OCR Text |
Show THE MAN SHE DIDN'T KNOW .'. wmsrmsssr fBr"" " Y VM1" 'SHE extra-sweet ex-ififc- pression on the face I i f of the head stenog- 1 K '""t I ! rapher as she talked ''I over the telephone $ x II ' - that morning would (PuT 5? nave suggested the end of the wire. And even more con- . vincing would have sounded the Inflection Inflec-tion of hir closing words, as dulcet as a pigeon's coo, "Yes, indeed! Thank you eo much quarter past 4 will suit me very well." At quarter past 3, when all her young subordinates had departed for the day, Miss Carson folded her eyeglasses away In their case, and in the deserted seclusion seclu-sion of the washroom tried to array her-Felf her-Felf to look dashing and perhaps just a tiny bit "speedy." At quarter past 4 precisely, with heart thumping beneath the new lace blouse, she was at the appointed rendezvous, the lobby of New York's latest and gayest the-dansant. Although prepared to stand on her guard against Mr. Duncan, she was pleased to observe his appearance; big, prosperous business man of affairs, he compared very favorably with the escorts es-corts of all the other women. With a sense of becoming herself a denizen of Sodom and Gomorrah, Mips Carson relaxed into the gilt chair proffered prof-fered by an agile Alsatian, and confusedly confused-ly scanned tho wine list propped against the carafe. "Two Bronx cocktails," she heard, her host Instructing the waiter. Miss Carson looked blase, while her heart rose in her throat at the sensation of approaching life's firing line, where a woman decides whether she will or will not be "good." "We'll have caviar sandwiches, waiter," said Mr. Duncan, pointing to the card, "and English breakfast tea. That's all just now." Then as the nimble nim-ble serf vanished in the melee behind screened doors an open ciguret case was extended invitingly to her across the damask. "Do you indulge. Miss Carson?" Car-son?" For the moment the young woman was jarred from, her pose of sophistication. sophistica-tion. "I I have never learned," she confessed, con-fessed, shrinking from trying her first cigaret in such publicity, while resolving on the spot to purchase a box and practice prac-tice by herself perhaps on the roof some Sunday morning with a view of being ready for next time, if there ever were a next! In the light of the lady's approval, the host expanded. "It is a nice little place rather thought you'd like it." Then, with the air of a man opening up h!s heart, he bent toward her. "D'you know. Miss Carson, I've been trying a longtime to become acquainted with you; never had nerve till today." "Isn't It strange," mused Mr. Duncan, "the hold of this dance craze upon the public? One of my junior clerks left me to become Instructor in a place uptown at four times the salary we were paying him. Miss Carson contributed an item about a girl she knew who had done the saxno. "I let him teach me a few steps," acknowledged ac-knowledged the host modestly, "Just to help him get a start. .1 don't suppose did you ever condescend to such frivolity. frivol-ity. Miss Carson?" Caroline Carson admitted to having practiced in the parlor with her little sister. sis-ter. Mr. Duncan's face lighted up with the impetuosity of a boy as he flung aside his napkin and his half finished sandwich. sand-wich. "Good enough; I'm game, if you are. Come on!" Swept along on the tide of his enthusiasm, en-thusiasm, Caroline followed the man to the1 dancing floor and stood with her hand on his arm, waiting for the swing of the music, while overtaken with misgivings mis-givings that she would bang his knees, tread on his toes in short, lest their attempt at-tempt together to woo Terpsichore should end in a fizzle. Eut her qualms were proved baseless, for they danced as if simile of superlative superla-tive praise they had learned their steps at, and from, the feet of the same instructor. in-structor. Caroline's clapping for the encore en-core was as zealous, if not so vociferous, as her partner's; and after that not a single dance went by without them. At length Caroline, flushed and heated, heat-ed, was resting after a lively fox trot, when behind her a much-enameled lady, peeping at a much-enameled watch, was heard to lisp: "Quarter to thixth!" With the dismay of Cinderella on the ptroke of 12. Miss Carson got up from the toble. "They're expecting me home at Ci" she cried. Her escort jerked his head at the waiter, and proceeded to wreck a $10 bill In settling the check, of which transaction transac-tion Miss Carson