The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-05-29
B y
r ID MA F ER ID E r
90, Doubleday, Page & Coz
WNU Service.

she enjoyed listening TO street car con-
ductOrs, washwomen, janitors, land
ladies, clerks, doormen, chauffeurs, POI
licemen. Something about her made
them talk. They opened to her as
flowers to the sun. They sensed her
interest, her liking. AS they talked
Selma would exclaim, You don't say !!
Well, that terrible" Her eyes would
be bright with sympathy.
Selma had said, on entering Dirk's
office, my land! I don't see how you
can work among those pretty creatures
and not be sultan. I'm going to ask
some of them down to the farm over
Sunday"
Don't, Mother! They wouldn't I'M
derstand. / scarcely see them. They're
just part of the Office equipment"
Afterward. Ethelinda Quinn had
passed expert opinion Say. she's got
ten times the CUTS that Frosty's got.
l like her fine. Did you see her ter
rible hat But say, it didn't look fun.
ny on her, did it? Anybody else in
that getup would look comical but
she's the kind that could walk off with
anything. l don't know. She's got
what l call an air. 1t beats style.
Nice, too. She said / was pretty
little thing. Can you beat it At that
she's right. ! cer'nly yam"
All unconscious, 'sTake letter, Miss
QUINN said Dirk half an hour later.
In the midst of this fiery furnace Of
femininity Dirk walked unscorched.
Paula, the North shore girls, well-bred
and professional business women he
occasionally met in the course of
business, the enticing little nymphs he
encountered in his own Office all pracs
ticed on him their warm and perfumed
wiles. He moved among them cool and
serene. Perhaps his sudden success
had had something to do with this !;
and his quiet ambition for further sue
cess. Fer he really was accounted
successful now, even in the spectacu-
lar whirl of Chicago's meteoric finan-
cial constellation. North-side mammals
regarded his income, his career, and
his future with eyes of respect and
willy speculation There was always IL
neat little pile of invitations in the
mail that lay on the correct little con-
sole in the correct little apartment
ministered by the correct little Jap on,
not too near) the lake, and overlook
ing it.
The apartment had been furnished
with Panla's aid Together she and
Dirk had gone to interior decorators
'But you've got to use your own
taste, too" Paula had said, ito give
i; the Individual touch" The apart
ment was furnished in good deal of
Italian furniture, the finish a dark
oak Or walnut, the whole massive and
was somber without being impressive.
There were long carved tables on
which an ash tray seemed a desecra-
ton; great chairs roomy enough for
lolling, yet in which you did not re-
lax; dull silver candlesticks; vest
ments; Dante's saturnine features
sneering down upon you from cor
rect cabinet There were not many
books. Tiny foyer, large living-room,
bedroom, dining-room, kitchen, and a
cubby-hole for the Jap.
Dirk did not spend much of his time
in the place. His upward climb was a
treadmill, really. Ills Office, the apart
ment, dinner, a dance. His contacts
We're monotonous, and too few.
His office was a great splendid Of
flee in great splendid office building
in LaSalle street. He drove back and
forth in motor car along the boule-
wards. His social engagements lay
north. LaSalle street bounded him on
the west, Lake Michigan on the east,
Jackson boulevard ON the south, Lake
Forest on the north. He might have
lived thousand miles away for all
he knew of the rest of Chicago-the
mighty. roaring. sweltering, pushing,
screaming, magnificent hideous steel
giant that was Chicago.
Selma had had no hand in the fur
nishing of his apartment. When 1t was
finished Dirk had brought her in tri-
umph to see it. "Well," he had said,
what do you think of 1t, Motner?"
She had stood in the center of the
room, a small plain figure in the midst
of these massive somber carved tables,
chairs, chests. A little smile had
quirked the corner of her mouth II
think it's as cosy as a cathedral"
Sometimes Selma demonstrated with
him, though of late she had taken on a
strange re.icence. She no longer asked
him about the furnishings of the
houses he visited. or the exotic food he
ate at splendid dinners. The farm
flourished. The great steel mills and
factories to the south were closing in
upon her but had not yet set iron foot
on her rich green acres. She was rath-
er famous now for the quality of her
farm products and her pens. You saw
''DeJong asparagus" on the menu at
the Blackstone and the Drake hotels.
Sometimes Dirk's friends twitted him
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