The Washington times., 1927-04-11

week all right2',
Ill think So
JacQneline's heart, despite her
effort at self-control. was jerk
ing. Fifty dollars q week. The
first money she had ever earned
in her life, now so vitality neces-
sary. How few dollars remained
in the brave little pursel Now she
would be able to hang on in New
York till the great chance came
tonight she could write home
to her mother with a thrill OF
happiness.
Sharply she was brought back
to the fact that Julius Lupine's
eyes were absorbing her. A
quick pang of caution, like the
stab Of d knife. flashed in her
bosom. Men had looked at her
s like that before and she
hated itI
IF that's all, think I'll be go
ing now she said with little
briskness.
Lupino's eyes never wavered.
You're afraid Of me. aren't
your" he said leyelly.
Ill at Ease
For an instant Jacqueline stood
perfectly still.
'..of course I'm not afraid Of
you," she said with a little click,
and q feeling that, quite sudden
ly, she was poised tremblingly on
q precIplce.
1--WE don't get many girls like
YOU working In the cabarets, he
said ''and / don't blame you for
being little nervous. Maybe
you've heard that ! am a hard
Il never heard you discussed
one way Or the other, by any
body at all, " Jacdueline told him
steadily.
you win before you're through
at the Sea She'll" he assured her.
Most OF the things you'h hear
won't be true, but some OF them
will. Anyway, you'll get your
pay every Saturday night, and If
anybody around this joint gets
fresh With you I'll break his jaw.
I'm going to look out for you.
Jacqueline, because / like you.
And when / like a girl nobody
else usually butts in. Now run
along home, and get ready for
tonight, and don't worry about
nothing a-taIl."
CHAPTER 3.
Out once more In the busy
throng OF the street, Jacqueline
hurried to aer room. All New
York was lonesome to Jacqueline.
Her cheap room was the lone
soonest place Of all but
not nowi
JacQueline's heart surged with
profound happiness. Some one had
thought enough Of her voice to
nav her for it. According to the
small town standards of Logans
port, $50 a week was an immense
sum; but three weeks In New
York had taught her that $50
weekly represented scarcely more
than the decent necessities Of life.
Already she had, in her brief
three weeks, felt the hard, chill.
ing acknowledgment os the weary,
fruitless rounds OF. theatrical Of
fees, jammed by dozens of other
applicants, all young, all presuna.
ably talented, ana all beautiful.
For every possible opening II
seemed there were literally hun.
dreds of girls. But this, Jacque-
line considered calmly, was an
unacceptable condition for the null.
titud e - encouragement, heart.
break. defeat!
Wine OF Victory
But now, this first victory be-
gan to seep like a potent wine
through her veins, and she was
actually conscious Of an exhilara-
ton that set her heart free
apart and above the unlucly ones.
Jacqueline wondered if they really
were just plain unlucky, or ii
there might not be some funda
mental difference between herself
and-well, the mob in the theatri-
cal offices.
All of her life she had been diff
ferent from other girls. They had
trimmed their lamps, their habits,
to compromise with Life and
men. With determination that
mounted almost to a lonely, catlike
independent JacQueline had kept
herself aloof from all petty tyran.
MES. Yes, even in Logansport,
where she had lived with her moth.
er on the most inadequate Of in.
comes, she had kept free The pic.
MICS, and the auto rides. and the
stupid parties in stuffy parlors-
the squidgy love affairs had never
been the cheap opiates to llll her
vitality alive spirit into lazy accept
ance Of uninspired realities. She
had worked hard in an office; had
saved grimIy and, in Chicago,
where she had studied voice, she
had spent her meager hoard with
calculating shrewdness. But this
canniness had been a necessity, II
she was to escape the stodgy semi
security of the masses.
For her mother there was pang
Of regret. The elderly woman,
back in Logansport, did not quite
understand Jacqueline's flight to
New York. She had viewed it as a
rotund hen might miserably con.
slider the excursions OF an mad.
vertently Matched duck toward an
Abhorrent pond. Jacqueline was not
derstood at ALL This in nowise
stifled the Instructive tenderness
for the sweet-tempered creature
Who had given her birth.
1t had been the elder woman's
contention, always, that Jacque.
line derived her 'peculiarities'
from her father-a parent JAG.
queline scarcely remembered.
Her father had been an timer.
ant photographer. and had died
in her early childhood, leaving
small cottage, a few hundred
dollars, q wagon load Of photo
graphic paraphernalia as his total
estate. Had he lived. Jacqueline
imagined they might have been
great comrades
Vague Yearr1ing