Evening star., 1921-02-20

actually afraid to listen to the cries
of the newSboyS with their special
editions; and when she passed a tele-
phone booth in the dairy lunch she
stopped. There was no reason she
knew of why she should not deter
mine for herself how he was getting
along. Still, even after she picked up
the telephone book, she was not fully
decided. 1t was only after she had
slipped in her nickel that she: knew
she was going to do il. Then she
asked the clerk il Mr.. Talbot was still
there. meaning only to find out il he
was stiff alive. and she was at once
connected with Talbot himself. She
almost dropped the receiver when she
heard his voice.
who is it," he demanded.
NO one" she answered. paradox
cafly. Il heard you were hurt and
Miss Wadsworth.''
81 guess it wasn't true. So"
"It was true. But how the devil did
Anyhow. you aren't dead. $3.50
goodbye
"Just a moment. T.
Good bye" she gasped.
With burning cheeks she came out
of the booth and looked around to
make sure no one had been observing
her. No one paid the slightest atteh-
tion to her. and yet when she sat
down to her cocoa her cheeks con-
tinued brilliant scarlet.
X X X X =,
TALBOT. pacing the heavily carpet
l. ed room with his head .bandaged
like a wounded Turk. repeated over
and over to himself a fool phrase 1t
was this: --.
"She cared-enoush to telephone"
Offhand this did not seem to be
much to get excited about. The ef-
fort had cost her only nickel and a
few moments tofr her time-just a
nickel and a few moments of her
time. But that was the very fact
that impressed him. He himself had
Just spent some seventy thousand
dollars and a whole month without
receiving in return tenth part of
the. honest.to-God joy she had fur
vestment of hers. Viewed purely
from a business point of view it
proved that she was the better fnan-
cier. Yet when he tried to figure
out something definite along this line
nothing sensible resulted.
For example, Ire considered convert
ing his whole two hundred and odd
thousand dollars into nickelS and
handing them over to her-four and
a half million of them. But this did
dot get him anywhere. The practical
difficulty lay in transferring to her
that many nickeis. And even il he
succeeded in doing this he felt sure
that to ask her to slip these one by
one into telephone slot for the pur-
pose of ringing him up would be to
ask for too much of her time. Be-
sides he did not intend to remain here
the rest of his life.
He meant. as a matter of fact. to get
out as soon as the fool doctorlwould
unwind his head. In the meanwhile
she might telephone at least once
it was this hope that kept him alert;
this hope and nothing else. She had
cared enough to ring him up once; +;
she might care enough to ring him up
twice. 1t would only cost her a nick
el-the twentieth part of dollar. as
why didn't she do it? He could not
ring her up except at the Office, and
she would not approve of that. Be
sides. l. would not be the same.
Furthermore, as the days went by
the less he felt he would be satisfied
wanted to see her-to talk with her.
He wanted to touch her hand. He
wanted-good Lord. he found himself
wanting a thousand things centering
around her: thousand little things;
1hpIsand intsnEiRle sinss = th9p 70,
1t .was 4 week before Talbot 81 t
out. and then the first thing he df !
as the simplest way of getting il
touch with certain person was 10
go to the Office of knight & Son ard
offer his services to the firm in his
former capacity and at his old salary.
The Son of Knight & Son was a pretty
good spender himself. but he knew
what Talbot had made and knew that
a man never came back to work un-
less twas necessary He WAS glad