Evening star., 1926-12-26

Mudt every OIlS n Ah-h
spirited girl. Even as child
IL she had quarreled--over moth
ing at all-with her dearest
friend and playmate of years, and
never made up with him. The moth
ing at all over which they quarreled
was as TO whose yard they should
play in that afternoon, his or hers.
In the co.educational college she at
tended, she was the first girl to be
elected editor of the college paper.
Her graduating essay was on "Wom-
ans Place in the World.
She wanted to go to New York and
get A job on magazine. And when
her parents objected, she borrowed the
money from a sympathetic oldmaid
aunt and went anyway. She was not
quite u years old.
On the train from the Middle West
to New York, she became acquainted
with big. helpless-looking. black
haired youth. They told each other
their names. His was Henry Riggs,
He was on his way to New York to
make his fame and fortune. The eX-
citement of their common adventure
drew them together, and they were
good friends by the time they had
reached the end of their journey.
He was concerned about her safety
in the great, strange city. But she
laughed at him. She was going first
to a hotel, and then she would look
for a room in Greenwich Village. She
intended to become acquainted with
the writer's and artists there.
He was wistfully impressed by her
daring ambitions. He himself had no
such romantic hopes. He thought he
would make a good salesman. He
had sold one thing and another in
hi 70 1, ,,s,
through college. And he wanted to
be in New York. because that was
where big things were going on. He
was 90 years old.
After she had left him at the sub
way entranCe-for she firmly refused
his well meant offer to see her to her
hotel-she wondered what she liked
about him. His bigness, his helpless
ness and his black hair had somehow
appealed to her. But he was in all
other respects like thousands of other
young men. There was nothing extraor-
dinary about him. He would have
a harder time getting along in New
York than she would. She was a little
sorry for him.
Perhaps that was why she had
agreed to have dinner with him on
Thursday. He was to call for her at
the hotel at Z.
BY the time he came, she had found
a room into which she would move
tomorrow. She had also discovered
a nice little restaurant in the Village.
and she proposed that they go there
for dinner.
why not here at the hotel?" he
asked. She knew that he didn't have
much money. and she suspected that
he had eaten in lunchroms in the
intervals of his search for a job: and
she smiled at the folly of masculine
pride.
Wait till we've landed some work, :"
she said And she insisted on sharing
the check between them. He demurred
at that, but at last gave in, explaining
shamefacedly that he had had his
pocket picked the day before. so that
he had lost about half of his SMALL
store of money. Inwardly she remem-
bered, with some malicious satisfac-
ton, his anxiety as to her ability to
take care of herself in this great,
strange city. She said nothing of
that, however, but offered to lend him
some money. He fatty refused the
offer, and even seemed a little hurt
and angry. So that she had to agree,
for the sake of his pride, to another
dinner the following evening.
X X y x
THEY continued to dine together
frequently during the next weeks
and months. Because he suffered so
in letting her pay half of the check
she let him pay it all when they We're
out to a restaurant, but she could
manage a little cooking in her room.
and so she invited him there most of
the time
One evening he came to her place
glowing with triumph. He had a job
with an automobile company. He was
20 happy that she did not tell him that
she had a job in prospect. She felt
that that would dim his triumph.
When he drew his commission on
his first months work he insited on
taking her to dinner. Then she did
mention casually that she had begun
to work for a magazine
Through dinner she wondered why
she should like this helpless boy And
ii was with no forewarning at all,
later in the evening, that she found
herself profoundly disturbed by the
question of whether she would marry
him. 1t began, simply enough, with