The Pleasantville press., 1927-05-24
He Was Not So
Woman Shy
By JANE OSBORN
0T WONDER why Dean Dudl


Molly Anne, who had come to
Handon to take charge of book,
candy and gift shop just off the
campus, asked this question one
| day as she tied a packet of books
and candy for one of the profes-
sors' wives. Dean Dudley had just
come In to ask for new book on
psychology which Molly did not
have on hand. She had promised
to order it. Both she and her Gus
toner looked with considerable ad-
miration after his tall, erect, we'll
dressed figure.
Too many women want to
marry him, | suppose" sighed the
professors wife, who gossip said
had finally consented to marry her
own near-sighted, stoop-shouldered
husband when all efforts to catch
the dean had failed. Its a mon
strous shame the way the women
make set for him. They've made
him woman-shy"
''Pshaw," said Molly. I'm not
so sure l like him after all. Con-
ceited men are always tiresome'
Several times within the next
week the dean dropped into Molly's
shop, and every time Molly greet
ed him with rather aloof tilt of
her pretty head and told him that
the book had not come.
He's not so woman-shy as they
say" Molly told herself The dean,
she concluded, was a first-rate
philanderer. Doubtless he had en-
couraged all these women who had
subsequently set their caps for
him. He had buZzed around them
for time just as he was buzzing
around her.
Finally the book came and, be-
cause the dean had asked her to
do so, she telephoned TO his office
and left word. Fifteen minutes
later the good.looking dean ap-
peared in her store. Molly held
her head even more saucily aloof
than ever.
Looking embarrassed, almost
hurt, the dean started away, and
then turned back.
by the way he said. II am
going out of town over the week
end-have to take a days trip by
rail-make a speech in Pittsburgh
and then come back again. ! want
some books to read Now, suppose
you make up pack of, say, six
books. You just pick them out
something you think I'd like, books
| ought to have read-so something
highbrow-may give me a cue for
my speech"
Every WE'LL" said Molly, very
formally. ''I'll send them around"
Don't bother" insisted Dean
| Dudley. "Fll just stop and get
them. l might forget to- take them
| if you sent them"
"You might forget to stop for
them,y said Molly.
"No chance of that" said the
dean with boyish eagerness, and in
spite of herself Molly blushed.
Molly plotted her revenge. Dean
| Dudley had made her blush and
she would punish him for il. She'd
make up packet of books that
| would show her complete indiffer-
ence to him. The packet as it
was finally decided upon contained
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" a new
book on practical vegetable garden
ing, a volume of bedtime stories, a
| life of the saints translated from
| the work of an Italian monk, a
"Poker Players Manual" and a
| little volume containing the
worlds most famous love poems.
That will finish him, thought
| Molly, and after he had called for
the books she began to regret just
little her rash selection.
The next Monday she was strong
ly tempted to hide in the back of
her shop when she saw him enter
| ing.
To her surprise he held out his
| hand-a hand of unusual magnet
ism.
"You are rare mind-reader," he
| told her. Every one of those books
was just what l wanted. That
book about the blondes l read first
on my way out. It's ripping-made
me forget my worries. Then l
waded through the vegetable book
-and as l was making a speech
before an agricultural college 1t
gave me just the information l
needed. There were two or three
little anecdotes in the Lives of the
Saints that surprised every one
and made the hit of the evening. l
stayed for the night with the pres
ident of the college. He had two
lovely kids and l didn't have any,
thing for them-till it occurred to
me the bedtime stores would be
just the thing. That night l couldn't
sleep, so read the poker book
and the next day coming home I
fell In with a couple of millionaires
In the smoking car. They asked
me to play poker. I'd never held
a poker hand before in my life. bur
/ had become an expert overnight
and playing with them 1 got we'll
acquainted-had a chance to talk
Handon college to them, and before
/ left they had agreed between
them to give enough to pay for
new science building. So you see
how wise you were In choosing Just
the books you did"
"You haven't told me what you
did with the sixth book archly OBJ
served Molly Anne.
Usually love poems would have
seemed out of my line-but the
truth is. Miss Molly Anne, that
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