Evening star., 1932-11-27

4
it. She had turbulent bronze curls
and dancing blue eyes that tilted up
at the corners and beckoned ripe red
lips and a pert little nose to follow.
Her skin petal white and her
body was slim and swayng. She owed her
name to pot of gay and colorful hhes her
mother once had seen in a florist shop on Fifth
avenue.
Most of Mrs. Smiths dreams neglected to
come up her street in Flatbush, so when
MaripoSa was 16 she had to go to work. After
her third day with Rufus & Harmer, advertising
consultantS, every called her Posie
Posie devoted herself to her business career
and at the end of year with Rufus & Harmer
she was advanced from file clerk to general
stenographer Then Bradley Cabot Randolph
Joined the office staff and became her career.
The first time Mr. Randolph smiled at Miss
Smith she gave him her heart. 1t belonged to
him even if he had no particular use for it,
He had black patent-leather hair, compact
brown face and a wide-shouldered sturdy figure.
His voice was curt and he had the look OF
romantic bandit. He had also mother who
had been Cabot and never forgot it; and
12-year-old sister who must some day make
her debut at a tea befltting the Randolph
traditions So a stenographer named Smith
was to him just one of the girls down at the
Office
\ AR RANDOLPH was seeking ability, not
iNi diversion when he asked Miss Smith
could do his tipping regularly In the course
of events he discovered that Miss Smith was
beauty and that her name was Mariposa.
He told her it was the Spanish for butterfly
and was quite moved when she said no, it
for pot of lilies at the end of her mothers
rainbow. He decided at once to call her Mary
and help her make something of herself
At the end of six years Mary Smith was
Mr. Randolph's secretary and he was still her
ideal. She never went to sleep without praying
for the miracle that would turn his friendship
into love and for the revelation that would
convince him he could support his mother, his
sister, his membership in three clubs. his tradi-
tions-and wife Smith.
One night Mary had an inspiration It con-
cerned a very important client whom John
Rufus himself had failed to impress with the
advantages of advertising. Mary worked over
her idea till dawn She went down to the
Office that morning feeling the world itself was
hers
Long before Brad marched in at 1890, there
was q telephone call from a girl who spoke
with faint and delightful little French accent
and who left a nonchalant little message:
Tell him I said it was me- That is enough.
He will understand"
Mary Smiths heart contracted.
When she gave Brad the odd little message,
he laughed and said: You've got Lefty
sister Just home from four years at school
near Paris"
rs she pretty?" Eve may have asked that
about Lillith.
"a piquant little thing Wonder what she
wanted"
You might call her back and find OUT
mot from the Office If Chloe Harmer knew
that little sister was phoning one of the staff
she'd cut the telephone wires"
Not if he's Bradley and Cabot and
Randolph"
THE volume has to be hand tooled leather
with gold edges or Chloe doesn't read it, She
has the plot of Letty's story Sketched out and
the hero picked He's a chap big sister played
around with before the war. He came home to
find his girl married to Dudley Harmer and he
took the end of his childish dreams hard and
went out and made million to keep his mind
off his neighbor's wife. Now Chloe has de-
cided he's too valuable to go out of the family"
ITS a sad story, isn't n?" Mary managed
to sound quite casual.
Tragic So when the doomed maiden wants
to step she has to sneak out and I'm not the
man to ignore her S o S. Chloe will deliver
her little sister to Macdonald soon
enough"
Donald MacDonald?" Mary asked. Mac
Donald's Chain Stores? What's he like, Brad?'
Like his father Old Cy Macdonald. Only
more So" Brad came to Mary's desk He
stopped down until his cheek was next to hers.
so that's how it is" And after moment
she added: "How would you like to have the
MacDonalds as clients?
How would like to sell space to the man
in the moonl John Rufus himself can't coax
the MacDonalds to blow themselves to a double
page Old Cy Is granite and young Don Is
chiseled from the same quarry. The only per-
son who can sell that boy bill of goods Is
Chloe Harmer. Let's can the Macdonald rec
ord, Mary, my lass" He turned his head