Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1924-10-03
The Name on the
Card
By ELAINE LIE CLAIR
tcopyrishtl
"a RIADNE DRAsCovIAC," the lit
"A tie card read

H A iAADANb blAAoCOflA1t Aht Al-
"A tie card read.
Becker looked at II for a moment
and then stuffed II into his pocket.
Queer, the way woman can't hold
on to a thing" be mused as be plunged
Into the traffic at Twenty-thlrd and
West streets.
If even for one day he picked up
all the handkerchiefs, cards and gloves
that women-still,. they didn't all have
names like that. She probably had
right to drop her card. Perhaps she
was an actress or an
But James Becker was not a ro-
mancer; he was a successful business
man of thlrty-elght, with a wife and
two daughters He did not continue
his day-dreaming, Immediately.
He lodged around an oil truck and
reached the opposite corner just as an
oblong Of white pasteboard huttered
to the sidewalk. Becker, being a gen.
tleman, stopped to pick the card with
out first looking to see whether the
woman was young and beautiful. He
extended 1t between his neatly gloved
second and third fingers. He was about
to raise his hat.
Excuse me- he began.
But where was she7 He had no
ticed a gray squirrel coat. All. there
It was, being ushered into Gleason's
through the big revolving door. Wen,
II probably didn't matter. He glanced
at the card: "Ariadne Drascoviac."
Instlnetively Becker entered Glea-
sons. There was no gray squirrel
coat in sight. Aimlessly he wandered
towards the, leather goods counter.
All, that was a pretty triflei He
peered more closely at a gray vanity
case, hexagon in shape, with gold fit.
tings.
"a woman who carried a bag like
that couldn't lose her cards." he re-
flected.
"Only $3.50" pleaded the clerk. "Just
the thing for someone who has gray
costume"
"Pll take It," said Becker briefly, al
though he knew perfectly well that his
wife's coat was brown.
With the vanity box under his arm
he strolled out into the sunlight. 1t
was just 4 o'clock. He could catch
the AIS If he hurried.
But suppose he did go home? In all
probability Clara would be at her club,
and since this was Friday, the girls
would be at dancing class. They'd all
come pillng In and rage while they ate
underdone chops and blue-boiled po-
tatoes.
If Clara don't find a new maid
soon
Still, he might as well. 1t was grow
ing cold now that the sun was going
down. If he and Cheney put across
the business deal that they had dis
cussed at luncheon, he'd buy Clara a
new fur coat-gray squirrel-possibly
Now and again on his way to the
station, Becker glanced down at the
sidewalk, but his search was not re-
warded. The train was crowded with
women and girls who wore coats of
raccoon, possum and muskrat, but not
squirrel. Becker scanned them, and
then spread out his paper and read
until the conductor called out some
thing which sounded like "See-nab
HILL" but wasn't.
With vanity box and evening paper
tucked under his arm, Becker strobe
along the station platform and out
into the street. Just then a rush Of
wind fieked something by the bottom
of his overcoat. Dropping package and
paper, he snatched at 1t.
Yes, II was the same name; and, yet
how could It be, here In this placer
The electric lights were still dim
against the sunset and. in spite Of the
cold, Becker thought that he caught q
faint Whit of that dampness so pecu-
liar to an early spring dusk. Perhaps
1t was this thought which caused him
to pass his own brass-knockered door
After three trips around the square,
fully convinced that there were no
more cards to be found, he let himself
in with his latch-key.
Sounds of rattllng tins came from
the rear of the house. In the hallway
leading to the kitchen he met his wife.
"Oh, don't come out here, Jim. dear"
she exclaimed. "She came on the
4:05. wouldn't it have been funny If
you had come out togetherl"
"who?"
'The new maid. of course"
"Did she wear that?" He pointed
dramatically to the coat hooks in the
corner.
What? That fur coatr And she
laughed. Don't get excited It's fall
ing to pieces-and it's initiation. at
that And, oh, Jim. dear. it's the fun
niest thing. She's dumb, and she car
ries cards, and you couldn't possibly
guess her name"
Becker thought that he could, but
somehow he didn't care. He let her tell
him.:
"Ariadne Drascoviact"