The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-09-07
SYNOPSIS

E BOOTS RAEBURN, IS and
 pretty Is snubbed by wealthy
 SYLVIA RIVERS, Due to Syl-
 vin's gossip, Boots Is forced to
 resign from the Juniors. Both
 girls live In Larchneck, fashion
 able New York suburb.
 Hurt and humiliated, Boots
 accepts the attentions of RUSS
 LUND, swimming instructor.
 MRS REABURN returns from
 trip out of town and Boots
 threads her mothers hearing
 what has happened. On impulse
 she narries Russ who takes her 9 to live with his brother and his
 wife. Russ has no job and ap-
 parently no ambition. Soon
 Boots begins to see him as he is.
 She goes to look for job one
 day and encounters ISABEL
 HATHAWAY, an old friend.
 That night Russ announces he
 has a job in Miami but he can
 not take Boots with him.
 CHAPTER XXIII
 It was raw, gray November morning. Boots, walking across Thirty-fourth street through whirl- ing eddies of rain that threatened momentarily to turn into snow was conscious-ln spite of a gnawing hunger at the pit of her stomach, in spite of the thinness of her shoes and the razor edge of the wind whipping her skirts about her knees-of a sense of adventure.
 The job at Lacy's was already an old story to her. She had been in the chintz department for more than four weeks now, the lowliest of all the clerks. She had gone through the agonizing first weeks of learning to stand on her feet all day, amazed that the human body could stand so much pure torture without whimpering. At night it had been heaven to hobble back to her room to plunge those aching feet into a tub of warm water. Merely to rest, to sit perfectly still gazing into nothingness had been a sort of quivering bliss.
 She was past that stage now. She could make out a sales check color and .he designs: the Vic torian cabbage roses, the blue chintz with the white stag design
  ing, the stars in red and white and all the others. She knew which were 79 cents a yard and which were less. She felt some, times as though she never wanted to see a spray of hyacinths or funnel of delphinium again. If she had house of her own. she determined, sava gely cycling the pushing horde of women at the Monday sales, she would have the chairs upholstered in leather. the windows hung in oilcloth.
 This was Monday again. Half past eight. The doors of the big store would presently be flung open and women from Brooklyn, Staten Island. from Westchester, from up- town Park Avenue, from the and Teaneck would rush in. Five this sunproof, miss? How much do I need for chaise lounge slip cov- CT? My change come back yet? now?
 Already she heard their harsh, demanding, clamoring voices. The air would thicken. Scraps of paper would collect behind counters. Salesbooks would maddeningly lose themselves under bolts of material. The morning would drag on. She would go to lunch at half past II. Forty-five minutes for lunch. It wasn't much. It meant she might go no further than the drug store around the corner. Lacy's had a lunch-room for it's employees but after one or two half-hearted sort les upon it, finding the food all tasted curiously like old boiled cabbage, the girl had given it up in favor of the inevitable sandwich and soft drink which comprises the midday meal of so many thou sands.
 She was getting SIS a week now and thought 1t wonderful. True 1t was not enough-it was not nearly enough-to keep body and soul together in this, Americas greatest and richest city, but it en- abled her, in the days phrase. to "get by" That was all anyone ask ed
 Down in Greenwich Village in the apartment of large. friendly and rather untidy Mrs Mooney, she had . box of room for s5 a week. Sometimes when the weather was not too bad she walked to work, a matter of 20-odd blocks. She never walked at night. however. Her tired body protested that par ticular economy.
 At first when Russ had an- nounced he was going to Florida