The evening world. Newspaper, September 13, 1915, Page 11

scepercceves sonepneesrersorevtenerereorensenee' i The Rose Garden Husband The Odd Romance of « Marr That Preceded « Courtship By Margaret Widdemer 1 wht debeid te dade SieB Dnt Bede faded Rbditebi hot tbe bebe: ibd wb tob bbb ® or ME liberty Teer ca talegy: card, eved the relentiossty slow clock an oe wree Of purest, frankert weariness, Then ohe gave a furtive glance around to eee if the child whe wae off @uard: for! Mf they knew the why Ourht to, and have to be lt was @ o'ele from Monday t her stare ate ent « reat of the y half holiday! her braced her ton her reading Glassen with a view to looking older end more fri Liberry Teacher,” it Might be well to explain, was not her the oMeial title, Her pay roll ran “Asistant for the © dren's Department, Greenway Hran City Public Library.” Grown-up Prople, when she happened to run Across them, called her Mins Hraith ite, But “Liberry Teacher” was the only name the children ever used, and she aaw seurcely anybody but the children, #ix days a week, fifty-one weeks a year. As for her real name, that nobody ever her by, that Phyllis Narcias. quite willing to have such that buried out of right Sho had a sense of ftw a such @ name belonged back in an old New Engiand pars we warden full of Pink roses and nice green caterpitiars and girl-dreams, and the days before she was eigiiteon; not in a smutty city brary, hed to a twenty-five « woman with reading fine discipline and a and wlasses woolen shirtwaist! It wasn't that the Liberry Teacher didn’t like her position, She not only liked it, but she had a great deal of Admiration for it, because it had been exceedingly hard to wet. She had held tt firmly now for a whole yea Hefore that she had been in the cataloguing, where your eyes hurt and you get # Little pain between your shoulders, but you sit down @nd can talk to other giris; and be- fore that in the Circulation, where it hurts your feet and you get ink on your fingers, bul you #ee lots of funny things happening. She had @tarted at eighteen years old, at $30 @ month, and she got all of $50, to a Now she was twenty-five, oO she ought have been a very happy Liberry cher indeed, and generally she When the children specify her particularly they de- woribed her as “the pretty one that Jaugh: But at 4 o'clock of a wet Saturday afternoon, in a badly venti- wanted to lated, badly lighted room full of damp little unwashed foreign chil- dren, even the most sunny hearted Liberry Teacher inay be excused for having thoughts that are a little tired and cross and restless. ange fung herself buck in her desk chair and watched, with brazen indif- ference, Giovanni and Liberata Bruno atickily pawing the colored "Bird Book that was supposed to be looked at only under supervision. She tgnored the fact that three little Czochs were fight- ing over the wailing library cat, aud the sounds of conflict caused by Jimsy Hoolan's desire to get the last surviving Alger book away from Joha Zanowski moved her not a whit. The Liberry Teacher had stopped, for five minutes, being grown up and responsible, and she was wishing— wishing hard and yengefully, This is always a@ risky thing to do, bey You never know when the Destinies ‘may overhear you and take you at your exact word, With the detailed and careful accuracy one acquires in library work, she was Wishing for a sum of money, ® garden, and a hus- nd—but principally a husband, Phis is why? That day as she was returning from her long-deferred twenty-minute dairy funch, she had charged, umbrella down, almost full into a pretty lady getting out of a shiny gray limousine. Buch an unnecessarily pretty lady, all furs and fluffles and veils and per- fumes and waved hair! Her cheeks were pink and her expression was piacid, and each of her white-gloved Nands held tight to a pretty picture Book child who was wriggling with wild excitement, One had yellow frilly hair and one had brown bobbed hair, and both were quaintly, immaculately, expensively kissable. They were the kind of chil- dren every girl wishes she id have a set like and hugs when she gets a chance. Mother and children were making their way, under an awning that crossed the