Evening star., 1927-04-12
The Days Ending.

T T was four o'clock and the sal'
was in full swing. Women
rushed in to take advantage oi
Il the last hour before closing time
The marked-down blouses were
going like hot cakes, Mara Burke ad'
mitted to herself. They would be
pretty well cleared up by five. She
didn't blame women for wanting
them, but as for herself she would not
be able even to wear a blouse again
for a long time.
The little smile that had come read
ily to her face in the morning was
frozen fast there now. Such pale,
ghostly little smile as it was! And the
ewes, which did not contribute to 1t,
were wide and dilated. Mara has never
been so tired before in all her life.
I'm very sorry-siZe 36 is all gone
NO, Madami That is 42-Yes! Every
thing on this table is S2.9S." Over and
over She repeated the same things,
never losing patience. Her 1oD, hef
life. even depended on pleasing her
customers.
Underneath the surface of this mo-
notonous current ran the fatal under
tow of a calamity befallen with the
suddenness of a lightning stroke. Al
noon they had telephoned from the
hospital, Your mother passed sue.
cessfully through the operation. Or
course everything depends on the way
she reacts. We can tell more romor-
row morning when she RECEIVERS con-
sciousness."
Mother in the hospital just off the
operatinS table and a sale in progress!
She must get up TO the hospital to-
morrow morning some way. And after
mother got back to their furnished
room she must find some way OF
stretching her bit of salary. for the
operation had taken every cent they
both had in the bank.
What mother really needed after
this was to get out of the city TO
some place where it was quiet and Sc
cluded. If only there was some way
of getting back to Woodford. But
there was no one there now that
would take her in without her paying
board. Aunt Ally had died and the
Bursons had gone West; there had
been an item about the Bursons in the
Woodford paper just before their sub
scrintion ran out They had not felt
able to renew this last link with the
old home town.
Sorry! There are no more of that
SLEEVE have plenty Of forty-fours-
You could shorten the sleeves bit
I should think-Some people lay Two
or three tiny tucks at the bend OF the
elbow-Why, yes! l think that shade
would be becoming"
There was a meeting of the store
club that evening, with dancing, ice
cream and cake afterward. Perry
Goldsmith had asked her to go with
him, Perry Goldsmith of the mems
wear department. He wore Ever glow
on his hair and had Valentino side
burns. Flo Aldrich was crazy about
him. but somehow Mara did not even
care for him. Not that she could
dance and eat ice cream anyway with
poor dear little mother lying up there
still in the black valley of uncon-
sciousness The ache in her heart
almost made her forget the ache in
her feet. Ones shoes go so abomina-
bly, tight by 4 of a crowded aft
ernoon. She felt a bit swimmy. Now
what had done that? Oh, going with
out lunch possibly She had tried
that way of economizing just to see if
she could stand it. Some girls saved
quite a bit for clothes and kept their
figures down that way. If they could
go hungry for reasons of that kind
she ought to be able to go hungry for
the sake Of saving a bit more for
mother. She must have some flowers
for mother tomorrow.
Wouldn't it be ridiculous il she
should topple over? Jane Wilson had
toppled over the other day because
she had danced too much the night
before. If she toppled over it was be-
cause she had not been able to sleep
for thinking Of mother up there at the
hospital, and-Peter-Peter, who had
let her go out of his life without try
ing TO detain her. Wasn't it funny