The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-14
THE SHOP GIRL By C. N aud f. M Williamson

free. for nothing. No. I hope not for nothing. hope it is to make my fortune"
 .T hope so. too," said Peter graveIy. "Got any friends there besides me-"
 Thanks for putting it so. Mr Balm of Gilead. Why, I've heard that everybody in America is ready to be friend to lonely strangers.
 "I guess your informant was almost too much of an optimist Couldn't you be serious for just minute? You know, 1 feel quite well acquainted with you-and the others, of course. But they are different. And they are permanences' with Nadine. That's the kind of thing they're fit for. l don't worry about them, and l sha'n't worry about you, either, if you tell me you have friends or know what you are going to do when you land"
 II can't tell you that Win answered in changed tone, as if suddenly she were weary of trying to "frvol." But 1 have hopes; and l have two letters of introduction and a respectable recommended boarding house and a little money left, so 1 really be- lieve 1 shall be all right, thank you. My people thought my wanting to come showed my wild spirit, so 1 am anxious to prove as soon as l can--not to them any more, but to myself--that I can live my own life in new world without coming to grief"
 Why not prove to them any more?"
 "Ob-because no one is going to care much"
 "I'm afraid you've had a great sorrow, said Peter.
 Ut was hardly big enough for that word this thing that's sent me seeking my for tune-though it began with sorrow long ago."
 Some ore you loved died?" Peter had a simple, direct way of asking questions that led you on.
 "My mother. When I was 14-not old l,o +n fofh hnF. the baby brother So my father had to get some enc to be a kind of housekeeper and superior nurse. He's a clergyman; she's the kind who calls herself a lady house. keeper She and had rows-and that up- set father He didn't want to get rid of her because she managed things splendidly- him and the baby and the vicarage-and influential old ladies said she filled a diff cult position satisfactorily. So It was simpler to get rid of me. 1 went to board ing-school"
 Did you like that?"
 T loved it. After the first year didn't go home even for the holidays. Often I visited-giris were nice to me. But l didn't make the most of my tine--Im furious with myself for that now. l learned nothing nothing, really, except the things l wanted to learn. And those are always the ones that are least useful Fly father kept me at school till year and half ago because he
  little brother died.
 After that people might have gossiped about the housekeeper and father perhaps. believe she suggested it to him, and said she must go away, to make him think of marrying her; but all he did was to send for me. I stood it for six months. It was horrid for all three. I dare say I was to blame. I had a scene with father, and told him I'd made up my mind to go to London for singing lessons so could support my self; I couldn't live at home. That forced the situation! Before any one-except the lady housekeeper'-knew quite what was happening, father had asked her to be his wife--or she'd asked him. l went before the wedding. I'd worshipped my mother! And-6ut that's all the story"
 'I call it only the preface. What about London?"
 "Oh, father gave me the money inherit ed from my mother ahead of time. took lessons of a man who'd been a celebrated tenor. He must have known that my voice was nothing. really, but he buoyed me up. When the money was two-thirds spent I dared not go on, and asked him to find me something to do. He'd often said he would when the right time came. Apparently it hadn't come. He made the excuse that ought to have stayed with him longer. So had to try to launch myself. One manager of opera companies on whom l forced myself ToG z