The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-28
HE LOVES ME!
CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVI
 Tn the morning, Beatrice regard. cd her black store dress with dis satisfaction, before she put 1t on.
 T want to look beautiful fol Anthony" she thought. T want ! dress like some of those al some
 All those dresses, hanging irl the closets in the apartment or Park Avenue, were as far away as if they were on some other con- tinent. The jewelry in the antique silver box, the rows of slippers and hats, were useless now.
 "All I've got Is this. Yet An ttony fell in love with me. He didn't fall in love with my clothes, or my haircomb or my car. I have nothing. Nothing at all. He fell in love with me-"
 "What time did you get in last night?" Toby demanded, from the kitchenet. where she was pour ing coffee. Terry stayed until practically dawn and still you didn't come :" She yawned. '.Another day. As they say in the army, another day, another dollar. A million days, million dollars. Oh, Vera, what in thunder were you and Terry fighting about? You kept me awake"
 aThe same old thing" Vera shrugged. She looked more beau- tiful than ever, this morning. Her brown eyes had such thick, silky lastes; and her flve-feet nine inches of lovely curves under the navy blue crepe illustrated afresh why she was constantly phoned about modelling jobs which she never took. "If I married Terry, I'd live on 1e-Millimeter film, bulbs"
 "You're such far seeing wench," said Toby. "Why do you pick up these wet smacks and then make them miserable be- cause you can't marry them?" Astonishingly, vera's red lips twisted, and her eyes filled with tear& "You know whyl" she cried harshly. Lend me a dime for carfare and shut up!"
 After she was gone. Beatrice look cd at Toby, bewildered.
 "Vera," Toby explained slowly, '.is h love with Jake Simon. He's half, her size, and has shrewish little wife"
 Jake Simon" Beatrice said. I've heard that name somewhere before, haven't IF"
 He's her boss. Every season his firm almost goes under, and every season Vera sticks it out, getting paid now and then. That's why she won't work anywhere else, don't you see? She could make thousands if shed only take the fashion and posing jobs that come her way! But. :"
 Toby washed the coffee cups viciously. Dear old Huntington's keeps Jake Simon SO broke he can't buy his wife of with ali- mony. They keep cutting prices, else, and that would ruin him. A lot of the better dresses upstairs are his.
 "Oh, it's mess! vera's loyal, and Jake's really swell guy, if weird looking. Anyway, that's just one of the things that makes me hate Huntington's! What that store does to peoples lives!'
 Beatrice averted her face, care- fully. T didn't know Huntington's $ was such an ogre. What else does the store do?"
 Tt would take me 8 week. Getz for instance. No pension. And all those hardworking saps in the oflce, who do Bruce Sheldrake's s job for him at about one-twelfth the salary. And manufacturers like Jake. pushed to the wall be- cause Huntington's pares prices tc the bone.
 Maybe that's the manage. ment," Beatrice suggested slowly Perhaps the people who TUT Huntingtons don't know about -
 You mean the Duchess?" Toby inquired shortly. Huh! That darne's so busy keeping an Italian prince or whatever he is, sht hasn't time to find out about al the girls her own age and just a! good as she is, too, who live or nothing and wark like slaves st she can run around to Palm Spring and Hawaii and Soutt America. Did you see that in thu paper? She went to South Amer. ica."
 Beatrice's throat closed up sWe1l be late.'
 As she hung up her things 1T her locker, she longed for ant dreaded the moment when sh, would see Anthony. Her fac' burned, remembering their kiss would 1t be the same, when sh' saw him again?
 She thought, too, of what Fob.