street, to the matinee of a fairy play. The Liberry Teacher smiled at the children with more than her accua- tomed goodwill, and lowered her um- brella quickly to let them pass, The Mother smiled back, a smile that changed, as the Liberry Teacher passed, to puszied remembrance, Tho gay little family went on into the theatre, and Phyllis Braithwaite hur- ried on back to her work, trying to think who the pretty lady could have been, to have seemed to almost re- member her. Somebody who took books out of the library, doubtless Still the pretty lady's face did not seem to fit that conjecture, though tt worrle r by ite vague famil~ arity, Finally the solution came, just @s8 Phyllis was pulling off her raincoat in the dark little cloakroom, She nearly dropped the coat, “Eva Atkinson!" she sald Eva Atkinson! °° If it had been ybody else but Eva! You see, back in the long-ago, in the little leisurely windblown New England town, where Phyllis Braith- waite had lived till she was almoat eighteen, there had beea a Principal Grocer, And Eva Atkinson had been ‘his daughter, not so very pretty, not #0 very pleasant, not so very clev and about six years older t Phyllis, Phyllis, as she tried vainly te make her damp, straight hair go \ lifted ber eves from k of a tickily Wet Maturday Vriday the average library attendant porn oh teaoher; but the 4 id is having He relaxing Baturdey Over you as it acquires ite Bunday-reading best weller, if y Merary you begin just at noon to wieh devoutly v Bing by the day, or hack driving, or poreh « The Evening World Daily Magazine, Monday. September 13, 19158 |The Day of Rest t take more Me « erties than they vid but thot Ae day of th oft nd Coming to glow u work in 4 t you'd take mbing oF oe On earth back the way ould, remembered «ring 1 artied at come to thie city live, Hhe hu never beard re And this bh the grace of gold « ned, wonderful beautifully gowned, au twenty-four, perhe with a car and « placid Pression heaps of money, anu pretty, clean children! The err cher, severely work-garbed ana ther-drageled, jerked — hernelt away from the small greenish cloak room mirror that was unkind to you at your | Sho deshed down to the basement, harried by her usual paniestricken twenty minutes Int ling. Bho had only taken one he winnly supposing by befor br any left She felt as if she wanted to fairy tal Most people rather liked the face Phyllis saw in the mirror, but to her | own ¢ fresh from the dagsling | that Eva Atkinwon who had dy and a#tupid in the far. | back time when seventeen-year-old | Phyllis was “growin’ up as pretty as 4 picture,” the tired, twenty-five. rar-old, Workaday face in the green glass was dreadful. What made her fe *t--and she entertained the thought with a whimsical conacious- pet Of ite impertinent vanity—was that she'd had so much more raw material than Eva! And the world had given Eva a chance because her father was rich And she, Phyllis, was condemned to be tidy and accurate, and no more, just because she had to earn ter liv. ing. That face in the greenish glass, looking tirediy back at her! Sie gave a little out-loud cry of vexation now as she thought of ft, two hours later, “IL must have looked to Eva like a battered bisque doll--no wondor she couldn't place me!" she muttered crossly. And it must be worse and more or it now, because in the interval be- tween two and four there had been many little sticky fingers pulling at her sleeves and skirt, and you just have to cuddle dear little library children, even when they're not extra clean; and when Vera Aronsohn burst into heart-broken tears on the Liberry Teacher's blue woolen shoul- der because her pet fairy book was missing, she had caught several strands of the Teacher's yallow halr in her anguish, detriment Tt was straight, heavy hair, and it would have been of a dense and fluffy honey-color, only that it was tarnished for lack of the constant sunnings and brushings which blond hair must have to stay Its beat self. And her skin, too, that should 6 been a living rose-and-cream, was dulled by exposure to all weathers, and lack of time to pet ft with creams and powders; perhaps a little, too, by the very stupid things to eat one gets at a dairy lunch