The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1928-11-22
Observation-Disclosures
The New Hat of ]
Lace ]
By SELMA HART
Observation-Disclosures


ID ILL KEMP, the head of the ex-
- change department, looked up
YEARLY from his desk. 1t had been a
day of odd jobs-refunds, complaints,
exchanges. Everything had been rela-
lively unimportant and yet everything
demanded instant attention. Had Bill
Kemp been ten years older than he
was he would not have taken it all so
seriously, and consequently would
have been as fresh at the end of the
day as he was early in the morning.
Il wanted" said a pair of violet
eyes, at least Bill Kemp would have
sworn that it was the eyes that spoke,
so timidly and questionably did they
regard him, Il want to know if could
do something about my lace hat"
Bill Kemp sighed. They were such
marvellous eyes. And then to be mum
danely interested in a hat-a silly
lace hat.
"Well," he said gruffly, "what did
you contemplate doing about this lace
hat? If it's been worn it cannot pos
sibly be accepted for exchange or re-
fund"
The latter words issued mechanical
ly from his mouth, and he wondered
,subconsciously how many hundreds of
times he had uttered that same SEN
tence-sometimes about gloves, some
times about hair goods, sometimes
about shoes.
"Oh, it hasn't been worm" came the
soft voice again. The voice sounded
as though it were full of tears and
he looked at the violet eyes again.
Sure enough, there were large tears
there.
Bill Kemp steeled himself. All
women used tears as means to an
end and he determined that he would
not be taken in. "Well, go on, go on"
he said as testify as he could.
"You see l decided last Saturday
that 1 could take tits a beautiful
hat. Oh, it was really the most beau
tiful hat in the whole world, l think"
she said wistfully. 81 looked and
looked at it-before, you know-and
,on Saturday l paid a deposit on it, a
deposit of a dollar. l was to take it
this Saturday, but" the lips that
were soft and pink closed firmly. q
I believe that l shan't need it after
all"
"And so you want the dollar back
again, take it?' he said, tapping his
pencil against the desk and regarding
it coolly.
"Oh my, no." she said softly. "Of
course they wouldn't give back the
dollar, but l went to the millinery
department and the clerk said that l
had agreed to take it and l would
have to finish paying for it. II have
the money but"
"Will you sit down." said Bill
Kemp, rising suddenly, wondering why
1t was that he had not thought of it
before. Il haven't been head of the
department long and l am at a loss to
understand one thing. Why do wom-
en- buy a thing, take it home and then
run right back here to return it,"
The violet eyes crinkled at the cor
,ners and the soft pink lips twitched.
81 don't know" she confessed. 81
never do myself. It's not that l prob
ably wouldn't if | had the chance, but
j work and so scarcely have time to
buy what l need, let alone buying
things for the fun of thinking l really
owned them for awhile before I re-
turned them. 1t must be lots of fun.
mustn't it,"
"But you want to leave this flower
hat on our hands," he eXpostulated.
"Oh, oh, not flower" she exclaimed
in Mortified tones "it is lace. And, be-
sides, l don't want to leave it on your
hands. I'd love it myself only l heard
about this Mrs. Benzingen whose hus-
band is in the hospital and whose chill
dren are all so small that she can't
work. 1t wouldn't be right to wear
"a lovely hat when they might be
hungry. If you say l don't need to
take the hat I'm going to take a bas-
ket out there tonight" She looked at
her watch. Its way, way out in"
AOu I'll dlOlIS anu yet Tie DdSkeC
and I'll see about the dollar refund.
Then when you get the basket filled
come back here and get the dollar and
III take the basket out for you
wherever it is. You can't be running
all over town-a girl like YOU"
He listened to her words of thanks
with an air of abstraction. eve
ought to get bite of supper at a
restaurant first, maybe" he said non
chalantly, quite as though he were in
the habit of asking strange girls to
eat with him. He sent the call boy
for the dollar and pulling a card from
his pocket, wrote down:
"She'd like hat-iace-later."
And the violet-eyed Mrs Bill Kemp
with her still shiny wedding ring was
happily surprised on her birthday
few months later with round hatbox
tied with huge violet bow. The hat
box held hat Of lace.