The evening world. Newspaper, December 17, 1921, Page 14

bearing the name “Miss Idatene Nob- bin,” Idalene opened it with tremu- lous thumby fingers. She held the letter out for whose would to read, with a feeling of maj- esty, The mother and the two broth- ers read the letter aloud as a trio: Dear Miss Nobbin: Aijthough you may have forgotten me, I will never forget our dancing together. 1 should be highly honored if you and your mother would be my guests at the Junior Prom on the 16th of thia mo, I have reserved rooms for yau at the best board- wg house, Please don’t fail! Yours ag ever, ROY DUNCAN. Idalene and her mother went for the frst time to the swetlest dressmaker i town, Madamzel Dooley, whose lair was called om the window “Ye L’Art Shoppe.” Mrs. Nobbin hoped to knock eff several dollars by calling Madam- acl by ber unprofessional name, “Hah to do, Martar; right hot, ain't mu? Yes, that’s so. Well, say, Mariar, Halcne’s invited te the Junior Prom ever at Gramiin, and wo was thinkin’ maybo you'd have something suitable and not too expensive, o’ course. Ida- lene’s got some nice elo’es, o course, but we thought if you had apy bar- gains, why we might—anyway, it won't burt to see what you got.” They found im a corner of one ward- robe a fabrication whose colors seemed te bave fermented with age and whose artless embroideries were like sour freth about it. Edalene stepped into seclusion and emerged with the gown pon her. She°was soxbuoyed wp with tte beauty that she “floated” in, feel- img like another “sumptuous Delilah.” Yrs. Nobbim was already bargaining: “Tf you cowd make this dress sit— aad the price too—why, 1 might take a” When Idalene and ber mother kit the shop, om the sidewall outside they met Prue Nickerson, Prue was stu- pidly cruel enough to says “Glo, Ida- lenic, you golng to work for Madaun- zal?” Mrs. Nobbin’s xetort was evem more punishing tham Prue's: ‘Edalene’s da~ xited to, the Prom by Roy Duncan, ami ahe’s just been gettin’ the best dress im, town.’” & little private eaxthquake shivered the groulid under Prue's feet. x HEN the passeuger twin ‘\# finally drew into the statiom \ ] and poured! out its: cargo eff beauties; and) theiy mothers, Roy dashed forward at the auroral sight of Prue and greeted ber wilth “yapture: “Oh, there you are, Miss Nobbin? Mighty, nice off yow to, come,” Prue answered as itcily as ter soft,, warm ‘mouth would peumit: “Miss Nobbin and her mother are just back ef me!” Roy, was; & hero and had keaumed tw Brace himself against the @nset of eleven men at once, Me bwaced bim- self now and held bard, We repeated Ris; oration, “Qh, there, youn are, Misa Wobbin! Mighty nice; of you t came.’” “Mighty nicer off you to ast ue,’ aimpercd [dalene, “This is mooama Momma, this, is Yr. Duncan’ “Pleased to meet cha,” seid Mrs, Mebbin. Roy preceded bis) guests as itt be wera their captured slave and led @am to a waiting back, When the @ar bad closed om their guests, leav~ gg Koy and Phin alone em the porch, Phim saw im Roy's eye a loek& that semt Binm ed? the porch at a quickstes, Af wer a voilm chase aleog: the omd went te lim 20¢uns, Dame cards were still used at the @aniim Prous, and Roy bad Iie- wue'’s cord with him He set ont eur the 19ome will Idakees @anwws, He brired the men iz varivns eays. Some of them éemanded caxh, eui when Roy retoveed t his room to @rees, be stl] head 2 Bomber of blanks quiet. Wile be was bederking his woble fom be wes called wpcm by one ot (hp best Guncers im collage, the Yendiing sucial figere, ne lows a peracm- ege than Afien Lamsing. Like many enmi(eer aridwort, Lansing was ta Suantial stratts. Rey d@euperatety of- A Compl . » him money. A white bull pup that blinked at the proceedings en- gaged Lansing’s fancy and he said: “Ell sell myself for five dances fcr the bull pup.” ) When Roy called at the boarding house for [dalene, he found Phin in the parlor grinning anxiously and pleading: “This is neutral ground and 1 got my fingers crossed.” When Idalene came down looking infinitely worse than ever, Roy needed all his resolution to keep from leaping through the window. When Prue drifted in tike a nymph the only thing that saved him from murdering Phin was “the presence of the ladies.” It was martyrdom to march Idalene and per mother into the bunting- festooned gymnasium, thronged, with the prettiest girls obtainable regard- less of expense or distance, Roy could see that Idalene was a sensation. The crowd opened before her like a Red Sea to let her through. Those in front stared with startled smiles that be- came snickers after she passed. Then Roy had her on his hands (and feet) for the first dance. The youth who had signed up for the second dance did not call for it, and Roy had to haunt him down and men- ace him with a twisted neck if he welched. Allen Lansing had missed WARREN BLOODS; VIED WITH EACH OTHER IN PAYING COURT TO IDALENE. AND EATON, Idaleme’s gramd entry and arrived in time for the third dance He saluted Roy and said: “Private Lamsing, Company A, re- ports as orderly, sir.” Roy pointed diamally at Idalene, who sat puflimg as a result of her long wrestie with her exhausted partner, amd groamed: “There she biows!" Lansing wemt to his fate with the grim clegamce of a French aristocrat to the guillotine Roy .to warn Job Wolfert, the next that if he failed to carry his dance with Idalene he would make the football eleven. “All right, cap I'l practise on your dakme. But she runs mean, and she's a hard one to tackle” ' cut In on Phin, ana Prue fol- him trustingty into the moon- tee told her of Phin’s per- te aH = Roy lowed. Liga, 6 , jurous treachery and his own thwart- ed effort to have her as his guest, Job Wolfert, the ambitious football candidate, saw