed, with we'll bred self
control, the Centropolis hat from