and boarding house. Some of the assistants did interesting cooking over the library gas rane, but the Liberry Teacher couldn't do that because she hadn't time She went on defiantly thinking about her looks. It isn’t a noble- minded thing to do, but when you might be so very, very pretty if you only had a little time to be it in— "Yes, 1 might!" said Phyllis to her shocked self defiantly, © © © Yea, the shape of her face was all right wtill, Hard work and scant attention couldn't spoll its pretty oval. But her eyes—well, you can't keep your eyes as blue and luminous and child- like as they were back in the New England country, when you have been using them hard for years in a bad light. And oh, they had been such nice eyes When she was just Phyllis Narcissa at home, ao large and blue and wondering And now the cataloguing had heav- ied the lida and etched a line between her straight brown brows, | They weren't decorative eyes now ef and they filled with indignant self- sympathy, The Liberry Teacher laughed at herself a little here, The idea of eyes that cried abovi them- selves was funny, somehow. “Direct from producer to consum- er!" she quoted half aloud, and wiped each eye cousclentiously by itself “Teacher! want a liberry ca ‘Bride of Lemon Hill!’ deman small citizen Just here,‘ teacher, she #Ays I must to have it! Phyiliis thought hard, But she had to search the pinned-up list of re- quired reading for schools for threo solid minutes before she bestow “The Bride of Lammermoor’ on thirteen-yeor-old daughter of Hun- gary “This is it isn't it, honey? she with the flashing smile for her children, among other adored her “Yes, ma'am, thank you, teacher,” said the thirteen-year-old gratefully; and went off to a corner, where she sat til closing time entranced over her own happy cholce, ‘The Adven- tures of Peter HKabbit,"’ with coiored pictures dotting it satisfactorily. The Liberry Teacher knew that it was her duty to go over and hypnotize the ehild into reading something which would lead more directly to Rrown- ing and Strindberg. But she didn't “Poor little wop!" she thought un- academically, “Let her be happy in her own way And tho Liberry Teacher herself went on boing unhappy in her own way, “I'm just a battered bisque doll!” sho repeated to herslf bitterly. But she was wrong. One is apt to exaggerate things on a workaday Saturday afternoon, She looked asked which things much to the hair's ON GET UP! OuR WEEK END Quests ARE GETTING UP ) WHY Can't) They NELP | | WITH THe »/ { HOUSE WORK 7} 3 | wey Cane HERE ) To REST. NOT To WON'T STAY she LONG — b) KEES ENP Gul: Ts ‘ hare KPECTCS! Bens MAKE HEIR OWN Bids ? “AT LEAST Trey) | YOuAQE UNREASONABLE MIGHT HELP wiry TOWN. GUESTS / WP DISHES ) NEVER, WoRK \ { AWAY Fron HOME | 4 ~ — \ - a, 4 | WE HAVE A SURPRISE } FoR You - WE Arne GOING To STAY A Few DAYS MoRE MWE LOVE IT HERE Shoes offiee f belewe te be tn » ie one of my obdent i om 1 thik 1 may say = oy patiaty oe ewer) lee i ohowid be @ yoursef wer ered ut of the his arm Mr ole difterent rome gar Hefore she wae fairly finished she knew what « silly question #he had asked. How could any line of work possibly have i? ark Ladder By 1) Whrarious t the in hooks Liberry Teacher didu't think that et all & courteous thing to de to Bo Mr. De Guemther's reply @ prised her oThere—neema—to bene son,” he wat A pla ‘it he were dropping his words ¥ one of & slot-—"why there should hot -be-a very satiefactory rope two-eonnected with kardon, or even tO None—-whatever.” ‘That was all the explanation he af. Hut the Liberry Teacher asked ons . "ON she sald rapturousty xpect you toemor= J; and emiled pe litely and moved to the door walked out ax matter-of~ if he had dropped in to wank t ing of “olreumfe: nmallpox, or the fame of Adam's house cat, or how long it woul her to do « graduation essay daughter or any such little things that librarians are prepared for mont ya And inatea row at hin neat gray elderly more like a pretty bisque figurin slim and clear-cut, and a little neg- lected, perhaps, by its owners, and dressed in working clothes instead of the pretty draperies |t should bave had; but needing only @ touch or so, a little dusting, so to speak, to be 4s