The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1937-02-18
GHAPTER vII-Continued
b. Mabel Osgend Wright

il
Seated al his office desk Emery
Ssncc was planning for his foul
days absence and in doing so Dor
,owed trouble at every turn. He
vas tired. yes, very tired mentally
II Gas only during the last hour
that this sense Of utter fatigue hae
focused. and the depression thus
brought about made him question
for the first time since he had sci
nis hand to the money pillow if, after
ali. the brain tracking anxiety
brought sufficient reward.
Now he saw that the balance be-
tween the two factions of the board
81 directors. for and against him,
vas becoming uncomfortably even.
S1hs words Of his mothers last let
isss would blend with those that
he wa, debating and her face
seemed TO press close to his, while
stc trieI to draw his head upon
her shoulder as she had done in
Tie old days when he had been
s:irI.i by boyish disappointment.
Ten his grip returned and he die
:.ted so fast that The usually tire
less Kitty Mack first ~hesitated. then
ASKED him to repeat.
THAT will do for today" he said
presently. "Any letters that come
OF Thursday or Friday must wait
until I return unless they are per-
sonal and urgent.
by the way. Miss Mack, here is
your Christmas present, next year
it will be doubled and after the
first Of the coming January your
salary will be thirty dollars a week
instead Of twenty-five as at present.
It seems to me that you are the
only clerk in the Office who works
ccnscientiously instead of maneu-
vering to shirk and who also under
stands my methods"
Kitty received her check quietly,
expressing her thanks so deliberate
ly that Vance, wheeling his chair
about, asked in his quick nervous
speech: rs there anything the mat
ter, have ! forgotten to sign it?"
mo, nothing the matter with the
check, sir, the trouble is witt me
I've been meaning to tell you all
the week that I'm going to leave
the first of February"
You? You are going to leave
me in the lurch!"
mo. not that way at all. I'm
giving a full months notice and
I've trained Miss Price so that If
you let her take dictation here in
your Office with me through JAN
uary. she'll get your ways and do
better work in future than / could,
because you see-my mind wouldn't
be all on the job and hers will"
who is it that has offered you
niorc?" To Vance there was only
one possible cause for her announce
nent and his face grew hard and
his words had a cutting edge.
Jim - Jim Hughes. Mr.. Vance,
I'm going to marry him."
what does he do for a living?"
Hes an engineer in the A. R. T.
Locomotive works"
"How much does he make a
week."
Twenty five dollars and over
time, besides being in line for pro-
motion"
Vance jumped from his chair in
his excitement and stood before
Kitty.
do you NEAR to say that you
are such a big fool as to refuse a
salary of thirty dollars a week in
order to marry a man who makes
only twenty-five, and then tell me
he is offering you more than L?
Think it over, girl. the idea of try
ing to keep house for two and no
body knows how many more, on
less than you have for yourself
alone! All this Christmas fuss and
that ring you are wearing has
turned your head"
"Mr. Vance!" There was some
thing new in Kitty's usually rather
1ippant tone that made him stop
short. when you rich people mar
ry, If you start to add up accounts
to know what you are getting. does
not the man 60 in the asset column?