Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-10


WAS Tommy the Mani"
~ HE was more than half afraid Of
this strange young man. Some
where in her heart thsBe was a
49, little door and some day some
one would come along conf
IDENTIFY carrying the key TO that door.
Was Tommy the man? And what
would he say to the strange little ghost
hidden away behind the locked door,
the poor pitiful ghost of a little boy
of long ago?
Suddenly Tommy smiled at her re-
assuringly. almost as though he read
her thoughts. Ever since I've known
you we've done nothing but joke.
Let's talk little while, Judy, for a
change"
What shall we talk about" she
asked. s
Lets talk about ourselves. You
Begin
Judith shook her head. There g
nothing to talk about when you talk
about me-" she said.
What did you want most when
you were little?''
For an instant Judith looked away
absently. Her mind ran back along
the years. What had she wanted most
out of those careless, shabby years?
What had that funny child. with her
thick name of hair and her wide eyes
wanted so long ago. Beauty? Oh,
how passionate she had wanted
beauty
To see beauty, to make beauty, to
live beauty. She thought of the thin
Spring green of the Darien garden.
She thought of little sickles of moons
seen over the dark housetops. Beauty
She drew a deep breath. She couldn't
tell Tommy that. What else had she
wanted? From far off her glance
came back to him filled with the ghost
of an elm memory. Around her
mouth was a tiny smile.
II wanted silk stockings and pink
dress" she said, and there was some
tone.
And did you get them"
"Of course not! 1t was really very
funny how / came to want those
things" She stopped and laughed
softly. "Dabs and Honey used TO talk
about what we'd do when they made
good. They really didn't know what
I'd want because they didn't know sc
very much about me. So they used
Ito say they'd get me silk stockings and
a pink dress. And the more they
talked about them the more I wanted
them"
Her softly affectionate glance rested
upon the group across the room, upon
the shining loneliness of Honey's head
and the dark keenness of Dabs' eager
face.
This was all the world she knew
and it was a pleasant, generous world
But--a funny world, Daisy Wells
leaning forward to stare into Dabs
face with hot eyes; Betty Lord, fitting
in one of the crazy chairs. Why
couldn't they ever seem to get the
right sort of chairs? Harvey Metz
peering at Honey with one eye closed
over the oily smoke of his cigar. Her
group. Long. limp, torn curtains al
| the windows. Soiled wallpa per
Enough money went into the apart
| ment to make it clean and cool and
beautiful. And vet 1t was none oil
those things. Too bad
Tommy's voice recalled her "why
didn't they get them for you?"
Get what?" she asked, bewildered
and then caught the thread of the con
versation. "Oh, you mean the pink
frock and the silk stockings? Why
made good they'd have got them
for me-"
Suddenly he tone ran on, softly
| confiding, And do you know, I've
had lots of silk stockings since then
and two or three pink dresses, but
they don't make UP for those that
Honey and Dabs promised me-"
Tommy Carriers glance met hers un.
| waveringly. You're not like either
Honey or Dabs," he said nusingly
II Honey was lovely in her FURNISHED
golden radiance, Judith was lovelier
still, slim. dark slip of a girl. He
felt big, fumbling. awkward before
her. Why, he could take her up and
break her in his two rough hands
And the thought shook him. He
dared not look at her. II think you're
a changeling!" he accused her, nerv,
ously.
Judith made a mouth at him and
pulled with two rough, tweaking FIN
gers at the black wings of her hair
"a black ehangeling,," she laughed.
What made you so different,
judy"
Again her glance ran away from
him like a small, fearful thing, hiding
Back of that locked door In her heart
a little ghost stirred TREMENDOUSLY BY
and by, after long pause, her glance
came back to him, laden dewy with
dreams.
"Oh-I don't know So many funny
things have happened to me all my
life! And one of the funniest things,
although 1t didn't seen, funny at the
time; made me different, l guess. A
little boy called me dirty little girlr'
Some echo of an old pain rang in the
mockery of her voice. go.
Little beast!'
'You shall not call him names And
he wasn't little beast, for afterward,
when little girl he was playing with
for me and gave me his handkerchief
to dry my eyes on"
How nice of him. 80
We'll, it was,' Impishly she
laughed into Tommy's face. 1--WE
kept his handkerchief all these years.
Romantic attachment at the age of
2, Ell, Judy?"
Wasn't 1 silly?" Judy asked,
blandly.
Aren't you silly? For do you know
I honestly believe you're still In love
with that little boy's
Judy's cheeks few crimson flags. I'm
not" she denied. And at that the little
ghost beat upon the door of her
heart with shadowy fists! Was it pos
sible that she was in love with a
dream? Was it for that silent little
figure in her heart that she toiled so
patiently over her toys? Toys for a
child of long ago! She thought of the
hours in her workroom, with the door
shut, when she was just Judy, "a
shabby little figure in calico making
mud fingers for a shining small boy,
All the years between and she had not
forgotten him! Would she ever forget
him? Was he fhe ona who held the