good as ever. “Eva never was as pretty as I her rebellious thoughts went on, You think things, you know, that you'd never say aloud, “I'm sick of elevating the public! I'm sick of working hard fifty-one weeks out of fifty-two for board and lodg- ing and carfare and shirt waists and the occasional society of @ tew girls who don't get any more out of life than I do! I'm sick of libraries and Mf being efficient! I want to be a real girl! Oh, I wish—I wish IT had a lot of money, and a rose garden, and a husband The Liberry ‘Teacher was aghast at herself, She hadn't meant to wis such a very unmaidenly thing ard. She Jumped up and dashed across the room and began frantically to shelf- read books, explaining meanwhile with most violent emphasis to the listening Destinies: “I didn't—oh, I didn’t mean a real husband. It isn’t that I yearn to be married to some good man, like old maid in a Duchess novel, just want all the love things Eva has, or any girl that marries them, Without any trouble but taking care of a man. One man couldn't but be easier than @ whole roomful of library babies, 1 want to be looked after and have time to keep pretty, and w chance to make friends, and lovely frocks with lots of lace on them, and just months and months and months when I never had to do anything by @ clock-—and—and a rose garden!" This last idea was dangerous, It isn't & good thing, if you want to be contented with your lot,-to think of rose gardens in a stuffy city Nbrary o’ Saturdays; especially when where you were brought up rose gardens were one of the common necesaiti of life; and more especially when you are tired almost to the erying point, and have all the week's big sisters back of it dragging on you, d all its little sisters to come worrying you, and—time not up till six, But the Liberry Teacher went blind- ly on straightening shelves nearly as fast as the children could muse them up, and thinking about that rose gar- den she wanted, with files of mas- seuses and manicures and French maids and messenger boys with boxes banked soothingly behind every bush, And the thought became too beautiful to dally with, “I'd marry anything that would five me @ rose garden!” reiterated the Liberry Teacher passionately to the Destinies, who are rather catty ladies, and apt to ratch up unguarded remarks you make. “Anythin 1 it was a gentleman—and he scold me—and—and—1 didn't Have to nasoolate with him!!! her Ni England matdenliness dded in ha Then, for the librarian who cannot Jaugh, like the one who reads, js Supposed in library circles to be lost, Phyllis shook herself and laughed at herself a little, bravely. Then she collected the most uproartous of her flock around her and began telling them stories out of the “Merry Ad- ventures of Robin Hood." It would keep the children quiet, and her thoughts, too. She ut rose gardens, hot to say manicuristx and husbands, weverely out of her head. But you can't play fast and loose with the Destinies that way, “Done!! to her last they replied quietly schedule of requirements, “We'll send our messengers over right away.” It was not their fault that the Liberry Teacher could not hear them. CHAPTER II. EB was gray-haired, pink- cheeked, curvingly alde- whiskered and immaculate- ly gray-clad; and he did not look in the least like a messonger of fate. The Liberry Teacher was at a highly keyed part of her narrative, and even the moat fidgety children were tense and open-mouthed. “‘And where art thou now? cried the Stranger to Robin Hood. And Robin roa with laughter, ‘Oh, tn the flood, and floating down the stream with all the little fishes,’ sald he"-—~ she was relating breath- lassly. “Tea-cher!" hissed Isaac Rabino- wits, snapping his fingers at her at this exciting point. “Teacher! There's & muy wants to speak to you!” “Aw, shut-tu) chorused his indix- nant little schoolmates, “Can't you see that Teacher's tellin’ a story? Go chase yerself! Go do @ tango roun’ de block!" Isaac, & small Polish Jew with tragic, dark eyes and one suspender, received these and several more auch suggestions with all the calm im- penetrability of his race, “Here's de guy,” was all he vouch- safed before he went back to the un- social nook where, afternoon