The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-05-23
CHAPTER 567 n A

CHAPTER 567
 Copyright, 1920, King Features Syn dicate, Inc
 Do you want to hear about 1t ?'' asked Mabel shy1y.
 | Then we looked at each other with | laughter at the ittle-g -gir1-shyness l with which we were curtseying to each other, and advancing and re- | treating from the thing we both l wished to accomplish.
 "Of course I want to hear about your second meeting with Dick,'' I | cried almost brusquely. Feminine | curiosity would be enough to account for my desire. but now that we're | friends, similar types'-'
 That's the keynote for my want | ing to tell you," interrupted Mabel
 graveIy. "Of course, I don't object to binding you closer as a. confidant but I have 8, motive beyond that I let's not go into that, however. Now I'm started, l want to talk. Shall I ?'' | "Yes," agreed, "and we can be | glad it's the noon hour and we're safe from interruptions for awhile. l Think of it - the telephone hasn' t l broken in once in the 5 minutes or
 so I've been here.''
 Oliver is taking care of things for
  | fession,' announced Mabel
 She stopped abruptly then. I tried | for word. but everything seemed in adequate. Suddenly Mabel broke the spell of her own stiffness.
 | After my Tampico experience I 1 drifted around for several years 1 hurt, bitter. my faith in human na- | ture gone. I couldn't go back to Gal weston and acknowledge what I'd let | GoS ry, do to me. T wanted to get away 1 from familiar territory-so I went
 up into the Great Lakes country. I was a, book agent, a demontsrator for 1 a marvellous cold cream, waitress | in a boarding house-anythfng that
 meant a decent living"
 'It was pretty bad, wasn't it?" I ventured at a guess.
 "It was worse than that. After a | while I got a job head waitress in a little summer hotel owned and run by a shrewd Scotch woman Divers mother. She was support ing him and 8 shtftless second hus- band. She thought I was too good for my iob-that I was using my hands and feet when I ought to be using my brain- She sent me to night school, doing my work herself
 once in while. so I'd be on time for school even when folks delayed din- ner. The flu got her just about the time I had mastered the gentle art of | typing and such like. And her hus- 1 band grabbed the little hotel and 1 raised the rent so I had to get out I drifted out of the lakes country | and came to the city here." | q don't think you were drifting. I I'm sure there was 8 purpose in it al1,: I protested.
 | Perhaps. But I didn't see it then We'll, I got job. I was working
 along happily enough until one night l saw Dick West. It was only a glimpse of him. But he was with a | girl. Jealousy got me by the throat. | I was dizzy with it. Too miserable | to reason. It seemed to me that Dick was my man and that ] cou1dnt t | bear to see him with anyone else. Pm | trusting you to understand. After | that I haunted the hotel where I'd 1 gIimpsed him when I was going to take some dictation from a woman playwright who patronized the agen- | cy where I worked. I saw him sew | eral times - always with the same
 girl. Never alone.
 "One day Oliver came stumbling back into life. The stepfather had htreated the poor little lame fellow SC lbadly that he ran away and came to | the town where he knew I'd headed