New Britain herald., 1927-03-02
CHAPTER I\II

said 10 herself, looking at the words. Exactly one Hundred and Fifty Dollars" written across the face of it.
 Of course. il wasn't big when you compared t with some Of the stars salar!-s-wlth the salary 0. Joan Joyce, for instance. loans ptttance was s5oQH a week, and she managed to keep sIoriousy in debt on it.
 "Stll a hundred and fifty buck "rinos isn't so bad'' thought Bob- bie. T used to worl; weeks teach ing school 10 make that much,'
 Strange, she thought. that she ! did not feel more thrilled abou, making that much money. Strange thu, she did not feel more light hearted now that her money trou- b,oS were al an end.
 She walked homo" and the first plac" she looked when she unlocked th- front door was on the hall table where Mrs. Mangan always lof. the 1 hoarders' letters.
 There was none for her. But 1 there was q slip of brown paper upon which Mrs. Mangan had scrawlvd in her crooked cramped writing "Macrloul teicphonod you. and will telephone again about six o'clock"
 That meant that he expected her to be right there glued 10 the ! phone. waiting for it to ring at six o'clock, and Robbie knew it.
 'Orders from the King Of Siam she said 10 herself. making q little face. "Ill show him he cant boss me around, and tell me where to be al six o'clock"
 She unlocked the receiver and ] went upstairs, leaving it 10 hang us"lessly upon its cord beside the 1 telephone
 At six o'clock when Gus had said he would phone, the receiver was still hanging there and the phone vas as silent as tho grave. which is 1 awiu!ly silent.
 Al fifteen minutes past six, Mrs. | Mangan returned from her Satur- | day afternoon marketing and made | a great to-do when she found the receiver off the hook. Something told her that Robbie had taken it off.
 Who's been monkeying with this | phone ?" she yelled up the stairs at the top of her thin shrill voice. She paid five dollars month for that telephone, and she didn't care : to have it mistroated.
 But she got no answer. For Bob bic, who was the only other person 1 in the house, didn't hear her. She was sitting in the bathtub at that moment, singing at the top of her own voice which was not at all l thin and shrill:
 ''-l'll bn right here
 With fine tin ear When you telephone
 To your only own" | "Crazv jazzy stuff.' sniffed Mrs. Mangan. listening 10 it from the foot of the stairs. "1'he things they write these days and call 'em songs. No sense 70 'em, at all.' And she s-alked away into tho kitchen, where she couldn't hear any more of i'.
 However it wasn't a song that Robbie was singing as she took her bath. Not a real song.
 It was just something that she was making up as she went along. As she thought wicEedly of Gus, i trying in vain to get her on th" wire from his house up in . Beverly Hills.
 1 "I'Ul teach him. she told her self firmly. "He sure does get on my nerves sometimes with his over i bearing ways"
 f she had had q mother, she ! could have told her that man who "gats on a girls nerves, be fore marriage hasn't ghost Of | chance of making her contented and happy afterward Not if he 1 is as rich as Rockefeller, as hand some as Jack Barrymore, and as good as gold.
 | At six forty-tive, the evening stiffness Of Las Palmas street vas ! broken by the long blast of an au- 1 tomOhle horn.
 Robbie, curled up on the bed Tn ! her pink muslin kimono, with her i hair still cliuging 10 her forehead 1 in damp little gold rinsl"ts. heard | it and started up. i She ran 10 the window. barefoot, | and looked out. Below. in his dark green roadster. sat her hushand-to- l be, looking just as cross as a man can look.
 He saw her and called up 10 her: 1 "Hel. what's inc matter with everybody down here? Are you all deaf or what"" His love smiled down at him with an innocent sweet smile like | the Blessed namosel's when sh" | looked down from the gold bar of | heaven,
 'Tm srrc I'm not deaf. Gusty." she answered with that same inno- cent sweetness. Wait a minute. I'll ask Mrs. Mangan if she is.'
 She went 10 the head of the stairs and pe"reI down into the twilight Of the hall below. where she was pretty sure Mrs. Mangan was listening.
 She was. She glanced up when she saw Robbie.
 T was inst standing here" she began guiltilv.
 "r know" tho girl answered. Ask Nr. MacClond 10 com" in for q minute, will you, please" I'll be right down as soon as I slip into something. And don't tell him the receiver was off the hook.
 Chs was still scowlinc like spoiled boy when she went down 70 the living room ten minutes later in q slender little tube of whit"