by faith- ful afternoon, he read away at a fat three-volume life of Alexander Hum- Alton, The Liberry Teacher looked up without stopping her story, and smiled a familiar greeting to the eld- erly gentioman, who was waiting a little uncertainly at the Children's Room door, and had obviously been looking for her in vain, He smiled and nodded in return, “Just @ minute, please, Mr, De Guenther,” said the Liberry Teacher cheerfully, The elderly gentleman nodded again, crossed to Isaac and hia ponderous volumes, and began to talk to him with that benign lack of haste which usually means a very competent per. sonality, Phyllis burried somewhat with Robin Hood among his little fishes, and felt happler. It was al- ways, in her eventless life, something of @ pleasant adventure to have Mr. De Guenther or his wife drop in to wee her, There was usually some- thing pleasant at the end of it. They were an elderly couple whom #he had known for aome vears. Thoy were so leisurely and trim and gentle spoken that long ago, when she was only # timorous substitute behind the circle of the big charging desk, she had picked them both out as people you'd like If you got the chance, Then she had waited on them and identified them by their cards an be- longing to the same family. Then, one day, with @ pleased little quiver he had found him tn the city Who age, profession (he & corporation lawyer), middle nm and all. was names, favorite recre: Gradually she had come to know them both very well in @ walting-on way. She often chose love stories that ended happily and had colored ‘lustrations for Mrs, De Guenther neck, and the seven times peven to when #he was at home having rheu- come making her want to scream. matiam; she hud saved more detective few things can possibly happen to you, stories for Mr, De Guenther than her no matter how goo you are, when qusions asi ce ang once she you work by the day, had found lack rimmed eye- " And now maybe somothing—oh, corer ere 0 pad left them be- pease, the very smallest kind of a ee! pages of the Pri-Zuz vol something would be welcomed!—was Une of the encyclopedia and mailed going to occur. Maybe Mra. De Guen- them to him. ther had sent her a ticket to @ con- srcvten she had {Anlhed temporarily cert; she had once before. Or maybe aight jato the nunnery promo- 4 tion of the cataloguing room the De iM LE SM ca Redo | Guenthers had still remembered her, {hime while you're ive teat Twice she had Been asked to Sunday tedden dinner at their house, and had joy- ously gone and remembered tt as Joy= bie eyes burned t the Idea, ously fer months afterward, Now °"|; that she was out in the light of par. _ “But I really shouldn't wish,” abe tial day again, In the Children’a Room, Teminded her prancing mind be- ® Fan acrows both of them every latedly, “He may only have come tle while in her errands upstairs; down to talk about the weath and once Mrs, De Guenther, Jor- Mayn't any of it be true,” gnetted and gray-clad, had been So she stood up straight and shown over the Children's Room, gravely an danawered very courteously The couple lived all alone in a ®"4 holding-tightly all the amtable roundabout remarks the old gentie- man was shoving forward like pawns district, She had alwaya thought that 08 & chessboard before the real game if whe were a Theosopohist se would begins. She answered with the same try to plan to have them for an uncle trained cheerfulness she could give and aunt in her next incarnation, her library children when her head They suited her exactly for the parts, 4nd her disposition ached w id But it's a long way down to the even warmed to @ vicious enthusiasm basement where city libraries are apt over the state of the atreets and the to keep their children, and the De wetnes the damp weather. Guenthers hadn't been down there “Ie knows lots of real things to since the last time they asked her to y," ahe complained to herself, dinner, And here, with every sign of “why doesn’t he aay them, instead of having come to say something very talking editorials? I suppose this is special, stood Mr. De Guenther! pix bedside—no, lawyern don't have VPhyilis's irreprossibly cheerful dispo- bedside mannere—well, hin sition gave 4 little Jump