Evening star., 1921-02-20

was, undoubtedly, Miss Nathahe
wadsworth, who operated the multi
graphing machine. She did not
amount to a hill of beans or a row of
pins or anything else of minor conse-
quence. for. although she filled her
position capably enough. it was more
the machine than she who was or val
ue. Viewed as a net Quick asset-a
feature r. F. knight & Son were al
ways obliged to consider In their
business-she would not have inven-
toried as much as a desk.
1t can easily be understood. then,
that to those accustomed TO dealing
in enterprises placed on the market
in million-sh lots. par value 80
share, Miss Wadsworth looked like a
pretty small proposition.
In other ways. however-lntanglol
little ways-Miss Wadsworth showed
up to better advantage. Yet no one
seemed to appreciate this except Billy
Talbot. who represented Knight
Son on the curb and himself every
where else And he realized that to
refer to Miss Wadsworth's personal
attributes as real assets was merely
a pretty figure of speech. They were
not oven substantial enough to be
taxed. which is getting assets down
get them on this plane. Nor were
they easily inyentoried.
Studied in detail, Miss Wadsworth
was not strikingly beautiful; and yet
Talbot, when out of the office. could
call her to mind as vividly as though
she stood before him, when the most
he could ever recall of prettier girls
was the fact that they were pretty.
Miss Wadsworth never attempted to
do anything in particular with her
hot nd 6ifflcnlf to forget
the hnensss and gloss of it. There
was nothing especially significant
about her gray eyes except that they
were impressiveiy honest. or her
but she had not been established in
that outer ofiice a week before he
found himself carrying around in his
mind, as in a locket, the picture she
made when seated pertly Independent
before her work.
CHE was quite as unrelated to this
- work as the machine she oper-
ated-quite unrelated, in fact. to the
whole ONCE. Somehow Talbot placed
her in a class with the gallery of
debutantes who appear in the photo
aneVspapers. She possessed the same
spoise, the same direct challenge that
/ meets man eye to eye, the same su-
+, periority to setting or circumstance.
} 1ntangibiesi
Talbot was not given to that kind of
appreciation either. His standard of
beauty was based upon the successes
of foof gardens. where graces were
displayed upon the surface and man
was not Obliged to guess at much of
anything. There was Fiji Collette
now featured. who could have had
Talbot for the asking and did not ask,
perhaps because in the dollar seat
which. was hts limit she could not see
hair that took all sorts of marvellous
turns, eyes that flashed to the last
row OF edmjring men, color and
curves aAa rustling silks and jewels
all % clearly and definitely displayed
without effort as exhibit A. exhibit B,
exhibit C. So could Talbot, while he
observed her on the stage But after
that IL was necessary for him to pay
another dollar in order to refresh his
This was decided disadvantage be-
cause ~ this time he did not have
many dollars. On the salary of ffty a
week he lost pretty consistently one
half Of It in optimistic attempts to
no was obliged to waste something
on board and room. The remainder he
invested in dress and entertainment.
He dressed as well rs his means al
lowed a. . matter Of personal taste.
feF he enjoyed seaod clothes and wore
them we'll OF medium height and
slight withsa thin nervous face. alert
black eyes xee4her tense mouth. he
would h6se been. selected in q crowd
of hu9dhed ~ one of half dozen
men ferA 41N demanding intelligence.
He revealed something Of this first
quality In being the only one Of the
IN sS aSas feaSs: ase y xhs Rnanst us,es
Son fe4t9sknize the fact that Miss
wadDeSktNN4s not quite the usual
youa8 1Nsagnployed in the DOWN
tevn daett@ NE revealed the other
to her 1leSSs had s1 nothing ~haaever vi spsaT
to do With h1fbsanch of the business
He toekA 4h2nee late one rainy aft
ernoon A34eE Golden Flow, par value
IS. whies he bad bought At 50 cents:
haif = vsAk's salary and leaving him
a bit lonesome.
II hope you didn't read any of those
last circulars you sent out on Golden
1T never occurs to me to read any
Of them" Miss Wadsworth replied
Dleasahtly enough. But why?'
ut would probably have cost you
money"
'Hew."
The stun slumped ten points to-
/ "RealIy7" she answered. with less
Anterest than she would have shown
had he informed her it was now rain
Ing;
Il ought TO have known better my
self. bet this one sounded so darned
good thought I could get in and get
out. Well, ] got out all right"
you mean you lost?'
Il sure did. Our Mr.. Knight is now
picking the bones"
I'm sorry you lost" she returned
sincerely. which was the last thing
in the world Talbot expected her to
say. He had not been looking for
sympathy. for he was not even plying
himself. 4 man must take his losses
With his gains. On the strength of
tip he had picked up in the last half
hour he was already planning a cam
Knight & Son were just placing on
the market. IF this we'll did 10 per
cent Of the gushing the firm was
doing for il. his fortune was. for the
twentieth time that year. assured.
I'm sorry I made you sorry" he an
swered. ITO prove it Id take you to
the movies tonight if you'd GO"
Thank you. but ! never go to the
movies"
The remark Talbot made to himself
was. "Some Glass; but out loud he
endeavored. as jauntily as possible. to
cover up what he felt to have been a
bad break. Though he ran the risk of
sources. he ventured boldly:
There's a good show at the Roof
Garden"
Really"
How'd that suit youo"
II have an idea it would not suit