The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-08-03
By Margaret Sangster

but he fitted easily into Marcia's en-
and that was more impor-
tant to her than beauty.
"This is a slick place." he said, as
Cora took his hat and topcoat and
stick. tits a perfect setting for you,
Miss Blake. I'm tickled to death that
you're entertaining me, instead OF the
other way around. No restaurant could
compete with this"
"You haven't been anywhere yet, or
seen anything" Marcia told him gayly,
and was glad that she'd worn a gray
green frock from the house Of Chanel.
Cora brought in the frosted shaker
and thin waters spread with an en-
ticing mixture of cream cheese and
pimento and caviar, and after a while
there vas dinner. It was a mans din
ner Of broiled filet mignon and baked
mountain squash and tender new lima
beans-with a salad of colorful vege-
tables and Roquefort (not crumbled, but
in goodly chunks) with wee cream
topped strawberry tarts. Marcia's tart
hadn't any cream ON it, and with cof-
fee served in lovely fragile cups in
front of the glimmering hearth.
To Marcia the dinner was a dream
meal. There was nothing concrete or
substantial about it, even the steak
lacked substance even the Roquefort
was gossamer! She knew that she had
talked constantly, but for the life Of
her she didn't know what she'd said.
10 Karl Logan, however, the food
had reality.
boy and man." he told Marcia, IT
haven't eaten so we'll for 20 years. How
do you manage with this miraculous
Cora to keep your figure?" His eyes al
so added, land such a figure"
Marcia only smiled. She was WON
dering what the rest of the office would
say if they know that she, who had al
ways discouraged the more personal of
i~nteroffice contacts, was falling for the
new advertising head. She was wonder
ing also how soon it would be decent
to let Karl Logan kiss her. Never in
the whole of her efficient, neat life
had she wanted anything so desper-
ately as she wanted the pressure of his
lips on hers.
It was nearly a month later that
Karl did kiss her at that-although
by the end of the first week Marcia
was using every feminine weapon she
had in her possession she was being
prodigal with the most expensive of
her perfume; she was spending reckless
amounts for sheer chiffon stockings,
and she was making every possible ex-
Gus for advertising conferences.
She had Karl for dinner as often as
three times a week-on at least two of
the other evenings she went with him
to theaters and night clubs. She wore
his flowers, brazenly, to the office. She
ven bought an entirely superfluous
krimmer jacket because a saleswoman
showing it, had cooed, "Oh, it does suit
modom. It makes modom look like a
BRIDE"
And yet, despite all this, and a half
hundred other subtle methods of in
vitation - Karl Logan took his time
about it and kissed her just a month
after the day of their meeting. It was
on a drizzly evening, when they were
working late and alone, when Marcia's
wave, and temper were both slightly
relaxed. She had dipped her pen into
an overcrowded inkwell and the ink
had splashed and a drop had landed
On her unsullied linen vestee and an
other drop had splashed wetly against
her nose. And she said:
"Oh, damn!" And Karl Logan had
leaned acros her desk and kissed her.
"And that" said he, "is that! It'll
teach you not to use naughty words,
my dear"
Marcia's heart had assembled until it
made a lump Is painful as thyroid in
her upper throat. She said:
"Why KARL" family and lifted her
eyes-with the expression of a good
puppy In them-to the mans downbent
face. Obviously she had expected an
encore, but Karl Logan, a trifle more
florid of complexion than usual, had
laughed and said:
I'm sorry, Marc; forget it. It's just
that you looked so cute with your nose
smudged-I'm only human"
Awkwardly Marcia dabbed at the for
gotten drop Of ink. There had been
something so warm and tremulous in
the touch Of Karl's mouth that her
soul sang strange, exultant words. But
even as the song grew came the realiza-
ton that he was back again at his page
Of proofs-talldng advertising and lay
out and sales resistance. And so the
song died.
She didn't ask him to dinner that
night despite the fact that she'd told
Cora to get mutton chops, "just in
case" She went home alone with such
a futtery feeling in her tummy that
she couldn't manage more than a cup
Of tea. And that night, although she
sat with a book in her hand for over
two hours, she didn't read q word. She
couldn't because Karl Logan's face kept
getting between the page and her hand.
Marcia's secretary said to Karl To-
gan's secretary:
Are we going to have to get to-
gether and buy a cut glass punch bowl
for your boss and miner"
Karl Logan's secretary said:
you're asking me? But at least he
isn't two-timing-he hasn't any other
names on his calendar"
The rest Of the organization won
dered, too, more or less d~iscreetly. They