The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-23

TINE trolley stopped at almost
Il every block of the snow
clogged avenue. Even in the middle
of the block, it sometimes jerked
to a standstill, changing inpatient
ly at an automobile trying to get
freehold in front of it on the icy
street.
Helen wished that she mad taken
the subway as usual instead of
yielding to a sudden impulse to
stay above ground. Every time the
car stopped, a small, impatient
tremor ran through her.
If only some of these girls who
felt that families were nuisances
would try going home from work
every evening to room with the
bed made but everything else just
as she had left it that morning.
And then have to sit down to one
of Mrs. Wiley's grease-coated meals
under Mrs Wiley's cold, hard, al
most hostile eye.
Mrs. Wiley was above taking
boarders. She accommodated
Helen as a favor to her married
daughter, who had stayed the pre-
Wous summer on the farm near
Peterdale.
1t was Mrs. Wiley's married
daughter who had told Helen that
Helens talents for drawing and
looking like a moving picture direc-
tors idea of farmers daughter
were being buried in Peterdale.
Wasn't it only common sense
to go to New York, where talent
and beauty We're rewarded with big
incomes and handsome husbands?
HELEN had been Gothamite
i Il for more than year now. She
had no husband, not even homely
one. She did not have beau. Her
big income had crystallized into
check for 500 month from a
daily newspaper for lettering work
in its art department.
What town. A family could
live next door to another family
Tor so years and never bake the
other cake if there was death
or a sickness. There were no
neighbors.
You might nod to office acquaint-
ances, but they forgot you the mo-
ment they got out of sight. And
romance! The kind New York was
advertised to have, like most adj
vertising, was lot of hooey.
New Workers must have friends.
She saw people chatting and
laughing together. But where did
they make them?
She had been reading one phrase
over and over so she closed the
book. 1t was more than a mile to
her corner, but the crowd had
thinned until there were no more
Standees. A little boy of about 4
stumbled against her knees, on his
way to the seat next to her. His
mother, with an infant in her arms
and 2-year-old staggering along
side, followed,
nONT do that, Jacket" the
Omother pleaded in a worn
voice.
That's all right. Let him stay"
Helen smiled.
The boy had clambered up on
his knees so that he could look out
of the window. His snow-covered
rubbers brushed Helens coat, but
she wanted them to. Something
worn and soft and friendly like a
kitten was beside her.
A young man, sitting directly
across from Helen, lowered his
newspaper to listen. He had a
stern, rugged face and Helen for
got all about 1t when she noticed
the young man sitting next to
him. The second young man was
artfully and completely arrayed in
gray tweed. You felt that he had
spent fortune slipping fabulous
tips to walters.
XXTHAT was he doing in street
w car? Being near him, by
some miracle, how did one get to
know such a one? Even he lowered
his gaze to the children. Next to
him determinedly youthful wom-
an, her face stiff with rouge and
her mouth grimly lipsticked, put
her vanity mirror away to gaze at
the children.
She smiled. The smile crept
down the length Of the car. Every
one hung on the Syllables of the
children. Something became vital
and alive for a few minutes.
Then the little girls eyes
dropped, and she leaned against
her mothers arm. The boy re-
sumed his dignified examination
of the street. The car returned to
its introspection. The gray-tweed
young man slipped back into his
boredom. the grim-faced young
man lifted his newspaper. But be-
fore he did so, he glanced at Helen.
Their eyes met and for a fleeting
second Helen felt tremblingly alive.
Then the feeling was gone and her
eyes as II magnetized, tua.~ hack
TO the handsome one. Her imag-
ination leaped all barriers.
The trolley car stopped with a
jerk. An elderly man, on his way
TO the exit. stumbled over Helen's
imaginary lovers feet, stuck out in
the aisle.
"nAM fool" the crotchety man
- muttered. Helen hated him.
She glanced out OF the window.
It Wnxt1d rnny4 10 xs,,.n -. 49,. ~