The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-02-27

scandal Gloria volunteered to take Kitty out of town and care for her till she recovers. Herbert invites Virginia out to dinner. There they see Theodore stratton, the great movie star. She gets settled in her new apartment and misses Gloria, her l old roommate.
 MEMORIES It was tiny apartment that I en- tered-just one room with the usual California in-a-door bed. a small bath and kitchenette in which you could just turn around. But just having 1t for my very own took away my feel ing of loneliness.
 My trunks and boxes were in one corner and Herb. with great thought fitness, had attached Ria's card to great sheaf of roses. There were so many that I could find no vase that would hold them. buy l hunted around among the remains bf numerous sets of dishes and found a blue water pitcher that some former tenant had left. The roses were beautiful to be- hold in it and they gave a honey, comfortable look to the meager fur nishings. I took off my hat and sat down in the one arm chair the room contained and reread my letter from Eddie.
 My heart grew all soft and warm as thoughts of his chivalrous, loving kiss the ghost of which was still haunting my lips-the kiss he had put upon my lips that night so long ago. so very long that it seemed as though it were a different incarna- ton.
 What were my loved ones all doing hack there in the sleepy old Virginia village? What was Naomi doing? Was she still adding to her hope chest?
 With this thought there came a lIt- tie catch of my breath. I. too, had started a hope chest and in it I had placed something from out my heart something of that unworldliness that the people back home would call innocence.
 Aunt Virginia, particularly, would bewail the laying of worldly wisdom in the chest of ambition. She would know that when I should open that little casket again, innoncence would he found. It's place would have been usurped by hard, bitter experience.
 This, to Aunt Virginia, was one of lifes supreme tragedies. But I had already learned from Gloria that in- nocence was only ignorance. Why" St1C pnl1OSOpnlLc0 III AtT GnlnuSlASIlC way, .in olden times, Virginia, they called a child whose brain was a blank. an innocent One of the things that you and l, who have to beat the world at it's own game, must always keep in mind, Virginia, is that innocence does not necessarily mean purity. Or to put it another way, purity does not mean innocence of the knowledge of wrong ding. You can have knowledge and still be un- stained and you can be innocent of wrong-doing and yet the world will put the scarlet letter upon your breast"
 With all these thoughts I was growing melancholy and introspec- tive. Then I realized that was hun gry, just plain hungry. It was not my soul that was troubling me vita it's bangs, but my stomach.
 Taking up my hat, l hurried down to the corner where hung the sign of a Chinese restaurant. It was almost the first time I had ever entered a restaurant or public eating place alone, outside of the hotel where I was stopping.
 My heart beat ridiculously fast Il was about to run away when a voice came floating through the doorway FiGuratively I clutched it like . drowning man, for the crowded ta- bles before me had seemed waves of hungry humanity ready tc swallow me up. The familiar tones were say ing:
 well, well. virgie!- Look who's here" Through the throng I dis covered Jack Thompson beckoning.
 II was good to see friend and I hastened to his table.
 May l eat with you, JackT Il asked sure of the answer
 Why ask foolish questions, girl smiled Jack. You can eat with me but unfortunately not on me, vir- ginia. for I'm flat This meal and tomorrows breakfast and financially I am total ruin
 "Oh, Jack. let me lend you some money" and opened my purse i'm pulsively.
 No. no. don't need it. Keep it until the situation gets serious, vir- gie- I am going to save you until I am really broke good and hard. And then, kind friend. look out" and Jack beamed his y-go-lucky smile.
 Jack, you don't really mean what you say about being broke, do you 2.
 For answer he put his hand in hi pocket and pulled out a few thin dimes That, Virginia dear. is my net capital WOrtn, ne Sdld initiating the ponderous tones and manner of a plutocrat The matter seemed to me too serious for levity and I urged:
 You had better let me lend you money. What are you going to do | for lunch tomorrow? Even with work | you won't get your check until eve ming. You can't cash your check be- l fore you get it."
 "Oh, r. bum my lunch from some one who has bummed his lunch from me when things were reversed"
 Aren't you afraid2 What if some- | thing would happen that you woufd1 not work tomorrow?
 But I have got a job for tomor- row. virgie. If l get out there they | will have to pay me. Anyway. some- thing would turn up. am not wor- | ried," and Jack smiled easily. I
 Tenerrew-A Strange Movie TyDe.