toward the manner, then"—— great, handsome old house that was being crowded now by the business ght. But she went on with her Tt |g dificult to think and listen at story—bustness before pleasure! the same time; by this time she had However, sho did manage to get missed a beautiful long paragraph Robin He t of his brook a litt about the Street Cleaning Depart- more quickly than she had planned She scattered her children with a swift executive whisk, and made #0 straight for her friend that she de- ingly in his wife's English hand, and colved the children into thinking they Was saying, were going to seo hit expelled, and "—which she has asked me to de- they banked up and watched with an- Iver, I trust you have no imperative ticipatory grins. engagement for to-morrow night.” ment; and something else, apparent- ly. For her friend was holding out to her @ note addressed to her flow- do hope you want to see me Something had happened! ally,” she said brightly. “Why, no!’ sald the Liberry children, disappotuted, relaxed Teacher delightedly. “No, indeed! their attention Thank you, and her, too. I'd love to Mr. De Guenther rose slowly and Be. neatly from his seat beside the rather | “Teacher!” clamored a small choco- bored Isaae Rabinowitz, who dived late-colored citizen in a Kewple nook again with alacrity, muffler, “my maw she want’ a book afternoon, Miss Braithwaite,” call’ ‘Ugwin!' She say it got a yel- said in the amtably pre low cover an’ pictures {n {t."" ich matched #9 admirs “Just a moment!" suid Phyllis; and vutifully precise movements and sent him upstairs with a note asking culate gray spa’ "Yes. In for “Hugh Wynne" in the two-vol- uage of our young friend ume edition, Bhe was used to trans- m the guy.’ lating that amall colo: boy's de- mands. Last week he had described to her @ play he called "Kas' Limb,” with the final comment, “But tt wan't Phyllis «igmled before she thought. Some people in the world always make your spirits go up with a bound, and the De Guenther palr invariably 2@ geod. "Twant no Iimb in it any- had that effect on her, whar, ner no trees atall!” "Oh, Mr. De Guenther!" ahe said, “Do you have much of that? Mr, “Lam shocked at you! That's slang!’ De Guenther asked idly “It was more in the nature of a “Lots!” said Phyllis quotation, aid he apologetically, “You take spectal training in guess- “And how are you this exceedingly work at library school, They call unpleasant day, Miss Trailliwalie? thom ‘teasors.’ 3 y they're We have seen very little of you late- ly, Mra, De Guenther and I’ ‘The Liberry Teacher, gracefully re- Spectful in her place, wriggled with Invisible impatience over this carefully polite conversational opening. He had come down here on purpose to see her there must be something going to happen, even if it was only a request to save seven-day book for Mra, De Guenther! — Nobody ever wanted something, any kind of @ something, to happen more wildly than the Li- berry Teacher did that bored, stlckily ye absently in the barside manner. And then, aitting calmly with his silvery head against a Washington's Birthday poster so that three scarlet erries stuck above him in the man- of a ecalp-lock, ald something elee remarkably real: “| have—we have—a little matter of business to discuss with you to- morrow night, my dear; an offer, I may say, of a different line of work, And I want you to satisfy yourself wet Saturday afternoon, with those thoroughly thoroughly, my dear tired seven years at the Greenway child, of my reputableness, Mr, Branch dragging at the back of her Johnstone, the chief of the city leony ithe had left with her, the Liberry Teacher, her, dusty, tousled, shopworn Phyllis Braithwaite, an invitation to consider a Line of Work which wan so mys- terlously Different that she had to look up the xpotiens De Guenther rep- utation before ahe camel ‘One jones track of time, staring at a red George Washington por wondering about a future wit den Different Line in it, * was ten minutes past putting-out- children time! Sho stared aghast at the ruthless clock, then created two Monitors for Putting Out at one royal av ep, She managed tho nightly evic~ tion with such gay expedition that it almost folt like y Prd