Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-17
THIRD INSTALLMENT.

- NE thing that went long way
II toward making her situation
tolerable during the next four
> years was the fact that shed
always had as much money as
she needed From somewhere her Ia
Their had had a regular supply. From
her fourteenth birthday on she'd known
exactly how much it was-a hundred
dollars a week. At that time he'd be-
:. gun handing 1t all over to her, except
what his small personal wants required,
and had given her the job of keeping
their accounts and paying their hotel
bills. It had always been in cash-hVe
yellow-backed twenties.
She never knew where the money
came from. Once she asked him out
right, and he had so pointedly ignored
the question that she never asked II
again She was afraid she'd guessed.
But she hadn't even dared pursue the
subject SO far as to tell him her guess
and ask whether it was the right one.
She was afraid it was her Uncle Will
liam-the ogre. Her whole capacity for
fear was concentrated, focused upon
that one point. She believed that 1t
was he from whom she and her father
had fed. thereby frustrating his inter-
ton to take her away.
Shed never asked her father any
thing about him: didn't really know
whether he was married and had chill
dren Of his own Her impression, CLEAN
ed from the quarrel she'd overheard in
the bungalow had been that he had;
Her nightmare was that he would
pounce upon her. carry her on 70 ms
den. where he could order her ABOUT,
shut her up, decree punishmentS, gloat
over her with those shining teeth OF his.
The only panic she ever felt when
going about alone on her small excur-
sions to the shops took the form OF a
belief that she had seen him or that
he was following her. She supposed he
was rich; his self-important air on his
visit to the bungalow strongly suggested
1t. If he was the source of the money
they lived on, then it meant that he
knew where they lived and that he was,
. for some reason she couldn't fathom,
hiding his time. But she was, as mat
~,ter of fact, too healthy and happy, even
too well occupied, to think about MIN
: much.
least she'd always felt herself surround
=. ed by friendly people. But her fathers
- often repeated instruction not to tell
who they were or where they came from,
to answer no personal questions at all,
brought 1t about that most OF her
!. friendships were with members OF the
star of the hotel rather than with resi-
dents. These latter, too, soon began ask
~ ing questions. Had she no mother?
= why didn't she go to school? What did
her father do all day long? Wasn't she
lonely? Was there no one to look after
her? She couldn't answer questions like
that and had to sheer away from the
people who asked them.
There was one exception among the
gueets, q middle-aged, pretty woman,
:. who always wore black--a widow. Rhoda
supposed. She didn't ask many ques-
50 tons because she was deaf, so deaf that
you had to shout to make her hear. She
was going to a school where you learned
lip reading. The school was downtown,
. and Mrs. George, whose deafness had
= come upon her suddenly, hated to VEN
:. ture down into that confusion alone.
= Her need was a godsend to Rhoda, who
volunteered to go with her every morn
ing.
- Sometimes they took rides or went
shopping afterward. But the principal
:. attraction of these expeditions for
: Rhoda was the school itself. She went
. into the class with Mrs. George and,
9 having nothing else to. do, she sat and
= watched and learned np-reading her.
self. They did it by movies-close-ups
: and they gave you typewriter page
that showed what the person was say
:, ing. It took Mrs. George three months
z to learn, but in half that time Rhoda
= was infallible at 1t.
It made life more amusing. She liked
to ride in the elevated and watch peo-
pie talk down at the end of the car