The Washington times., 1933-01-31
Chapter One

the Knickerbocker Bank, and
spilled in a little golden flood
around the pretty head of
judith Brian as she sat at her
desk in the bookkeeping de-
partment. 1t illumined the
fine grain of her gardenia-
white skin, and played merry
tricks in Judith s hair, bring
ing out all the hidden lights
in it so that the, chestnut
curls were transformed to a
gay auburn. .......l.
It danced on the keys of
Judith's typewriter till each
disc twinkled like a tiny star
and it flowed over Judith's
desk as though it sought to
draw out all the perfume Of a
spray of lily-of -the-valley that
beauty-loving Judith had stuck
in a glass Of water that morn
ing.
Judith's busy fingers lay for
a moment idle in her lap, those
Irish gray eyes of hers that
were the lovelieSt feature in
her face resting on the list Of
closed accounts she had been
typing out for Mr.. Barry Deane
Of the Business Department.
Even as she looked at it, the
toolScap sheet set in her type
writer seemed to fade, and in
its place the good-looking face
Of Mr.. Barry Deane himself
rose nebulously before her. A
pang that was half stab, half
thrill, caught Judith'S heart so
that she gave little breath
less gasp, and closed her eyes
as though to shut the disturb
ing vision out-but there it
was, clearer than ever before
her!
Quite Ridiculous
Why, Of course, it was ridicu-
lous, she told herself, that she
should ever give a second
thought to a man who had
never shown anything more to-
wards her than the ordinary
courteSieS of business. go
Judith had been quite happy,
I'D to now, without particularly
wanting to be loved, or letting
her thoughts dwell seriously on
marriage. She had listened
with a sort of detached wonder,
up in the big rest-and-recrea-
tion room at the top of the
bank, when giggling girls would
gossip about their brushes"
She had thought that the fem
inine urge they felt-and
Showed-to be admired and
stroked and petted and made
much Of by the opposite sex
was really rather foolish.
Her work and her plans for
the future, combined with the
fact that she had achieved New
York at last, and that surely
1t was the most wonderful city
in the world for an ambitious
girl to be a part of, had abb
sorbed Judith. She had the
happy faculty Of enjoying little
things to the full. And her six
months here had been brimful
Of novelty and interest.
It had been hard to get away
from home, to leave the little
town upstate where she had
lived for 20 years and where
she had taken her business
courSe-hard not only in a fl
nancial sense, but because her
mother had worried SO about
her going.
Mrs. Brian had behaved ex-
actly like the hen who Matched
the duckling in the story when
her duckling swan away from
her, Judith had told her
mother, laughing.
No Fond Mamma
But once the first part Of
Judith'S ambition had been
realized, and a hundred miles
lay between her and the shabby
little house that was her home,
and there was no fond, indulg-
ent mother to run to with her
troubles, Judith was downright
homesick. There were surprises
in store for her too. Studying
the ads in the newspapers every
day, and making the long
rounds from office to office in
search of work, Judith diScov-
cred - among other things -
that unless one had a back
ground Of other jobs or a first
class letter Of recommendation,
it wasn't at all an easy thing
to land a Secretarial position
In this city!
All the more, then, had she
appreciated the lucky break
that had planted her as ste
l1ographer-b ookkeeper in the
Knickerbocker bank, and she
had been so thrilled by her
own independence and her
work and her weekly pay enve-
1ope, that she had put thoughts
Of men into the background.
AS she sat at her desk on
this afternoon Of late January,
for a rare moment lost in her
reverie of Barry Deane, it
seemed to her there was some
thing heartbreakingly lovely
about the smell of the lily-of-
the-valley. 1t made her long
for things she hadn't thought
about before. sweet intimate
things that were beyond her
reach in Barry's life. her
heart raced and the world
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