bebo the place, except for the pride-swollen Mt as cleared. While these the commonalty upstairs toward the umbrella rack, the Liberry Teach- er paced sedately around the shelves, giving the books that routine straightening they must have before seven struck and the horde rushed In again, It was really her relieving officer's work, but the Liberry Teach- er felt that her mind needed atraight- ening, too, and this always seemed to do it. She looked, as she moved slowly down among the shelves, very much Uke most of the librarians you see; alert, pleasant, slender, a little dishe elled, a little worn, But there was really no librarian there. There was only Phyllis ‘arcissa—that dreaming young Phyllis who had had to stay pushed out of sight all the seven ye that Miss Braithwaite had been effi- clently earning her living, She let her mind stray happily as, far as it would over the possibilities Mr. De Guenther had held out to her, and woke to discover herself trying to find a place under “Domestic Econ- omy—Condiments" for “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.” She laughed aloud in the suddenly empty room, and then lifted her head to find Mins Black, the night duty girl that week, standing in the doorway ready to relieve guard, ‘Oh, Anna, #ee what I've done’ she laughed. Somehow everything seemed merely ight hearted and laughable since Mr. De Guenther's most fairy tale visit, with its wild hints of Lines of Work. Anna Black came, looked, laughed. * ghe sald. back seemed “Well, by the time it's Si urday, Dolly Gral o od mammy said she'd lost hor mit- 4 in the reading roon and the first they knew Dolly was hunting through the Woollen Goods classifica- tion, and Mary Gayley pawing the dictionary wildly for m-l-t!” “And they found the mittens hung around her neck by the cord,” finish- ed the Liberry Teacher. “IT know—It was a thrilling story, Well, good-by till Monday, Anna Black. I'm goin, home now, to have some lovely prune and some real dried beef, and maybe A Rlasx of almost milk if T can per- suade the landlady I need tt." Mine prefers dried apricots,” re- sponded Miss Black cheerfully, “but she never has anything but canned milk in the house, thus sparing us the embarrassment of asking for real, Good-by-Kood luck!" But as the Liberry Tenched pinned her serviceable hat close, and fast- ened her still good raincoat over her elderly sweater, neither prunes nor mittens nor next week's work worried her at all. After all, Hving among tho fairy stories with the Little People makes that pleasant land where want- ing is having, and all the Imponsibill- ties can come true, very easy of ac. cous. Phyllis” Braithwalte's mind, as phe picked her way down the be- » draggied street, wandered Innocently off in a dream-place full of romes, till the muddy marble # lig place gleamo through the foggy rain, She sat up la that night, doing improving things’ to the white net waist that went with her best suit, which was black, As her needa ibbled heavily down the seams she ‘ontinued heavily to wonder about that entirely Different Line, It sound- ed to her more like @ reportership on 4 vellow journal than anything else imaginable, Or, perhaps, could she be wanted to joln the Seoret Service? “At any rate,” she concluded light- heartodly, as she stitehed the last clean ruching into the last wrist- covering, sedate sleeve, “at any rate I'll have a chance to-morrow to wear \f By Bertrand Ww. Sinclair And the went t0 bed~ Rentirety Infterent Lines ai of (ne raiwbew, that sated the Circalaties Deas Nes tight eee the never remembered oone carefully pretied 4 con vivid, work worn see at Oh only dreamed that at the the pa very herd one te walh-—there reer -gar acy like «pe quilt, where ghe Was to be. CHAPTER 11 NEN Phytite woke sent morning everything tm the W world had a leht-hearted, holiday felting Her tum day”, gloriously = wnessm pied. generatiy did, but this was re special, The rain had mam ened to clear away every vestign of lant week's slush and had them iteelt thoat unselfishly retired down the gut te The #un shone as if May had come, and the wind, through the Lae berry Teacher's window, had @ *Pringy, pusay-willowy, come-forma- walk-in-the-eountry feol