The evening world. Newspaper, December 10, 1921, Page 14

2 THE EVENING WORLD'S FICTION SECTION, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1921. Me ee fis mind, Some chap might db a good play, he thought, about dual personal- ity. There were angles of that sub- ject that the theatre hadn't touched. It wasu't for him; he was through with writing plays. Not for $50,000 In ad- vance royalties would he go through such an experience again, Still, the Idea was interesting. Before the train had passed Engle- wood he called the porter and asked for one of those small tables they give you on Pullman's. He got paper and pencil from his bag. The last call for luncheon found him completely ab- sorbed in the scenario of his first act. He wondered if, perhaps, he oughtn’t to wive Frobert from Cleveland and let him know what he was doing, UT at Cleveland he was too busy to think of sending a ‘ telegram, intrigued him so much. acters came to life and compelled him to recast his first act. A girl more fas- cluating than any he had ever known danced into the action, to his bewil- dered delight—he hadn’t thought of her at all. He stopped and did think about her--niade little sketches of her at the He frowned as he tried to think of an actress who could play her, Then he wrote some more. He got up abruptly, was on a train, The table tripped him, and he scrambled into the aisle with- out any dignity at all, convinced that his shins would never be the mucit Never had an idea Char- side of his paper. forgetting he same again, “Look here,” he said to a girl in the section opposite his, “Suppose you were in love with a man, and had quarreled With him, and wanted to make up, but wanted hiny to make the frst move, how would you make him do it?” She looked up, not smiling exactly, and yet distinctly amused. It struck Stockton as extremely curious that the description he had set down on papel of the girl in his play should so exactly fit this young woman whom he had never seen before, and whom he hadn't noticed at all on the way from Chi- cago. “Well,” way, and I might do it another, It's she said, “I might do it one absurdly simple, of course.” “Oh!” said Stockton rather blankly. “| thought it would be hard.” Now she laughed, She laughed quite pleasantly, because she had very pretty, very even, very white teeth, and her lips were redder than lips usually are, Also her jaugh broke her tuce into bewitching creases, and made her nose wrinkle in «a manner odd and interest- ing. “Not at all!’ she assured him with decision, “Of course, if you'd turned your question around-—-if you wanted to make «a man do it--then it wouldn't be hard; it would be impossible! but a girl! Oh, dear—there are so many ways! She might be ill—interestingly iil, you know. Or she might arrange some situation so that he would be frightfully in the wrong. ‘Tell me—how serious a quarrel are they having’? Ave they still You'd better tell me just how speaking to one another’ things are—then I may be able to suggest something,” « That seemed sensible. And when, af- ter au time, they were informed that if they wanted any dinner at all they'd have to go back to the dining-car, it was the most natural thing in the world for them to go together, and keep on Stockton There was talking while they dined, found this girl charming. no nonsense about her, She understood his’problem perfectly; she took an in- He didn't have terms, He was telligent interest in it. to explain technical surprised and pleased, because most of the women he knew when he found himself talking to them about made him frightfully uncomfortable. They looked soulful, and sald it must be so interesting to write plays, and asked him how he got his ideas? Did he wait for inspiration? Diays, This young woman didn't act in that silly fashion at all, Moreover, she was, he discovered, extremely attractive “Here's a Tunny thing!" he told her “Most curious coincidence! I was sit- ting there, writing—just scribbling down rough notes But 1 hga a per- fectly definite idea about the character of Helen. [ described her, And the description fits you perfectly! Listen!” He found the page and read: “‘Helen—about twenty-three. Mod- ern young woman—extremely smart and up-to-date. Slender—not too tall. Brown haii~almost red,-but not quite. Beautiful complexion, but doesn't look as if it came down from a shop—a little bit tanned. Small hands and feet— slender ankles, Nose turns up a little bit, Isyes quite large—sort of dark gray color with long lashes—they laugh a good deal, Dimple in left cheek. Very pretty rather than beautiful’ "—- He stopped, because the young woman was, it seemed, on the verge of hysterics. He frowned. Nothing he had said struck him as funny. “Well,” he said rather sulkily, “that description does fit you. And it’s queer, because I never saw you before I wrote it [ suppose you were sitting across the aisle, but { was so busy I didn't notice you,’ “{tUs—it's just a coincidence, as you say,' she gasped, -She rose. "I sup- pose you're not going to smoke?” He considered the thoughtfully. ' “Why, yes,’ he said, “I'd better have a cigarette, [| think. I'll be able to work better afterward. i thought of if.’ Hg went off gratefully to the club suggestion hadn't al the iden of seeing it to-morrow morning that IT don’t suppose I'll sleep a wink to-night. I've come all the way from California since Monday morn- ing.” He felt rhapsodic about New York. He didn’t exactly remember why, but he did know that he had climbed on this train with Te Deums bursting for utterance, “Wonderful town!” he said sentimen- tally. “A great city Is the only place where you can get peace and quiet. It’s big enough to hide in, If people won't let you alone, you can get away from them anyway.” He frowned, with the air of a man trying to remember something. “People always trying to get you to promise to go to things— dances, teas, things like that,” he said confidingly. “Easier to promise than to say no—and then you forget and go to a club and tell them to say you're out if any one telephones. There’s some- thing like that some time soon—I think [ told a man in Chicago | had to be back to go to it. Shan't go, though silly thing--costume dance or some- thing. But I didn't want to travel with the man in Chicago. Complicated thing, life, ism’t it?” She laughed rather heiplessly—and disappeared behind the curtains of her berth, Hle went to bed himself soon af- ter that, because the porter said he wanted to make up his berth, and HE HAD. HIDEOUS MEMORIES OF THE LAST TWO WEEKS; FAN- TASIES OF REHEARSALS AT GROTESQUE HOURS. car, and sat there while he finished a wrapped in The new half-dozen _ cigarcttes, smoke and his own thoughts, play was shaping well-—very well, in- deed. The young woman across the aisle had been really helpful; her sug- gestions had been to the point. Thanks to her, he had worked out a most amus- ing situation in the second act; he thought he would be able to begin die- tating his first act before the end of the week, She smiled at him when he went back to his section and began work again; he nodded, remembering her dimly ®ut gratefully, And a little later, when the porter was making up her berth, she came and sat opposite him in his sec- tion “fT suppose you live in New York?" she sald. He nodded. there since [ was six! “T haven't been Um so thrilled Stockton hadn't mastered the art of defying people like porters. ~ IS neighbor nodded to him cheerfully at breakfast in the morning. He thought she looked awfully well. She had put on a little fur hat that was tre mendously becoming, and she wore a blue serge suit that was delightfully severe and very amusing in its contrast to her own piquant femininity. Sofi brown furs lay on the seat opposit« She leaned across the aisle and spoke to him. “I'm frightfully excited’’ she said “LT love coming to New York! I'm vis an aunt and two cousins | haven't seen since [ was six, you know, and they'll probably think I'm an awful bore,” lor a man who dealt in plays he was hers. iting remarkably obtuse in the matter of recognizing cues. “Oh!" she said then, ‘do I—do I look all right?” He examined her with some care. “I think so,” he said judicially. “Why, yes—I think you look very well indeed." . She bit her lip. “Thanks,” she said. interrupted you"”—— It was quite true. He had sent for his little table again, and was working. He glagced hungrily at the scattered shects of paper. “It's quite all right,” he assured her. “I'm just getting some ideas down be- fore I forget them."" He glanced from the window. “Oh—Yonkers! We'll be in the station in about half an hour.” And he began writing again. The young woman !ooked at him in power- less irritation. Her eyes seemed to ask what you could do with a man like that? She liked him immensely: he represented something quite new in her experience with his sex. He bad looking, at all, although you wouldn't have called him handsome, He was reasonably tall, and loosely put together; he had something of the engagingiy awkward quality of a setter pup. His forehead was high, and al- though he had probably ‘brushed his hair earlier in the morning, it was disordered now, because he was always running his hand through it while he worked or talked. . She liked his soft collar and his rough woolly suit; she liked a certain absenee of precision that, she thought, teristic of “Um afraid l've wasn't him, And she certainly wondered who he was, and whether she would see him in New York. Her eyes snapped as she decided that if she did, she would have chance to thank. Plainly, he didn’t mean to do anything to that end, Stockton, of course, simply hadn't had thoughts like that about her at all— consciously, at least. Had he had them, he would have become bashful at once. Had he thought of her as an attractive young woman, pleasing to the eye, de- lectable, as the girl in his Play was de- lectable, he would have Ned to the since, He had pro- nounced views about men who scraped ‘club car long acquaintance with women on trains, He didn’t like that sort of thing. If any one had suggested to him that in this case he had done something of the sort, he would have repelled the suggestion indignantly, This was entirely different. His deal- ings with her amounted to no more than asking a man for a match for a cigarette, or an time. inquiry «about the Aud yet, in the tunnel, after the porter had come and taken his table away, and made him stand up to be brushed off, vague stirrings of his con- science made him turn to her, “Your—friends—are to meet you, I suppose?" he said. “f mean about cabs and things?" you know “T think so,’ she said in a choked voice. “Oh,-yes—they're sure to tneet me.” “Of course,” he said. He looked at her, vaguely dissatisfied, He knew he wanted to say something or ought to say something more, feit that there was something he wanted to ask her, But while it was still on the tip of his tongue, the train rolled up along thi platform and stopped, and there was the contusion of getting off. He stood around, first on one foot and then on the other, while a porter gathered her bags, and then he suffered agenies of embarrassment because the man thought they were together, and tried to take his things too. “Well” he said much confused, He lifted his hat and ran away, as if some- thing tremendously important had to be done at once, He didn't see the way she doubled up to laugh, of course, And he was still 86 upset, when he reached the gate, that he didn’t see Mrs, 1 son. and her two daughters ui was fairly on top of chem, when it was much too late for hiin to elude them He gasped indignantly. How had they known he was coming on this tr We And what the devil did they mean by coming to meet him? That was going too far—-altogether too far. *"Oh-o-oh!" the blonde Cauetiter A Complete Story Every Saturday “ was wholly charac- ,