Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1925-07-08
In Furnished
Rooms
By EDITH II. OLIVER
1925, Western Newspaper Union


tlonal bank. He was promoted slowly,
but steadily, until he had Il good posi-
ton, and in the process he met Lucy
Mears and fell in love with her.
lie was an earnest young man neat,
methodical, reliable and thrifty, so
thrifty, indeed that he resolved not to
tell Lucy of his love until he had an
other promotion; but when this oc-
Cured Lucy had gone away. He had
lost her and his heart ached.
Adolphus had always lived in fur
nished rooms; he had dreamed Of a
home with Lucy, but now that was
dead, lost forever. He lunched at the
Eureka restaurant. There was a story
that the engineer in the factory at the
rear blew the noon whistle without
looking at his watch when he saw
Adolphus hang up his coat and hat on
his own particular peg in the corner.
Adoiphus came in one day prepared to
&C through his invariabe routine He
took Off his overcoat and hung 1t on
his arm; he took off his hat, he drew
the folding nickel-plated coat hanger
In IT'S neat black case out of his pock-
ct: patted his tie; smoothed his hair
There was soft furry of gray be-
side him, a delicate breath of perfume
Hoated through the air, and he found
himself staring at a small figure in
gray that hung gray coat with big
gray collar-on his own exclusive peg
His own exclusive chair tilted against
the table advised the world of its high
mission, but the gray figure tilted it
onto its four legs, sat in it and
reached composedly for the menu.
Adolphus stood there holding his
coat and hat and the folding nickel
plated coat hanger in its neat black
case when the gray figure turned to-
wards him, and in an instant all the
lonely years cried out in one word
"Lucyl" He dropped his immacu
late garments upon the floor and STAIN
auered forth an inarticulate food of
love and longing.
1t was indeed Lucy. They ate an
ecstatic meal together and agreed to
meet and eat another next day.
They met every day after that in
the Eureka, progressing by timid prim-
~ conventional steps through the call
ing of first names, the almost agOniz-
ing delight of surreptitious hand
clasps, until one day Adolphus spoke
the words that had been on his lips
for so long, and he thought it just ex-
actly What 1t should be when she said
she would answer him in week.
I'll Call for you-darlng, he said,
in trembling voice eve will go out
to dinner and-take taxi drive up
Riverside drive afterward."
Lucy murmured something he could
not hear.
81 cah't hear you-darling how
fortunate l remembered that you have
never told me where you live
Lucy murmured something else that
he did net hear-she was so adorable.
81 can't hear you, dear; write it
on my cuff" He thrilled as her soft
fingers touched his hand and his own
closed over them and the happy cuff.
Only one week and he could hold them
as often as he wished.
For the first time in his life Adolf
plus Dodson could not go to sleep that
night. He had found Lucy again:
they We're engaged; they were going
to be married He lay planning and
thinking of all the wonderful years
ahead together, lay 50 long that the
gray dawn peered in at him before he
went to sleep. The sun had been peer
ing at him for some time before he
awoke. and he had to hurry off to the
bank without any breakfast and feel
ing horribly disheveled. He was dis
turbed all through his work, too, by
the remembrance that it w9s the laun-
dryman's day, and lie had not left the
things for him. That, at least, was all
right, though, for his landlady had
given them and made out the list in
duplicate, just as he. Suddenly the
world turned to black chaos of de-
spair as he remembered that the adj
dress vas on the cuff of the shirt that
had gone and he had not read it. He
rushed to the laundry; but it had gone
to the main depot at the Bronx. lie
suffered hours of ignOminy in over
hauling uncounted hampers of other
peoples shirts.
The next day he went early to the
Eureka and established a costly and
far-reaching system of espionage for
apprising him instantly of Lucy's APP
pearance, but all TO no avail. Lucy
mea1,t to keep away in her adorable
modrsty until the week was up ana
then she would wait and he would not
come, ana what could she think except
that he had deserted her.
On the day that was to have been
the happiest of his life he went me-
chanically through his work, and with
despair in his heart sat long after ne
knew it w.s hopeless in the Eureka.
SOMEHOW the hours dragged them
sci YES along-siX o'clock came-the
hour when he was to have called for
her. He went to his room and sat
there, staring out into the falling dusk.