New Britain herald., 1925-09-08


 two lines that were beginning to mar the smooth, white beauty of her forehead and tho shadows at the dropping corners of her mouth.
 Good heavens. was she getting old? She leaned over and studied her faco with that cold and panicky terror that comes to the heart of every woman when she sees her first wrinkle. Then suddenly she remembered. .. Today was the nineteenth Of November, her birthday! She was twenty eight years old!
 And you cant expect a woman of twenty-eight to look like a flap perl" May told herself, trying 10 bs cheerful and philosophical about it.
 But gloom settled down over her. in spite of her effort to keep the stilfest sort of upper lip.
 Al her age most women were com fortably' married and had homes of their own--a husband to wait for at nightfall, a child or two to cuddle. Or else they had jobs, and were well on their way to success.
 "But l have nothing nothing at all," May thought bitterly.
 Her past seemed to pass before her eyes in the dim, silvery depths of the old mirror-her unhappy marriage ending in her husbands suicide, the scandal Of 1t all. the lover who had deserted her. cheated her
 q must be hoodoed." May went on thinking bitterly. "I don't have any luck al all."
 The ringing of tho telephone on the wall startled her . brought her back to the hopeless present.
 Carlotta's voice, still thick and shaky. greeted her when she an- swered 1t.
 May darling" it said so rapidly that all the words seemed to run
 together like one long word, "1'm so sorry about last night l must have , been awfully, awfully, slanted to let you go out of this house in the
 middle of the night. the way ] did! , Won't you forgive me and come back?"
 All the time she was listening. May was shaking her head as if she
 thought Carlotta could sec her.
 No" she answered with cold de- , cision, when Carlotta had finished.
 No, l can't come back and eat your bread and butter without paying for it. And haven't enough money to , do that. No thanks, Carlotta, I wont be coming back. But thanks for being so nice 10 me these ten or eleven days. Goodby." |, Without, waiting for Carlotta to answer her, she hung up the re- ICciver,
 As if the telephone call had filled ' he with sudden life and courage, she dressed quickly and went down. stairs.
 D "I'm checking out" she told the clerk in the lobby. Will you please give mo my bill, and send my trunk
 down to the station? And when T is there train for Los Angeles?" ' On the afternoon before Thanks . giving Day. May Seymour sat alone { in another hotel lobby the wids and ornate lobby of the Alexandri '' hotel in Los Angeles. [ May was always alone these days. l Alone she breakfasted on crackers
 and ice water in her cheap little E room up under the roof. I, 'Thern cne111 eI n hn m iohc 'rb,u - were all filled, it semed by the
 thousands of girls who had come to c Los Angeles 10 go into the movies Il :. . and had failed |, Everywhere May looked, she saw
 beautiful girls .. girls who had . ,drcamed of being movie stars, and n had taken jobs at soda fountains, in f real estate offices, behind ribbon e counters, any place where they could d earn living. Any place where they Il could earn enough money to buy a a railroad ticket back to the Iowa l. farms and the Ohio villages where
 they had come from! Los Angeles il was filled with ambitious beauty . l. The very chambermaid who daily tidied Mays bedroom had come i'd l. Los Angeles to "break into" tho n movies. A beautiful thing she was
 with red-gold hair and misty blue |" eyes that looked ready to cry at any if moment.
 That morning May had given the
 chambermaid the last quarter she
 had in tho world for tip. And SC e she was sitting now in the lobby o' 0 the Alexandria staring into hel d empty hand bag .... . wondering ,e where her Thanksgiving dinner wa,
 coming from,
 " And not only her Thanksgiving l. dinner, but her dinner tonight, ant A her breakfast tomorrow morning
 TO say nothing of roof over hel f. head when the hotel people shoult ,c discover that she hadn't cent ir ,e the world with which to pay heI f. bill!
 Well. I'll sell my pin. ThatI w help somo," May decided, and with ,t out q second thought she walked ,- straight down the street to a pawn f ciSp loul DloShS uMdys
 It was not her first visit 10 tn o pawnshop. She had been there ono, nj. before, and had walked out, highl, oI insultod because the proprietor hat
 offered her only twenty dollars for ~. pin that was worth at least hun - dred.
 ! But she took the twenty dolla
 bill today, without a word of pro 's test, and went out. ly Back in the rich lobby of tn 'u Alexandria, she asked the cashier fo her bill. Small as it was, it stag 'e gered her. Fifty-seven dollars an Nc fifty cents! And all she had i tue the world was a single twenty dolla bill
 Well right here is where I be ns come a deadbeat" May decide ne grimly, as she walked out of th " lohL,. tba bill rl,,4nbod 4iob4Ix, ;n b o