to it. She found that she had slept too late to ge to church, and prepared for # joyful dash to the boarding house wi There might be—whe knew out thon actually might be—on this day of days, ough hot water for a real bat! 1 fowl an If everything was coing to be lovely all day!" she said, without preface to old black Maggie, who was clumping her accustomed bed- way along the halls, with her head tied up in ber Sunday sil kerchief, Kven she looked happier, Phyilie thought, than she had yeater- day, She grinned broadly at Phyllia, caning smilingly against the door ip her kimono. “Ah dunno, Mine Braithways,” she said, and entered the room and wok a pillow case corner in her mouth. “Ab never has dem premeditationa! Phyllis laughed frankly, and Mag- «ie, much flattered at the happy re- coption of her reply, grinned so wide- ly Uhat you might almost have ted her mouth behind her ears. You sure is a cheerful Miss Hraithways!” said Maggie, and went on making the bed, ‘ Phyllis fed on down the hall, ing still She had just reme another of old Maggie's com: made on one of the rare occasions when Phyllis had sat down and oung to the boarding house piano, (@he hadn't been able to do It long, be- cause the Mental Sclenee Lady ou thie next floor had sent down word it stopped her from concentrating, and as she had a very expensive room there was nothing for the landlady to do but make Phyllis stop.) Phyllis had come out in the hall to find old Maggie listening rapturously. “Oh, Miss Braith 48 she found the bathroom doar Why, the world was full of a ‘aurnbet of things, many of them funny, ing a Liberry Teacher was rather after all, when you were fresh fro long night's sleep. And if that Mem- tal Science Lady wouldn't let her play te plano, why, her thrilling tales what she cowd do when her Was unfettered were worth the price, ‘That story she told so seriously how the pipes buret--and the plumt wouldn't come, and “My dear, I gave those pipes only half an hour's bs ment, and they closed right up!” was quite as much ¢un—well, as much—hearing he: have been to play ° © © All of the contented, and otherwise, elderly people who ins habited the boarding house Phyllis appeared to have gone without using hot water, for actually was @ome, The Literry Teacher found that she could have a genuine bath, and have enot water besides to wash her hair, which ia @ rite all girls who work have to re- serve for Sundays, This was sureiy a day of days! She used the water—alas for selfish human nature!—to the last warm drop and went gayly back to her little room with po emotions what- ever for the poor other boarders, soon to find themselves wrathfully hot-waterless. And then—she thought. leasly curled down on the bed, slept and slept and slept! She wake ened dimly in time for the 1 o'clock dinner, dressed, and ate it in a half- sleep. She went back upstairs plan: ning a trolley ride that should take her out in the country, where 4 long walk might be had. And midway in changing her shoes she lay back across the bed ant—foll asleep again. The truth was, Phyllis was about as tired as a girl can get. She waked at dusk, with a jerk of terror lest she should have overglept her time for going out, But {t was only 6. She had a whole hour to prink in, which is @ very long time for peo- ple who are used to being in the lk brary half an hour after the alarm wakes them. Some houses, all of themselves, and before you meet a soul who lives in them, are silently indifferent to you. Some make you feel that you are not wanted in the least; these usually have a lot of gilt furniture, and what are called objects of art set stiffly about. Some seem to be having an untidy good time all to themselves, in which you are not included. The De Guenther house, staid and softly toned, did none of these things, It gave the Liberry Teacher, in her neat, last best suit, a foollag as of gentle welcome home, She contented and quick-smiling, 6 Mrs. De Guenther came rustling gently. in to greet her, ‘Then followed Mr, De Guenther, pleasant and unperturbed 48 usual, and after bim an a back-arching gray cat, who had copied his master's walk as exactly as it can be done with four fee, . (To Be Continued.) . is H { | 4 4 4