The evening world. Newspaper, January 7, 1922, Page 22

« ros "~~~ THE EVENING WORLD'S FICTION SECTION, SATURDAY, JANUARY winter. (The insistent moralist is al- Ways secing young people in their hours of play and not im their mad tush downtown in the subway for the day’s work.) To Maizie Maynard they were of an elegance and a faghion and @ wealth once only dreamed of—and now to be attained, cost what it might. Maizie was to share in the benefits and expenses of the old-fashioned six- room flat in which Cousin Julia Orton and her two daughters lived. She won the Instant gratitude of Lil and Belle by volunteering to take on, as part of her share, the dinner-dishes; and with the kindest of intention and the cruel- est of wit they gave her the benefit of their sophistication. They greeted her clothes with frank laughter; they called her “Carrots;" they made con- stant fun of her !gnorance. And they boldly the “experience” she go conspicuously lacked when she set out to find a job. Maizie feared them and envied them and imitated them. k she had a place selling neighborhood department atore. In a she had saved enough money to buy a pair of white spats and the high-heeled patent- leather shoes to go with them. In six months she bad dropped every trace of rural New York from her speech and karned to say, ‘Believe me, kid,” and “\Where do you get that stuff?” with New York pronuncia- tion. Yes, learned; Maizie learned fast; didn't learn fast enough to suil herself. She never w ke up in the morning without wishing she were back in Sharon. She never got through with the dinner dishes early enough to be in the parlor when the young men who admired Lil and Belle arrived. And in six months she had in after they arrived. She knew them all by sight she had often surveyed them through the.crack be- invented In a wee notions in a month cuite the Maizic but Maizie not becuse tween the folding-doors that sepa- rated the dining-room and the parlor. But none of them had ever been in- troduced to her. rouge, Maizie had acquired an cyebrow pencil and a Maizie had learned to do her thick red hair down over her cars and in the back of her neck and to hold it there with a net. But Maizie Maynard had not learned the art of accepting the attentions of young men. There hadn’t been any attentions, When Lil and Belle had gone off to movie or dance hall with their es- corts of the evening, Maizie slipped into the parlor and played hymns on the small piano in weathered oak, and thrilled with her own sorrow. When Mrs. Orton went to bed, Maizie shut the door and practised the arts of Lil and Belle, with due regard to the mir- ror. One Sumday afternoon—Sunday din- ner was at 1 o’clock—when Maizte had done the dishes and hung up herapron and spent twenty minutes in front of the mirror, the door bell rang. Maizie languidly pushed the button that released the latch of the hall door, three flights down, and pecred over the banisters to see who was coming up. Her view of him was a bird’s-cye one, but she recognized him instantly; it was Joe Davis. Maizie’s heart gave a little skip—for Joe Davis was the most prized of all the suitors who came to the Orton flat; Joe Davis was a city salesman for the distribu- ters of the famous Wabash Twin-Two Motor Car, and he had what none of the others and lip-stick. had—a car of his own to drive. -but Maizie's heart gave a little skip well-trained fingers flitted the coils of hair that ears, assuring her that Maizie had not practised her expertly over concealed her all was well. for nothing “rt Lllo the re,’ Mr. Davis called trom the bottom of the last flight. “How do you do?” sald Miazie May- nard. Mr, Davis looked up sharply. “Oh,” he snid, “I beg your paidonu I" “I'm Miss Maynard," said Maizie, “I'm Davis,’ said the young man. “Aren't Lil and Belle at home?” “They went out about twenty min- tes ago,” Maizile satd, ‘cquired nerve enough to go ” ¥ The young man, hat in hand, consid- ered a moment. Maizie did an amazing thing—unless one considers her habit of practising before mirrors all that she had ob- served in Lil and Belle. She said, with the manner of one who had been say- ing it all her life: “Won't you come in?” “Sure,” said Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis removed his overcoat with the freedom of one who knows the house well. Maizie sat on the piano stool, Mr. Davis was a_ clear-skinned young man with a good chin, who had come about as near in his dress to realizing the ideal of the clothing manufacturers’ advertisements as is possible. His clothes were so new that they creaked. He had a certain dignity, too, the dignity that goes with a sixty-dollar-a-week job, a dig- nity tempered by a smile that had done as much as hard work and hon- est argument to win signatures to those dotted lines which assured his employers that the ppospect had be- come a customer, paying $875 duwn and the balance in ten monthly instal- ments of $82.50 each. Mr. Davis now smiled at Maizie, Again Maizie’s expert fingers flitted over her back hair—a concealed reflex of her perturbation. JOE AND MAIZIE WERE SINGING HYMNS TOGETHER AS IF THFY used to sing in the choir.” “I can't play well,” Maizie inter- posed. “I"—— j “Do you know ‘From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,’ from India’s Coral Strand’?” “Sure,” said Maizie. Mr. Davis jumped to his feet. “Play it, will you?” Maizie spun herself round on piano stool. “I don’t know if I can,” “but I'll try.’ Joe Davis hummed the air; Maizic found the chords. In another moment hig voice filled the little flat When Lil and Belle came back, Jor Davis and Maizic Maynard were sing- ing hymns together as if they had known each other all their lives. “What do you know about this?” cried Lil. Maizie’s touch faltered. paused. “Carrots!” said Belle with mock jor- ror, Maizie wilted. “Been waiting long, Joe?” Lil asked “No,” said Joe Davis. He looked at his watch. “Why, I have too. Maizie, you and I have been singing for an hour!” “Let’s beat it,” said Belle. “Let's get Johny Fulton and go somewhere the she said, Joe Davis HAD KNOWN EACH OTHER ALL THEIR LIVES. “I'm expecting Lil and Belle back almost any minute,"’ she said, “so if you don’t mind waiting” “T've got all the time in the world,” said Joe Davis. Maizie extended a hand toward the loose pile of the Sunday paper on the eontre table ‘Shall I get you “Sure,” said Joc aren't flattering flushed 1 cony something to read?” Davis, “but you yourself, are you?" Maizic prettily. “Not as rsationalist,” she ad- mitted. 4 “IT hope (Um not keeping you.” “Not at all,” Maizic "T haven't any date for this afiernoon, In fact, I was just sitiing here all by myself playing hymns when you came in.” “Say,” said Joe do you know? I haven't heard a hymn since I left Bloomsburg, Pa. and I said, Davis, ‘what hynins out to Rockaway and dance” “Sure,” said Joe Davis. “Want to come along, Maizie?” “Oh, she never goes anywhere," Lil said roughly. ‘She can't dance.” Maizie was conscious of Joe's glance “No,” she said, “I—J couldn't go.” She wondered afterward Lil and Belle would have commented had she said; “Sure, I'd like to go.’ Sh: wondered if it would aiways be like that. She went over every detail of her hour with Joe Davis, examining it to see how she had conducted herself, and what his response had been, and she concluded that he must have liked He had called her Maizis The next morning, at breakfast, Telle paused between gulps of coffe. to say what her. “Maw, whaidya think? Yesterday afternoon Joe was here while Lil and T were out, and whatdva think? When 7, 1999, Os perme ny back he was singing with Hymns!” Maizie got up and Ieft the table and rushed She was convinced that she had made a fool of herself after all. Maizie was so near to tears that she did not know it was raining until we came ‘Carrots.’ out. she was half way to the store and her white spats were spattered with nud and the thin soles of her pumps soaked Dully she waited on women needles, through. who wanted sewing-machine or tape, or hairpins; dully she ate her lunch of two eclairs and an ice cream dully she started home in the It had been raining all day, hard showers alternating with a steady Maizie walked along, holding a newspaper over her het and con- templating the ruin of her patent- leather pumps—a week’s wages. The harder. Maizie started to run. he wind tore at the newspuper, Maizie gripped it harder and ran faster, her head ducked. She glanced up as she reached Riverside Drive, saw a clear space, darted across tho wet asphalt. Something enormous tapped her on the shoulder; she went down on her knees, struggied like a mad thing, balf rose to her feet, fell headlong. She felt somebody tugging at her, lifting her. “Are you badly hurt?” said a voice in her ear. “No,” she gasped, and felt herself slipping into sleep, into unconscious- ness “Look out—she'’s fainting!” a woman. Maizie smiled faintly, and slept soda; rain drizzle rath came shrilled AIZIE opened her eyes, felt a wave of nausea go through her body and closed them again. She had been dream- ing that some one had said she was beautiful, and she wanted to recapture the delicious sense of that dream. [ut could not. Her body ached; her head rang; she was sick Slowly, with infinite pain, she raised her eyelids. The light blinded her; bright dots swam before her eyes, swam like little hard points of incredible brilliance in & mist of light. She made out 2 mir- ror on a Wall, a vase full of roses, a figure in the stiffly starched uniform of a trained nurse, The figure advanced upon her with a swift gesture. she “Was—it—an—automobile?” Maizie asked. ‘ “Yes,"" said the nurse. “But you're all right. Everything’s all right. You must go to sleep.” ‘Could — I — have — a -- glass -- of water?’ Malzie asked. “Yes,” said the nurse, “if you’)! « little first.’ sleep Maizie felt herself drifting in the mist, “T1l’-—-- she began, and we: off into unconsciousness, When she sound of whispered awoke it was to the consultation, A leaned big man with gray mustache over her. . “Ilow are you?" he asked in a pleas- ant voice Maizie was wide awake now Her body still ached, but the bright spots no longer danced in the hot fore her eyes “What have J got’ mist be she asked, “You've got a broken leg," said the doctor. "Oh," said Maizie, pretending that this made everything clear, “But se1f,’” His tone implied that there could be you're all right; I set it my- no possible question about the furure usc fulness of a leg that he himself had set Maizie endeavored to sit up The doctor put up a large, firra hand on her shoulder, “T wouldn't do that just vet," he said gravely ‘But they won't know where I] am.” Maivie began “They'll be expecting me.” A tall woman on wh face anxiety was so plain that it siruck Maizie as funny came inte the room with a ittle rush, “Oh, my dear!’ she cried “Your aunt and your cousins have been here to see you And we've telegraphed A Complete Story Every Saturday ie 2