Evening star., 1922-06-18

| But Lily Sedelmeyer understood
and she felt in her throat a curious
ache. Perhaps there is something o;
Hephzibah Preston in every woman
| Then she revolted. This sacrifice
stuff's all wrong" she contended. NO
forever helping some man. I'm
against 1t, credit mihi. as they say
in Latin
| stephen laughed at her protest
| Comes we'll from you-that," he said
You haven't taken any trouble both
erine about me. now. have you"
| Lily looked away from him sudden
iy. "That's different"
For an instant she was tempted 10
\ be frank with him, to tell him she
cared for him, that Judge Truman
| liked him-and Constance. For a
| moment, too. the old enmity f1area up
| inside her, and she hated Constance,
hated her for being young and beau
tfYul and we'll born. Besides. she
| feared Constance Truman as a po-
tential rival Well, the game wasn't
over yet. She had lot of cards she
could play Constance Truman didn't
dare to. Being a nobody had lis ad
| vantages.
CCDDENLY the door of the restau-
rant was opened. and :he shrili.
metallic notes of Joe's Jazz Orchestra
SJ>e .
the Nelson Dancing Academy. b;area
into the room. The rendition was as
bad as was possible, even for an or
| chestra with talent for the worst, but
the piece was a waltz. an old one. the
sort around which memories are
the two looked at each other ques-
tioningly. then Lily decided. Lets,
she said.
The counterpart of Nelson's Acad-
emy is to be found in every town and
city from New York 10 Seattle. 1t is
neither vicious nor refined. From
coast to coast it exists, gaudy. shab-
by. commercial, retreat for the
lonely and resoarceless. an outstand-
ing testimonial to all tina: is unbeau-
tiful and dreary and yearning in the
great American middle class.
Stephen bought SO cents worth of
tickets and handed two to the bull
necked gentleman at tire entrance to
the dance floor. This was Il reckless
extravagance, for the dance was al
most over. but stephen Douglas was
by instinct no Scotchman.
Lily was a good. though somew hat
Exaggerated. dancer. In a vague way
Stephen realized they were making
themselves conspicuous. but. after
all, what difference did it make? They
were as much class as any other cou-
ple.
At the END of the dance they sat in
the corner at table, traced with a
sticky pattern of rings from he LEM
onade glasses. Other couples. less
opuleut. wandered up and down the
dingy coDridor. To sit one must or
der refreshments. 1t was a rule of
the house.
Suddenly, over the top Of her glass,
preston. and her eyes followed his
to the doorway. 1t was the beginning
OF new dance, and the bull-neeked
gentleman had risen again from his
periodic stupor against the wall into
Prussfan majesty. In the crowd that
surked Ground hiIa had appeared a
new element. They were more simply
and better dressed than the others.
OBVIOUSLY they were not OF the deso-
hate and resourceless who composed
the clientele of Mr.. Nelson's busi-
ness, and instfnctively every old
patron resented their easy. confident,
insulting civflity. 1t was the Ceun-
try Club gang" on a spree, for, from
New York to Seattle. the old dictum
obtains that you can go anywhere
with your own crowd"
"The smarties!" Lily spoke with
feeling. They'll talk about this for
a week now as though they'd done
something really lowbrow and deviis
ish."
stephen didn't answer. Illogical
and snobbish as he knew it to be, he
wished suddenly he hadn't come there
and with her.
AT once from the group at the
sMtrrnee . couple separated itself. 1t
wss Constance Truman and David
Sargent
went to grade school with him. -
Lily threw out. It wasn't necessary
10 indicate about whom she was
sseaklAg. ''kle used to copy my prob.
lesns N arithmetic"
4 + 4 +
cTEfHEN twisted his chair. ever so
~ adreitiy. SO that he no longer
faeed the dancers, and became abb
sofbed in the sugar.coated bottom of
his lemonade glass. He was curious
" ashamed Of his action, and he
Anpea Illy hadn't netfced-but mere
than al, ne didn't want to nett Con-
stance Truman.
Suddenly Lily sat up very straight,