The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1929-11-28
The Enchanted
Harp
By LAURA R. MONTGOMERY


(Copyright)
II ENRIETTA, looking around the
waiting room filled with teachers,
experienced an acute fear. When there
were such a number of applicants
would she be able TO get any kind of
position? And, if she did secure
! one would it be in a town that Dora
would like? Dora, her younger sister
was not fitted for work, or so she
thought, and Dora took avid diSlikeS
to places. Henrietta could have kept
| on at the Sawyer high school if Dora
hadn't insisted upon a change of
scene, saying in her gentle, pathetic
voice that she hadn't much to amuse
her. Her sister seldom had time, her
self, to think of amusement because
the work of the tiny apartment, plus
her teaching took most of her strength.
All year Henrietta sewed and cooked
and mended and got temporary posi-
lions during the school vacation. She
was an expert stenographer and was
seldom out of work more than a few
days between offices. But, work as
she might, the expenses kept her
thinking.
Two years before Dora had heard;
harpiSt ut a concert and had come
/ home possessed of a consuming desire;
to learn. The harp cost a thousand
dollars which Henrietta paid for in
! monthly payments. Also she had con-
| tracted for long term of lessons be-
cause Dora felt that harp-playing was
exactly what she could do. And she
was an apt pupil. The lovely long
/ fingers with their delicate pink nails
! swept the golden strings beautifully,
and in an amazingly short time she
/ played simple melodies with both feel
ing and accuracy. To Henrietta, ac-
customed to the long hours of teach
ing, the harp seemed the entrance to
a new and glorious world. She would
forget her mending and sit entranced
while Dora played and sang in her
sweet threadlike voice.
1t was through the harp music that
Henrietta had her first chance at ro-
nance. Peter Pringle, in the flat be-
/ low heard the music. He asked a mu
tual friend to present him and soon
he ran up nearly every night.
Dora had high ideas about marriage
and was, as she candidly told her sis
ter, saving herself for the man who
could give her wealth. She looked on
at the embryo-romance with cool,
amused eyes and was most agreeable
about playing the songs that Peter
loved. SO friendship had progressed
into courtship under the blue-eyed
scrutiny of Dora, and Henrietta knew
that she owed an immense debt to
the music that had brought Peter to
her.
But, although it was Dora's playing
that formed a bond, it was also Dora
who proved a barrier because the love
ly, useless Dora was an expensive lux
ury and Peter earned only thirty dol
lars a week. Therefore the hope of
marriage must be postponed until
Dora, in some miraculous fashion,
found the man of wealth who would
relieve Henrietta of her load.
The employment placement clerk
looked at Henrietta's shiny blue serge,
glanced at her papers and then re-
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