The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-05-29
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CHAPTER XIII-Continued

The words, spoken in their sweet clear
voices, fell nonchalantly from their
pretty lips. All very fearless and I'M
Inhibited and free. That, they told
you, was the main thing Sometimes
Dirk wished they wouldn't work so
hard at their play. They were for
ever getting up pageants and plays
and large festivals for charity Vene-
tian fetes, Oriental bazaars, charity
balls. In the programme performance
of these many Of them sang better,
acted better, danced better than most
professional performers, but the whole
thing always lacked the flavor, some
how, of professional performance. On
these affairs they lavished thousands
in costumes and decorations, receiv-
ing in return other thousands which
they soberly turned over to the cause.
They found nothing ludicrous in this.
Systematically they went into BUSH
ness or semi-professional ventures de-
flying the conventions. Paula did this.
too. She or one of her friends were
forever opening blouse shops; starting
Gifte Shoppes; burgeoning into tea
rooms decorated in crude green and
vermilion and orange and black an
n0uncing their utilization with an adj
vertising agency. These adventures
blossomed, withered, died. They We're
the result of postwar restlessness.
Many of these girls had worked in
defatigably during the 1917-191S pc
Rod had driven service cars, man
aged ambulances, nursed, scrubbed,
conducted canteens. They missed the
excitement, the satisfaction of achieve
ment.
They found Dirk fair game, resent
ed Paulas proprietorship. Susans and
James and Hates and BettyG and Sa'.
Iys-plain old-fashioned names for
modern erotic misses-they talked to
Dirk, danced with him, rode with him,
flirted with him. His very unattain-
ableness gave him piquancy. That
Paula Storm had him fast. He didn't
care a boot about girls.
''Oh, Mr.. DeJong," they said, "your
names Dirk, isn't it? What a slick
name! What does it mean?"
Nothing, suppose It's Dutch
name. My people-my fathers peo-
ple-were Dutch, you know"
"A dirk's sort Of sword, isn't it,
or poniard? Anyway, 1t sounds very
keen and cruel and fatal-Dirk."
He would flush a little Zone of his
assets) and smile, and look at them
and say nothing. He found that to
be all that was necessary.
He got on enormously.
Between the girls he met in society
and the girls that worked in his of
flee there existed a similarity that
struck and amused Dirk He said
"Take letter, Miss Roach to slim
young creature as exquisite as the
girl with whom he had danced the day
before; or ridden or played tennis or
bridge. Their very clothes were fault
less limitations. They even used the
same perfume. He wondered, idly,
how they did it. They We're eighteen,
nineteen, twenty, and their faces and
r.
ment made their presence in business
office a paradox, an absurdity. Yet
they were capable, too, in a mechanical
sort OF way. Theirs were mechanical
jobs. They were lovely creatures with
the minds of fourteen-year-old chill
,iren Their hair was shining, perfect
ly undulated, as fine and glossy and
tenderly curling as young child's.
Their breasts were fiat, their figures
singularly sexless like that of very
young boy They were wise with the
wisdom of the serpent. Their legs
were slim and sturdy. Their mouths
were pouting, soft, pink, the lower lip
a little curled back, petal-wise, like
the moist mouth Of baby that has
just finished nursing. Their eyes were
wide apart. empty, knowledgeous.
They managed their private affairs
like generals. They We're cool, remote,
dsdainful. They reduced their boys
TO desperation. They were brigands,
desperadoes, pirates. taking all, giving
little They came, for the most part,
from sordid homes, yet they knew, in
some miraculous way, all the fine
arts that Paula knew and practiced.
They We're corsetless, plant, bewilder-
ing, lovely, dangerous.
Among them Dirk worked immune,
aloof, untouched. He would have been
surprised to learn that he was known
among them as Frosty. They admired
and resented him. Not one that did
not secretly dream of the day when
lie would call her into his office, shut
the door. and say, Loretta" (their
names were burbankian monstrosities,
born of grating the original appella-
tion onto their own idea of beauty in
nomenclature - hence Loretta, Imo-
gene, Nadine, Natalie, Ardella), "Lor-
eta. have watched you for long
long time and you must have noticed
how deeply admire YOU"
1t wasn't impossible. Those things
happen. The movies had taught them
that. Dirk. all unconscious of their