The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-02-19

ly maintained. She liked to giggle,
herself sometimes. She hung back a
little one day, coming out of French
class, to give Isabel Norris and Jane
Cole, who were coming along behind
her arm in arm, a chance to overtake
her. 1t would be fun to tell them what
had happened to Myrtle Bowling in
geometry the period before.
Isabel and Jane appreciated Myrtle
and would, Edith thought, enjoy hear
ing about the incident. But they were
absorbed In matter of their own.
Instinetiyely, Edith quickened her
pace. She didn't know whether they
were looking at her or not, but she
wouldn't for anything in the world
have let them see that she'd meant to
wait for them. The crowd. her old
crowd-Martha, Carolyn, all of them
had got up beach party, and she
hadn't been asked. Evidently she
wasn't going to be. They'd deliberate
ly kept her out of it. They must have
been planning 1t for days, but, till
now. she hadn't heard word Of it.
They could have asked her safely
enough; she wouldn't have gone. 1t
would have been-decent of them,
though, to give her chance to say
SO. Evidently they'd meant to drop
her from the first. Well, they wouldn't
find any trouble doing it.
She felt like turning around and
saying just that to Isabel and Jane,
but of course that would be beneath
her dignity. The thing to do was not
to give them the satisfaction of know
ing she'd noticed. Carolyn was the
one to keep away from. They walked
home together sometimes on Friday
right after civics.
She took front seat and bolted
the minute class was out, snatched her
hat and coat, and fled. She hoped
she'd hear Carolyn call after her to
wait, but she didn't.
She found the house locked up. She
remembered now that it was the day
mother was out to lunch. She was to
have got her lunch at school. It didn't
matter. She wasn't hungry anyway.
She might as well study. She hadn't
anything else to do. Virgil! That
was the thing she hated most. You
couldn't look words up in the lexicon,
though, when your eyes kept getting
bury all the time. She'd strained
them probably.
It struck her that she ought to
write letter to Ed. She hadn't in
ever so long-not since the last one
she'd done on the typewriter down at
dads Office.
She sat at her desk a long while,
connecting the blots on her desk pad
with lines to make them into geometri-
cal figures, before she wrote anything
on the sheet Of note paper she'd laid
out.
At last, she wrote "Dear Ed'' at the
top Of it, and got herself started.
II don't suppose you'll be surprised
to get letter from me written with a
pen, because mother has probably told
you that I'm not at the Office any more,
and there isn't any more Office. I've
gone back to school and simply hate
it. Dad wanted me to, so went.
think I'm going to college in order to
be better prepared to take job"
She connected up lot more blots
before she added anything to that.
Then, writing pretty fast, she went on,
IF, by any chance, you see Mr.. Nor
gan, you might ask him If he happens
to remember whether that secretary
of his fathers went to college or not,
and If she did, what college it was. /
don't suppose he'd remember, only If
he did happen to, thought I'd like
to know. You don't need to ask him
unless you happen to see him. I re-
member he said once that she was an
awfu!ly good secretary, and that's
what want to be-"
She couldn't think of anything more
she particularly wanted to say to Ed,
and yet she realized she couldn't end
it here. He might wonder why she
hadn't written 1t to Roger in the first
place. He might even show it to
Roger. Heavens! Were there any
misspelled words in It? She'd put in
some more JUNK WHeu she COulQ InlnK
better. She was really getting head
ache.
She was lying down with wet
handkerchief over her eyes when
mother came home. Mother struck
her, somehow, as sort of heartless;
didn't taken her headache on trust at
all; wanted to know what she eaten
for lunch, and on being told she hadn't
eaten anything, sent her down to the
ice box to get glass of milk.
Perhaps she'd have paid little more
attention and learned that hunger
wasn't really at the bottom of the
trouble at all, II dad hadn't unex-
pectedly come, home just then, him.
self. He was sort Of excited and in
perfectly terrific rush. He wanted
his bag packed while he shaved and
changed his clothes so that he could
catch the five-thirty train to New York
that night There was banker he
knew taking that train and, he thought
If he went down with him he could
l.