affected utter unconsciousness, uncon-sciousness, as a lady should. In the fresh, cool air of the lobby Caroline filled her lungs and became desirous de-sirous of spanning the distance to Harlem. Har-lem. Their exit to the street was halted by the numbers who blocked the Broad-. Broad-. way door. "Piainlng great guns!" complained a tired looking individual in a high hat. "Piaining?" repeated Mr. Duncan, peering through the window at a dull expanse of gray sky. "Why, it's pouring! pour-ing! Wait here, and I'll get a taxi." Miss Carson would not consider waiting. wait-ing. "No oh, dear, no! I'll make a dash for the subway, but don't you dream of coming. I'll say good-by here perfectly wonderful time, thanks a thousand times! See you soon, I hope " But come the man would, despite the lady's protestations, prolonged perilously near the point of ungraciousness. Bowing at last to the inevitable, she turned up her coat collar and clung to her escort's sturdy arm while they leaped over streaming Forty-second street from , island to island, In the scramble Caroline's hat was tipped awry', a strand of loose hair tickled tick-led her nose, and with annoyance verging verg-ing on disgust she viewed the wreck o? her once white gloves. She foresaw the flnale of Mr. James Duncan, so far as her uses were concerned; no man could survive this ordeal and remain a friend. In front of the boarding-house on a quiet street Miss Carson paused, trying to muster a shred of hospitality. "I live here," she said. "Won't you come in?" "It's pretty late," he demurred, looking look-ing up at the lighted windows. Miss Carson groaned inwardly. "Come in and get an umbrella, at any rate, she said, leading the way up the steps and jerking the bell knob, which resounded v ith a lugubrious clang. After an interval that seemed Inexcusably Inex-cusably long, the waitress step was heard ascending the stairs from the basement base-ment dining-room, scuttling across the loose tiling in the front hall. Then the door'was opened. "Oh, Mrs. Carson!" cried the maid In obvious relief, indifferent to the stranger's strang-er's presence. "We was wondering what had happei3ed; little Betty's been carrying carry-ing on awful that yez didn't come." From somewhere down the hall floated the heartbroken tones of a child's voice: "Mamma! mamma! You didn't come, and it was Saturday afternoon!" Wi'.h flying footsteps a forlorn little damsel, with hair all tousled and cheeks streaked with tears, dashed forth into the arms outstretched to meet her. "Darling," began the child's mother, "thi3 is mamma's friend, Mr. Duncan. Won't you shake hands and say you're glad to see him?" Betty stamped her foot, shrugged her shoulders, and refused to accept the s' ranger's advances, while Caroline Carson, Car-son, miserably alive to her neglected little lit-tle daughter's behavior, led the way to the family sitting-room in the rear. "If you'll excuse me a moment, Mr. Duncan, I'll get the umbrella," she eald. Once out of sight, she flew up the long flights of stairs that led to the attic bedroom bed-room sho shared with Betty and thrown herself face downward on theCeL Wasn't life horrid? For just oafter-roon oafter-roon she had run away from everything, trying to forget that she was SO years old, married and divorced, with a child to support. Caroline smoothed her hair, changed her suit for a house dress, and descended the otairs. From the depths of the big, shabby armchair her guest looked up and smiled, while little Betty on his knee showed no disposition to move. "I've been making friends with your daughter, Mrs. Carson," he said. "He's got a little boy just ten days bigger than me," contributed Betty. Mr. Duncan pressed tho spring on his watch case, and the back sprang open, "This is my Jimniie I'd like to have you see him. His mother died when he was bom," he said quietly. After a moment of silence in the dusk, for no one had seen fit to light the gas: "Look here, Mrs. Carson," he begun, "ever since I met you I've been wanting to get acquainted, and at last I mustered mus-tered up nerve to invito you to tea. I hope I behaved all right; I'd never been to one of those places before. Some time, perhaps, if you're game, we'll go again; but the fact is. my boy has come to count on his daddy for Saturday afternoons. after-noons. Couldn't wo Join forces, you and I, and take our kiddles up the river or to se the animals In Bronx Park?" And as tho lady did not sayk na "How about next Saturday afternoSSJL -eald the man sho didn't know, fe |