Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-06

uO H, Ethell You're not going
Of to wear that tonight"
Irene stared at the home
made blouse unbeliev1ngly.
II certainly am" stoutly
defended Ethel, her blue eyes swapping
at her friend. "Why-why-you've just
no idea how hard worked making this
blouse!"
The barest suspicion of tears stood in
her eyes and she Strengthened up as
though to control herself.
But where did you ever find pat
tern for blouse like that?" Irene
asked.
"Oh, I didn't get a pattern" Ethel
answered carelessly. Il just cut 1t out
by guess"
Irene's brother, who worked In the same
office.
"By guess or by gosh,
She cut the thing out.
Thay drowned her at dusk
Meath the water spout"
ooh, scat along with you, Phil" said
his sister.
But long after the others had settled
to work for the afternoon Ethel sat
typing at her desk, sitting we'll forward
and upright In the correct posture sug-
gested by all of the efficiency experts as
the least firing position for the stenog-
rapher. Mechanically she read her
notes and transcribed them. Was Phil
only Joking when he made up that silly
little poem? Or was he by any chance
serious? She would not have admitted
to any one on earth just how much she
did admire Phil. In the first place, he
was no girl-chaser, as most of the men
in
experience, most jolly, fun-loving men
were. And Phil made on the average
Joke a minute. When this office party
had been announced, for instance, she
wondered If perhaps he would ask her
to go with him. He hadn't.
Now she sat there rigidly, wondering
If it were because her clothes looked so
funny. At 3 o'clock she left the ONCE
and went to the waShroom, where she
took a good look at herself. At flrst
she looked grim and then pretty smile
curved her lips. How could She-how
could any one with good sense?-have
cut nice material up into any such
botch as that blouse was, now that she
saw it with disinterested eyes? 1t was
funny to look at, with bulgeS where 1t
should have been fiat and fiat where 1t
might have beloved out little.
She tried to put 1t into shape, and as
she turned to go out OF the door. glanced
back with her usual caution to make
sure she had dropped nothing.
There on the floor lay her little snowy
bag that she always kept pinned inside
her blouse with her savings.
Darling back, she Snatched 1t up.
Apparently in patting the shapeless
blouse into senblance Of style she
had loosened the pin. With an awful
wrench, Ethel decided. The minute
work was out she would race over to
the avenue and buy good blouse, and
daring-maybe some other little things
she needed, too. Why, she might as
well, she decided. She might very
easily have lost all the money she had.
When she sat down to eat her dinner
in the cafeteria where she and Irene
always ate at noon she was surprised
to find Phil taking the opposite place
moment later. He glanced instantly
at her new blouse, and then at the
smart little hat she had bought to 60
with it. His eyes swept the new gloves
dropped his eyes. coloring.
Say, didn't hurt your feelings this
noon. did ~"
why" said Ethel, "why-why should
you hurt my feelings, Phil?"
That's Just It," he said miserably.
you know I wouldn't hurt you for the
world, Ethel. But that doggerel Just
popped into my head, and well, it
Slid out before knew 1t was going to-"
THAT was blouse that would inspire
it," Ethel said with her dimples coming
and going mischievously. When I
tried on some real blouses found out
how funny that thing did look, Phil"
THE one you have on now doesn't
look funny" he said. "And that hat
say, I didn't know you could look like
that, Ethel"
She wanted to ask what she looked
like, but she knew that men hate to
give a compliment that has been