The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-06-14
BAE2GAHN 4 RlDE

antly. II wish you could come
down some night and see me bang
ing on the tin-pan piano in that
joint
Occasionally, somebody filings me
a coin. Charming, isn't it?"
He sat brooding, his weak chin
dropped and his pale blue eyes fixed
unseeingly on window which gave
vision Of the crowding, ot-stained
walls across the way.
Once more he had stepped back
into the old days; riding with Miss
Ella in the park; courted and fiat
tered by other members Of the fam
lily who felt he would be Miss Elias
chief heir.
Those days had been pleasant in
deed. although he had rebellec
against them at the time-re-
belled against being kept short of
money and always at the beck and
call of an old lady who had not the
slightest recognition of young
mans needs.
EEINOR, after glancing at an
T. alarm clock on the bureau,
rose. Philip went with her to the
door.
"Goodby, DEAR" he said, and
kissed her.
"Goodby. I'll come next week
if I can"
please dol"
He watched her down the dark,
grimy stairs.
Elinor hailed a bus, boarded it
and settled down to ride uptown.
The visits to Philip always de-
pressed her. In an hour he would
begin pounding a piano in cheap
cafe.
At the same moment, she, her
mother, and the other relatives
would begin dressing for dinner.
Philip was weak but he had never
been helped to gain any strength.
The life he had known had drained
his slight strength. Not like Mr..
Barrett Colvin, she unused, whose
muscles would have grown stronger
if circumstances pushed him down
but of course he was exceptional.
She remembered with gentle amuse-
ment her little-girl alteration of
him.
7 EAVING the bus, she realized
L. that, for the first time after
visit to Philip, she had forgotten
him and the mood of depression
that usually came as an aftermath
to chat with him.
"Of course" she thought, "a man
like Mr.. Colvin would never even
think twice about me-" and sud-
denly she felt the chill in the late
autumn afternoon.
If things had been different, and
she had known how to make herself
attractive he might have thought
twice about her. But she had heard
her mother say often, 'Elinor has no
social gift; not the slightest realiza-
ton of what interests people, how
to talk to them or what will please
them"
Elinor saw this, Of course, and
judged from it that she was a
failure. Up to this day she had &C
cepted the fact and concluded there
was nothing to do but try to make
the best of it,
Now suddenly she wanted to at
tract as did other girls whom she
knew. She wanted above all to have
Mr.. Barrett Colvin show some in
terests in her; to have him unable to
keep away.
She nodded, smiled at the door
man outside the large building into
which she turned, the building that
held the Staffords' apartment.
"A wet night, Miss Stafford" the
man said
isn't it?" Elinor paused to add.
L hope your little boy is better,
Wilkins?"
Il think he is, thank you, Miss"
He heard her warm, I'm so
glad" and looked after her as she
entered the spacious, too ornately
impressive foyer. She was one of
the best, he reflected, as he'd said
often to his wife.
The doorman turned quickly as
a motor slowed That was her
mother in the taxicab, escorted by
the usual young man. The door
man stiffened his face to guard
sheer, then deferentially opened the
door Of the cab.
ITO Be Continued