The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-08-21
A Stenogrdpher's
Romance
GOOD SERVICE FOR GOOD PAY

BY JANE PHELPS

Chapter 81.
Nellie could scarcely refrain from
| talking of her wonderful luck and of
her salary. Just think. over twice
what earned before!" she said many
1 times.
But, Nellie" Gladys reminded,
you had very small pay before, and
you were also learning all the time,
because you studied. Then, perhaps,
If they had asked how. much you got,
they might have thought you incom-
petept. You were very lucky they
| didn't. But don't make any mistake,
| dear. If you don't earn the salary
they won't pay it. Men aren't in
business for fun. Miss Mcbride talked
with me about that when she got me
my position. She said many girls
seemed to think men, firms, were in
business for some other reason than
to make it pay. That they wanted
money they did not eafn-often did
not try to earn But she also i'm
pressed it upon me that she soon
| scratched that sort off her list. She
be any girls motto who hoped to sue
coed"
MY, you should ask Mrs. Thompson
for a soap-boX. You talk better than
those men and women who spell on
the corners of the streets. But
guess Miss Mcbride is right-and lit
tie Nellie isn't going to lose her job
for lack of trying to keep it; not if
they work me to skin and bones"
They won't! And it wouldn't hurt
you to lose little. Your appetite
seems to have grown with your pay
envelope. do wish Cora would eat
better. She sends her mother so
much I sometimes think she isn't fair
to herself. 1 never can get her to buy
any little extras
Il don't see you blowing yourself so
often eitheri" Nellie replied.
Its different with me! I'm we'll
and strong, and 1 can't afford to have
things 1 don't need when the kids at
cate in spite of her grit, /and some
times get frightened for her.
The result of this conversation was
that Nellie often brought home a jar
of fruit, some jelly, or fresh fruits,
which she insisted upon sharing
equally, in addition to paying her full
third of the expenses. Yet she had
saved also and had bought a neat
navy blue tailor suit, a hat, shoes and
waist. el
I'll buy another waist by and by
and some underwear. Then 1 shall be
pretty well fixed" she said as she
washed and ironed the one she had
bought, now the only one decent
enough for the office. All three of
the girls took off their office clothes
as soon as they reached home. Like
so many. things they did, it had been
at Cora's suggestion.
Clothes that one sits around in, or
that one does any homework in don't
last as long, and never look as WE'LL"
she said.
whatever would we do without
you? Your wise little suggestions ?''
Gladys once said: Where did you
learn so much?"
Mother was always very careful
and brought me up to be. a clergy
mans wife in a small parish hasn't
much to do with you know, yet has to
to make a good appearance. The con-
gregation seem to demand it, even
when they know how small the salary
is
How lovely to have such mother"
Nellie said witha sigh. II don't see
why God didn't give me a mother like
that Maybe I'd been different, more
like Dorothy Fallon, if He had" Mr..
Fallon's niece was the only girl OF her
type Nellie ever had known. ever
her for pattern, had already adopted
some of her 1ittls ways. Nellie was
a perfect mimic, but in copying Doro-
thy she had no idea of making fun,
she seriously longed to be like the
lovely, cultured girl who frequently
with her uncle who was also her
guardian. Her father had died when
she was a child. and she gave a
daughters love to the elder Fallon,
a sister to Mr.. George-as they all
called him in the office.
But Nellie, with all her perspicacity,
had not perceived this and thought her
in love with her cousin.
DO cousins ever get married?" she
asked Cora one day.
Yes. sometimes, in this country
why?"
"Oh, nothing,"
(Tomorrow-Cora discusses a new