The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-05-30
four DANCING FEET
4 WONDERFUn DANCING FRoCK
BY JANE PHELPS
Chapter 50.

A WONDERFUL DANCING FRoCK
Chapter 80.
In department store window
Gertie found the dress she declared at
once would do for her act. They stood
long time before it, carefully noting
every little intricate turn in in it's de-
velopment. Then they went into the
fashion book department of the store,
and selected a pattern, as near like the
dress as could be. After reading care
fully the requirements. they purchased
the goods, the shoes and stockings.
Tired but happy they reached home
in time for the early dinner, tonight,
prepared by Jennie.
Gertie had asked the salesgirI how
charge for making such a dress. and
she had told her She needed about
So to make up the amount.
ct shall ask Fagin for it, he told
me to. and he,n think all the more of
me for doing it, she said with a new
kind of wisdom. That night she told
him, and he promptly handed her the
money saying:
II hope you got it, good"
tsI think you'll say so when you see
it." she replied, thanking him for the
cash.
Murphy was there as usual. and as
usual he tried to get her to site a while
with him. She refused. but when she
went home he was waiting for her.
Whats the matter. Gertie, don't
you like me any more 2? he asked as
they walked along.
"Of course I like you- but I'm not
going to sit at your table any more.
1 hate a row, and I might have got
into trouble. Mr.. Fagin said he
couldn't have any trouble in the
place.
ssWas he nasty to your
mo. think he started to be-then
changed his mind"
He knows on which side his bread
is buttered. does Fagin- He's a smart
other place in a minute if he let YOU
go. When you going out with me,
Gertie?" They had reached the sub
way. and she refused to let him go
further.
"Oh. I don't know. Some day. per-
'tMake it soon. I like you. Gertie,
and Nant to know you better"
Perhaps I wouldn't improve upon
acquaintance she answered brightly.
rather surprised at her own quiekness.
Til risk that Make it soon. good
night. I wish you'd let me go all the
way with you
Gertie had no way of knowing
George Murphy's thoughts, but some
thing warned her he might be falling
in love with her-and did she want
any young man she ever had met
aside from Tom. And Tom was so
far above her he didn't count, not the
way a fellow like George Murphy
might count She might look as high
as a bookkeeper-but a ranch owner,
that was another thing altogether.
She might even marry a bookkeeper.
But did she want to marry anybody
Yet among all her girl friends she did
not know of one who did not look to
marriage as the ultimate aim-even
marriage with an undesirable rather
than no marriage at all.
Crowded conditions in the homes of
the poor lack of place where a girl
can receive her young man. without
being surrounded by the entire family
makes the street the only available
place for counting. Or if the fellow
can afford il, the still more undesir-
patronized by all sorts of people,
toughs, drabs of the street, often
gunner and crooks.
Conditions such as these. where
young people are thrown together pro-
miseuousiy make for quick acQuain- |
lance. quick marriage. SO that by es-
tablishing a home-if only in one
room-they can be together freely.
But Gertie Cummings and even the |
more volatile Lilly Arnold had thru
They saw that class a bit above their |
own nightly-young men who had |
money TO spend VINO took girls out to |
dance; young men who perhaps were
no more moral than many in their |
own precinct, but who had a sort of |
veneer that passed with Lily-had |
passed with Gertie until she met Tom |
Norris.
Then there were young men like |
George Murphy. young men who had |
worked hard to make something of /
themselves, who while earning small |
managed to make a good ap-
pearance, and who prided themselves |
upon possessing a certain refinement |
OF. thought and manner. Lily con-
sidered Murphy quite the ne plus ultra |
Of any girls desires. as she compared |
him to the other. the coarser type. As
to Gertie-she had only one standard, |
Tom Norris. And everyone even Muir |
ply fell far short when compared to |
Tom.
But Murphy was tenacious-and he |
had fallen in love with Gertie.
(Fomorrow-Fagin pats himself on /
the back.)