The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1938-04-22
The Man She Won
A modern romance of life in the
Nations Capital by Washington writer.
By Phyllis Moore Gallagher

before. She was small, dark per.
son, very thin, shockingly pale,
neatly but shabbily dressed.
ELVA REMEMBERS
But Isabel knew who she was.
She had recognized the girl in
stantly. She was remembering
wildly that shopping tour at Mar
tineau's, this girls nervousness
and confusion as she had taken
negligees down from a long, silver
rack, dropping most of them; she
was remembering having had the
girl discharged afterward for her
incompetence and her 1mperti-
nence!
She thought, her heart sus-
pended: Why, she's probably
been trailing me ever since!"
Aloud she said: How dare you
follow me here? What do you
want?"
Elva Matthews smiled a little.
She ignored Isabel and turned to
Gloria. She said, softly: II should
like to see my son, Mrs. KENT
should like to see Jock"
Gloria's heart stood still for a
moment. Then the realization of
who this girl waS-Jock's mother!
ran quickly across the room and
caught Elva's hands in her own.
She said: "Oh, my dear-my dearI
Il can't believe it," And then
she went on, the words tumbling
one upon the other: "Oh, Jocks
adorable, Mrs. Matthews. I'm
aching for you to see him. He's so
big and well and strong and
so completely precious. Wait
I'll get him!"
Elva Matthews placed a detain-
ing hand on Gloria's arm. She
said, quietly Not just yet-not for
moment. May I sit down? I want
to say few things first. To you,
Mrs. Callman-and to you, Mrs.
Kent"
CAME TO SEE BABY
Gloria pulled out a little yellow
satin chair for Elva Matthews and
sat down in it's mate beside her.
Isabel, leaning back on the sofa,
was suddenly a little bored. Now
that Elva Matthews had come, OBJ
viously not to make an issue of
losing her job, but to see her baby,
she was intensely relieved and anx-
ious to get away.
She said, languidly: IF you two
can spare me, I'd like to dash
along"
Elva Matthews eyes grew wide.
She said: please stay, Mrs. Call
man. I think you'll be interested
in what I have to say"
Isabel shrugged, thrust a ciga-
rette in a long, jeweled holder, lit
it, and drew on it slowly.
She said, sweetly: eff telling me
will help you any, Of course I'll
stay, my dear"
CHAPTER xxx
"I'll have to go way back to
the beginning so you can under
stand the whole thing" Eva Mat
thews told Gloria and Isabel as
she faced the two women.
When Elva Matthews was 10
years old she became aware that
there was something in life be.
yond the dismal ugliness Of the
section where she lived with her
mother and father and her broth.
er, Ralph.
Her father had been a univer.
sity professor in the history de-
partment, her mother had been
an instructor in biology at the
same institution.
The other children'S fathers
worked in the Callman factory,
ran shops, markets. wheeled vege'
table carts through the streets.
Their mothers were a strange as
sortment of fat and skinny wom-
en-, invariably slovenly.
They were not in the least like
her own mother, who was small
and neat and quietly pretty.
you must not play with those
children" her father had eau.
toned Ralph and she, severely.
Some day you'll understand why,
dear"
She had understood at IL. She
had picked up little by little the
whole story of her fathers life.
His health had broken when he
was still very young professor
of thu university
He had had little money and
had determined to make it last
until his death. The river section
had been an economical. solution.
All along her father had writ.
ten feverishly, an article for a
magazine. a short story for a lit
erary market, that brought in
checks occasionally. but more
often rejection slips.
ELVA'S INFRINGING
And so, because she was allowed
no contacts with other children
she found friends in books. She
soaked up reading like sponge.
Still her views on life were only
half-formulated the year she was
16.
1t had to do with the heroineS
of books, burning pride in their
beauty and a passionate admira-
ton for the fashionable young
men who pursued them through
pages of fiction.
Her fathers death. followed in
less than a year by her mothers,
and Ralph's sudden, quick mar
riage to little lilly UpShaw. who
lived in the flat over her fathers