The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-07-23

lily OO44AOO WCAO 4AsoAAO0 OAN Va
envelope handbags, flashed through
bobbed, marcelled locks; pert little
felt hats were adjusted at cocky,
eye-catching angles. Just before
they flashed out of the room, the
three of them bent, as if at signal.
and pulled up their mist-sheer chif-
fon stockings, whose shining lengths
were revealed clear to their knee
caps. Business women! Vera shud-
dered.
When the door closed upon them
she sprang to her feet, wiped the
moisture from the lenses Of her
spectacles, thrust two or three
escaping hairpins into the slightly
disarranged coronet of her brown
braids, then surveyed herself in the
mirror with miserable, hating eyes.
She was turning sharply away,
when she saw that one of the girls
had left her powder and rouge COM
pact on the shelf below the mirror.
Almost without volition she picked
up the little silver case and opened
it. 1t was new; the little white
wool puff was scarcely cologed with
the rachel-tinted powder. She
rubbed it against the hard cake of
powder. then, pushing her glasses
up to her forehead. she dabbed at
her tear-stained cheeks swiftly, in
eXpertly, covering the tiny golden
freckles, slapping vigorously at her
classic nose. He hadn't even noticed
her nosel
1t was agony to think that she
would have to go back to her Of
fice-his office-to get her hat and
coat and handbag. She prayed
that this door would be closed, or
that he would be out.
She hurried past other girls leav-
ing for lunch, acknowledging their
greetings only by frigid mods. When
she slipped into the Office that had
been hers for such a brief time, she
was almost overcome with relief to
find his door swinging open and
Jerry Macklyn gone.
Maybe he was hunting for her.
Well, let him hunt Thank heaven,
she'd never see him again! He'd
never have another chance TO insult
hsrl She jerked on her coat,
crammed her severe black felt hat
upon her head without a thought
Of the angle, snatched up her hand
bag and black kid gloves.
She was breathless when she
reached the elevators. A car was
just opening its door to discharge
passengers, and she hurried into
it, thanking her stars that no other
employe of the Peach Bloom Com
pany had boarded it. She had
escaped. She would never go back
to the hated place again.
The elevator stopped at the eighth
floor and two passengers entered.
And in the short space of time that
it took one of those passengers to
step across the threshold of the car
Vera Cameron had fallen in love.
She wondered afterward. how
there. had been any room in her
distracted mind and miserable heart
for a new sensation-how she had
happened even to notice him.
But she did notice him, and
magically, her distracted mind and
her miserable heart were swept
clean of all emotions except one
an overpowering gladness. So keen
was the shock of the discovery that
the one man in the world for her
stood before her, so close that she
could reach out and touch him, that
she began to tremble, blood pounded
in her ears, and she could not take
her eyes eff him.
In the half minute that succeed
ed, while the car plunged down.
ward, then stopped at the sixth
floor, her brain had registered, with
the accuracy of a Photographic
plate, every detail of his appearance.
Breathtakingly tall and dark and
MISUNDERSTANDING, as he leaned
with unstudied ease upon the slim
black cane which he gripped in a
gloved hand. Hair as black and
smooth and cleaning as a wet seals.
Dark brown eyes, narrowed bit
with boredom or tolerant amuse-
ment, as he talked in low voice
with the man who had entered the
car with him. A long, narrow, olive
skinned face, with silky, narrow
black brcws and a silky, close
clipped little black mustache.
A full-lipped mouth, darby red,
its corners playing at odds with
each other, one housekeeping, the
other turning upward. as if he we're