Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1928-08-03
LIDA'S
Owe FOR
BLUE
-.-o.-o-~oS- SO-o~o-~o-so-Si
e BY D. J. Wslsh.)

TT WAS Lida's first day 10 the dress
goods She had worked for three
years in the kitchenware. until she
had come to feel personal ac-
quaintance with every Htensil In the
department, and dOuble-bOilers and
I jelly-strainers had come to be very
vital part Of her existence.
The transfer came as a complete
surprise, although it made little diff
ference to Ida. Nothing made any
difference. There had been time
/ when she had aspired to buyership,
but that had been while her mother
was living, and there had been real
incentive. But Lida's mother had been
/ dead since March and there was no
longer anyone interested in her sue
! cess. And because Ida was 30 very
/ lonely, she had ceased TO care herself
Her sales In the dress goods for the
first day were not very large. Her
fingers were bungling, and she was
hopelessly slow in measuring on the
materials for impatient buyers. She
wondered how long they would keep
her there. But the second day showed
some improvement, and soon Lidas
sales mounted even higher than Miss
Bolands, who had sold dress goods
for ever so many years more than
[ Ida had sold kitchenware.
one day they received new ship
| ment OF materials, and Ida unrOlled
[ bolt of heavenly blue tageta. II
had a beautiful simmer Of silver
/ and was exquisitely soft to the touch.
/ All her life Ida had hoped some day
/ to possess Just such dress-a gor-
geOus, shimmery blue. Blue was
! Lida's color.
The material was very popular. All
| day Ida measured of great lengths
/ Of 1t and the bolt dwindled rapidly.
I The more Ida measured Of It., the
more she came TO love it. The soft
ness, the exqulsiteness of It: its silver
simmer and its daintiness seemed
to represent all that had been lack
| ing In Lida's life. There were only
| FIVE yards left on the bolt when the
last customer turned away, Just be-
| fore closing time. Hesitantly, almost
| lovingly, Ida smoothed out the soft,
| lustrous folds. One more customer
and the last Of the lovely material
would be gone Llda's mind was very
suddenly made up. OF course. she
had no use In the world for such Q
| dress, but perhaps some day &.
And she turned to the supervisor.
oh falf hnF
the supervisor seemed to understand
at once what she wanted. How
many yards are there lefty he asked
Five" replied Ida.
"Then you had better take IL right
of the bolt 1t won't last long In
the morning, you know. And | doubt
If we will get any more in, in that
same color. Pretty, isn't it?'
"Oh, lovelyw exulted Ida. my
favOrite color"
Mine, too" smiled the supervisor.
You can just wrap that and take 1t
with you tonight, Miss Hanley. III
sign your slip in the morning"
"Oh, thank you" glowed Ida, and
she Rugged the brown paper package
all the way home in the crowded car.
Her heart felt strangely lighter than
it had been In all those lonely months
since March. Was 1t just because
spring was coming or was 1t the blue
silk, she wondered And then she
fell to thinking of the supervisor. He
was quite young to have attained to
supervlsOrshlp. And what a pleas
ant smile he had! She wondered
vaguely IL he might he married, and
then chided herself for being so fool
ish. AS II that made any difference
The next week the spring sales be
gan, and business in the silks In
creased to amazing proportions Lids
worked tremendously hard and wal
too tired in the evenings to do any
thing else but read the paper and x
to bed She hadn't even time through
the day to choose pattern for thu
blue dress. The material lay in 1t.
brown paper wrapplngs in her top blu
reau drawer. Once or twice she haC
taken 1t out and held the soft, shin
J mering folds against her. and ha,
| sOitiN at NlEhi VI ItT ItIltt
ton in the mirror. Why, she was al
most pretty
The sales went back to normal tn,
next week, and on Tuesday Ida use,
her pass TO go to the pattern depart
ment. She found precisely what sh,
, wanted, and the dress came to be
, lovely finished thing In her mind
eye. OF course, she reflected, sh
was utterly foolish to buy such al
impractical dress, but II was nice [,
possess something pretty, even II on,
had no need for IT,
But she wondered at the irony o
fate when the management the mex
day announced the date OF the EN-
ployees annual dance, The EN-
plOyees annual dance meant not
thing to Ida. There had been fou
since she had been In the emplo
OF the company and she had not one,
been asked. The whole floor wa
buzzing with excitement, and II wa
evident that nearly everybody wa
going Ida measured of yards an,
yards of silks while Miss Boland an,
Miss Atkins discussed t. She hear,
Miss Boland say she was going I,
wear cerise. Ida half wished that sh
might go, If only to wear the hlu
dress.
She started when she heard tn
supervisors name mentioned Mis-
Boland's voice carried above the hun
Of the store "Oh, sure, he'll ask me
He's asked me every time so far. An,
he's the guy with the bank roll too
"Iime you got him Ia sign ON III,