The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-02-20
She was looking rather blurred and

She was looking rather blurred and
he blinked in order to see her better.
"No, I won't do anything you don't
want me to-" he said. Then he did
a little rudimentary arithmetic. "If
that was two years ago you're only
eighteen now"
do you mind?" she asked him seri-
ously.
mo-" he said, II don't mind at ALL"
After a while she said, "Yod must
have worked awfully hard today, to
have found out all that about Max
Lewis and the chorus girl. How did
you do it?"
1T was all in the 'morgue, he told
her. ut took about ten minutes"
She'd been working for the paper
two years and she didn't know what
the "morgue" was. Martin, with a
true reporters pride in the whole
gathering side Of the organiza-
tion, told her all about it. He was
startled when sudden movement of
hers, a sort Of shudder, reused him
to look around into her face. "What's
the matter?" he gasped.
II think it's horrible" she said
shakily. "It means that there's no
forgiveness at all. Anything that
anyone has ever done-or that people
think he has done-is kept there, wait
ing to be got out and told all over
again. Anyone who wants to go and
open a drawer can find it. And they
call it the 'morgue' Martin, / didn't
know anything could be as cruel as
that!'
But you've got it all wrong" he
protested. "a newspaper doesn't
keep 'morgue' for the purpose Of in
timidating people with their pasts.
Nine times in ten the files used for
writing handsome obituary articles.
When a man dies they want to be able
to tell how important he's BEEN"
But nothing he could say on the
subject seemed to change her feeling
about 1t. Lets try to forget about
it," she said at last.
On his agreeing to that-and he'd
have agreed to almost anything just
then-she pushed her advantage a
little further. Lets forget about
everything that's mysterious and de-
pressing, will you? Will you agree
that the burglar was just plain bur-
glar who was perfectly satisfied with
my three hundred dollars. and that
Mr.. Forster and Mr.. Lewis were only
trying to find me-to settle a bet, or
for some silly reason like that? And
then, Martin, will you take me some
where for the rest of this evening
where we can dancer"
"You bet I WILL" he said. 'Ill
agree to the whole program-for the
rest Of the evening-if you'll let me
say just one thing first"
She considered this request little
obviously, but finally said, "All right;
just one. though"
IF you're really eighteen years
old :"
Il really am" she interrupted, "-al-
most. My birthdays in two weeks
October thirty-first; Halloween, it is
"Hurrah! ~ he said. "We1l have a
party! Well then, on Halloween
you'll come of age and you'll have
no more reason to be afraid of your
uncle than have. He'll have no more
authority over you than he'll have
over the king of England. And even
in the meantime ! don't see that he
could do very much. That's all. Now
let's go to the Alhambra. And heaven
help Leander Higgins, or anyone else
who tries to cut in on us tonight !"
Downstairs in the tiny vestibule she
noticed that there were some letters
in their mail-box. The postman had
come, she remembered, while they
were so excited about the burglar that
they both forgot to go down and get
the mail. She didn't want to be
y Y Y y y Y = Y Y " v