that Roy was absent, and was suddenly inspired to dance right into a group of idlers and force Idalene upon one of them, Poor Lan- sing suddenly heard Wolfert at his el- bow saying: ‘‘Say, old man, I'm going to give you the rest of this dance, I've got a nosebleed.” He had-the unheard-of audacity to wrap Lansing's arms around Idalene and hurry away with his handkerchief to his nose. During one of the brief intermissions Lansing dug up his last two-doltar bill and palmed it. When Idalene crept into his bosom to resume the dance she never dreamed that be- hind her back his right hand held out the banknote, waving it as a signal of distress and a reward to any one who would take his place. A two-dollar bill was a fortune to most of the Gramlin cubs, but none of them would even look at the bait with Idajene as the ail too visible hook, line and sinker. Wickham, the next victim, was the best actor in the college dramatic club and he threw into his eyes all the amorous calcium he had as he mur- mured into Idalene’s ears: ‘‘The moon- light is maddeningly beautiful to- TWO OF THE MOST CRITICAL YOUNG night, Miss Nobbin. on it with me?” Would you gaze He found Idalene a seat in the dark, and hid himself in the gloom at her side. A few difficult efforts convinced him that Idalene had no more conver- gation than she had grace or beauty. Wickham tried to think of’a good exit line, but he was an actor, not an author, and his ingenuity collaborat- ing with his desperation finally took him off the scene with a pitiful “Ex- cuse me a minute, I forgot He forgot to come back. some- a while to revel in the heaven of the new life she had watched from afar and only now begun. She was content to sit in the divine gloom ee was glad to be alone for THE KVENING WORLD'S FICTION SECTION, SATGRDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1921. e and build a future out of the velvet of her little past. She aaw Roy Dun- can coming across the lawn with Prue Nickerson glued to his arm, and their heads so close togethey that they walked blindly into the light pouring from the window at Idalene’s elbow. Before she could make up her mind how dangerous this omen was, Allen Lansing appeared and advanced on Roy Duncan in a rage. Idalene won- dered if he were jealous of Prue, but her suspense was brief. He dragged Roy aside with little ceremony, close to the unseen Idalene, and snapped at him: ‘Look here, Duncan, all bets are off, You can have your dog and your Idalene, .I’m through!” ° Roy clutched him and held him fast, grumbling: “Wait a minute, wait a minute! You took my dog and you're going to keep your contract.” “Oh, no, I'm not!” Lansing an- swered. “You played me for a sucker, You never told me your Idalene was the homeliest looker and the worst dancer in the history of the world Why, the other men wouldn't even cut in when I held a two-dollar bill be- hind her back. Enough’s enough and too much is aplenty! Good night!” And he departed. Idalene’s soul was quenched utterly. When Phin Larabee - came along looking for Prue, and, see- ing that some girl sat in the shadow, lighted a match and held it close to her, he was appalled by the mask of agony he saw painted before him, “Why, Idalene!” he gasped, “You —you—I'd better send your mother to you, hadn't I?” - “Not” she answered in such a voice as might issue from some old skull. “I'm all right! I'm just thinking! Go On away and leave me alone!” Much troubled, he slowly made his - way to Mrs. Nobbin, After long hesi- tation, he said: “I don’t want to worry you, Miz Nobbin, but Idalene’s out there,,and she looks kind of sick, or something.” Mrs, Nobbin supposed that Idalene’e success had been too much for her, and she asked Phin to take her to her daughter, When they reached the spot Idalene was gone, She had nowhere to go but out. Just out. Her muscles raised her to her fect. Her feet wanted to rum They ran. Gramlin was not a large town. She was soon out of it. On the road she followed grimly motor cars flashed by and whipped her with beams of blind- ing light. People stared, Shorns honked, One or two voices called to her, turned off into a field, plunging through thistles, Scrambling over boulders, falling, getting up. By and by the road curved round and con- fronted her again, winding through a cut in the hill, She dropped exhausted on the edge of the top of the slope, Two dollars and a bull pup! She wasn’t worth it! She slid and hobbled down the grav- elly incline. A jutting mud bank hid her from the approaching automobiles. Their rays of light came round it like feelers; then the cars followed, huge blundering beetles zooming by. She flinched from the first one and the second, She could not bring her- self to hurl herself under their wheels, But at length she felt that she could crawi to her destiny. She heard drunken song approaching. A crowd of rioters was running amuck. The driver's wheel hand was soberer than his brain, It guided the car around the curve while he turned to add his boozy tenor to the harmony, He did not notice the bump that jolted an extra hiccup out of him. The road was full of bumps. ished round the curve, taking the light with it, Idalene had felt the crushing blow of a front wheel, but not the weight of the rear, After a time another car sent its light around the curve, The driver, alert, jammed on the whining brakes and swerved to a stop alongside the dark form. The headlight on the windshield was brought to bear on Idalene, She did not see it or hear the voices of the man and woman who leaped out and knelt to stare at her, Another car shooting round the curve came near erasing all three, but Dr._ Breen thrust Pamela Shiel back The car yan- Story Every Saturday Pas —