The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-18
EUening Story
The Girl Back Home.
BY JESSIE DOUGLAS.
miss waring?"

Miss waring?"
Alice Warning laid down her pencil.
turned her smooth brown head toward
| her employer and said in her clear
Its not about business, Miss War
ing"
| If the pulse in Alice Warnings throat
| beat faster, if the color for a moment
| Merrill did not see it. He was looking
| past her out of the office windows
across the angles of roofs into the
street below where people like ants
was 5 o'clock.
I'm going home"
John Merrilrs black brows were
bent, he was looking dreamily past the
buildings. past the swarm of insects
in the street below into his own
| thoughts Alice Waring had never
seen quite that expression on his face,
but she had imagined it. She could
mouth that shut SO firmly, the square
chin. the pleasant red-brown skin. the
keen hazel eyes just as well as she did
with him here before her.
She waited for him to go on. Alice
Waring was the well-trained secretary
She knew when to speak,; she knew,
too, when silence was better.
You knew I lived in the middle
west?"
She nodded. For some reason her
not have spoken if she had tried.
You've been my secretary for four
years, haven't you? And it's, taken me
that long to get on my feet. A girl
back home has been waiting for me.
I'm going home to marry her"
He picked up the paper knife and
began drumming with it on his desk.
Alice felt her own heartbeats keep
time to it. He went on almost as
though he were talking to himself.
''I'll be glad to get out of New York
and into that quiet little town. They
don't do things there as they do here
The girls don't smoke and wear skirts
UP to- their knees and make clowns of
their faces, thank God!' He pushed
back his chair abruptly and stood up
I'll leave everything in your hands,
Miss Waring. I want to tell you how
much 1 depend on you and trust you"
He gave her hand firm hard pres
sure and then the office door closed
after him. Alice neither cried nor
pressed her hand against her heart nor
leaned over to kiss the place where
his hand had lain. She just sat there.
Sat there very still, with her head
dropping little, looking out past the
roofs to the sky that was sapphire
blue, studded with nails of silver light
She sat there while all her dreams
died and her youth seemed to slip
away and her heart felt like a piece
OF lead that had dropped into her
bosom by mistake.
When at last she put on her hat and
adjusted her veil her hands were
steady. but she had made a momen-
tous decision. She would keep her
position and run things until Mr.. Mer-
rill was almost back; the day before
he arrived she would leave. The sight
Of him afterward would be daily tor
ture to her, the sound of his voice
would cruelty her; she was going to do
the only thing she could-try to forget
him in other work.
But John Merrill as he stepped off
the train to the wooden platform of
Evanston was another man. He felt
younger. He drew in a deep breath
of air and strobe delightedly down the
platform wondering why Airline hadn't.
come to meet him. He longed for the
first sight of her pretty face with the
smooth light hair, the pale skin, the
delicious innocence of her mouth.
John Merrill. you don't know met
John Merrill didn't. He had never
seen this girl before. But he had seen
many of this type; he had just left
them all behind him, or so he thought,
in New York. She had rakish hat
on the top of a bobbed, light fuzz of
hair; she had coral earrings, a little
too much lipstick, and bare knees. He
saw all that in his first glance
"Of course, you don't have to kiss
me-" she tainted.
John Merrill gasped when he heard |
the voice; that was the only thing he |
did remember now. This was Airline! |
This fIippant bit of girlhood. with her |
cheeks and her nonchalant, !
bored manner.
'There's Ed; he'll run us home in
his Stutz'
Ed, in his long red roadster, re- |
moved q cigarette, but not his hat, as |
the other two stepped in beside him. |
John Merrill tried to catch up to their |
conversation. BY the time |
he reached Arline's home he was not /
only little tired, but very determined
When. two weeks later, John Mer-
rfll returned to New York, he went
first to his office. Miss Waring had
eft the day before, he was told
was in order. The clerks
looked at him shyly. at this man with
keen eyes who was somehow re-
juvenated from his visit home. Tney
all knew he had gone to get married:
Miss Warning gone!" John Merrill
stormed.
He was not used to being thwarted
He knew the office wouldn't run with
but her whA tonamy-rot was this.
leaving while he was away! Hed
raise her salary If that was what sne
wanted He'd see to it himself At
o'clock he stopped before the apart
nent in which Miss Waring lived.
He was shown into a very new
marble hall with imitation PAINS and
carried five flights in a gasping, gid
cd mt. he hateo ali lAAS sAASliA
York life.
Then he touched her bell and
stepped into the hall. Alice Waring
and her aunt were having supper
Alice sprang up from the table; Aunt
Name pressed him into a chair. John
Merrill, who had not yet dined, found
himself eating beaten biscuit and fried
chicken and drinking a great cup OF
golden, favored coffee. There were
iaffodils centering the table. the linen
SQUARE was glossy and 2 across the
candles in their silver sconces he
could look at Alice in pale green
rock from which her shoulders lifted
Is tho from sepals of q lily.
How soft her voice was and how |