Show the gir ato caie lad by jack wood ford copyright W N U service THE STORY influenced by loneliness without relatives or real friends in lillta forbes young and pretty yields to the importunities tuni ties of harvey torrence with whom she fancies herself in love she discovers hi true character and leaves him refuge with an acquaintance gertrude watson lillta Is accosted bv the son of the wealthy owner of the apartments fred watterson she repulses his advances but he insists on driving her to the store on the street torrence Is waiting he puts the worst construction on lillta a being with wat tereon and the two men engage in a battle in which torrence Is killed lillta spends a night of misery in a police cell she informs her father by wire of her situation but he answers that he neer wants to see her face again next morning the judge at the instigation of lawyer a stranger to lillta dismisses the case the lawyer gives her and an unsigned note informing her that college tuition has been paid tor a year he refuses to give the name of her benefactor she takes up short story writing and meets mr lillta writes a short story which mr praises highly CHAPTER IV continued great he said enthusiastically there has never been anyone in my clas that I 1 could take more pleasure in helping and I 1 shall also have some thing interesting and encouraging to report to mr hat now res I 1 only know him as charlie lie drops in at the paper aery once in a while where I 1 write book reviews in the morning and wants to know how you re along lie 11 be just tickled billy when I 1 tell him about your wonderful story Is be eadd lillta breathlessly u rather man with gracing hair dad serious gray eis and eyes hair and eyes mocked mr lightly its the very first thing a girl sees with her eyell res teats him to n 1 to a pair of Ts 1 I hope you won t misunderstand mr lies hes never even met me im sure 1 don t know why he takes such an interest in me but please don t think that he leaned back to laugh boyishly listen to heir hei r DC aart ang upon his soup as if id ever be led to believe that little miss rim would have a snappy loe affair with an man with graying hair and gray eyes why my dear you have nene enough to have an affair like that yon got it in you ills eyes challenged her mis and as be ripped his soup she bad an inward pang of compunction as she realized bow he was and bow little he would think of her if he knew bow wrong he was her face clouded as she reflected that she would have given anything in the world to be able to know that she was good enough for this mn whom she had grown to lore more than she had ever dreamed it possible for her to love anyone un consciously she sighed aloud U shook his head at her dont be silly he objected 1 I can imagine from various things in that story of yours that you ve had a pretty hard time of it but heavens nothing why its almost good for yon ne member that crack of eddy guests about it takes a lot of in a house to make it a home well it takes a heap of to make a writer everything else being equal yon start right away to write another etory I 1 want another one from you inside of a month she promised him that she bould and then sat elbows upon the table ellent ly contemplating him as he received the balance of bis order from the waiter hat an extra strength double dear he was she wondered with a poignant little regret why she could never see the slightest dicker of admiration for her person in his eyes such as she had been accas tomed to seeing in mens eyes ever since she had been thirteen or fourteen and then it came over her with terrible force for the first time just why this was she bad been so used to thinking of herself as herself that she had forgotten what she bad done to herself the plain apparel the spectacles the heir dyed out of synchronism with her vivid coloring suddenly in frightful aal tattoo ehe rose 1 I must be going mr she eald stiffly abar he commented admiringly the young authoress Is seized of an other plot bet go on hoine and pound it out see you friday she nodded briefly and walked out leav ing mr to hondr to himself why it was that invariably good look ing girls T ere dumb and smart intel legent girls were plain looking now instance charm ing intelligent girt but colorless no taste for dress those distorting spectacles suppose afe ought to wholly adulte a girl for her intellectuality but the human was so made that it was impossible so to do als missing the anole matter with a shrug be turned t his too bad darn nice atri but oh eo plain I 1 CHAPTER V lillta had 0 course taken no real stock in what sir bad said about her chances of selling her story ulian one morning a month later mrs hardy the woman from she rented her room brought the return eni elope which she had en closed with the story upstairs she was immediately struck by its ness opening it she found a check for aso ve are pining you the letter sald five cents a word our highest word rate for your seventy flie hundred word story good in tent lons in he hope that this will spur you on to send more of your nork immediately la a perfect feer of excitement lillta phoned mr ll to tell him dont ba silly he objected the good newa to her he seemed not the least surprised nell his slightly drawling yoke bald over the phone I 1 told you you d sell it I 1 and its no wonder that aliey want more of your work go to it lid I 1 think you will even dually catch up on madame lt you hurry ills husky laugh tol lowed this sally lillta had by now a little begun to get over uie fear she had had of he circumstances attendant upon and following lie death of and one day calling the court in which she had appeared she asked for the clerk and got the name of the law yer who had depended dei ended her going immediately down to his of flee she found him in and to d him something of her good fortune fine he said stroking hla hair and not exhibiting any real in terest charlie er that Is the man who hired me to defend you will be might pleased to hear it im sure what I 1 came do m for hastily interposed lillta 1 I arat to give him part of ahls three hundred and fifty dollars to help square accounts and start paying him back all trai he has spent upon me out you please gle me his name and ad dress 1 I w A not said the lawyer sit ting abruptly forward in his seat in palpable alarm and besides he t take the money anyway ahrea hundred and fifty dollars means about as much to him as three cents would to you why bother about it go out nd spend it or put it in the bank or do anything you like with it but don t expect me to lell you any names however if you ever feel like seeing him real bad just pull something wrong that you to and 11 turn up all right 1 oon t know for sure but 1 imagine that hes got some one watching you most all he time but why should he persisted 1 allta oh duit get hes not a bit in love with you he had hl rea ton and I 1 d say it was a darn good one just you run along now and don t bo trains to kid an old lawyer into telling you something he t to I 1 I 1 lillta left the office she felt bid and happy and restless 1 it was a beauty ache in side ot her slie wanted to be pretty pretty for but lien alie biard ly dared sa lie name even to tier self it stirred her ba almost before i knew it sha found herself lu the great department where she had ways before shopped when she afford to do an shopping the check fairly burned pure in its anxiety to get out ind pay for some of the things that she saw 0 all sides and at lat yielding to she b light some n an deniear a new dress and hat and some lesh colored bilk stock lips slip had no definite idea as to just what she do with the lings but just to own them was something going home she regretfully climbed into the bathtub bebau e lie had lint mr ar rill might call her and ask her to fco for a spin in the snappy gray little roadster she had once or take seen him leae school in As she bathed ahe reflected sadly that there was little chance that be would lime any time for a girl who bad deliberately made lier self homely and too tills tact proved that he could nol love her for even thoi ioli she were to mate mat e herself for him it would be purely upon the surface that he would then fall in love with tills thought ande her sad she washed lier hair remembering that this would necessitate its being soaked in de again for an hour afterward a little poignant regret she ex the yellow gold fluffy hair in the mirror before she again applied the dis coloring deadening dye it seemed a shame yet there was no help for it this was part ol 01 her punishment the following day armed with an other confession story fhe arrived at class a little earlier than the rest purred on by the glorious news ahn he had to tell soon the others came in and clr varrill as pleased over her success as she was ailed the class to order and then said A member of the class has already made a substantial sale to a miga alne avery one looked at lillta miss 1 am pleased to say sold the story we read a week ago for faw A wave of astonishment swept around the room somehow lillta felt a little sorry for miss that lady she knew would somehow take it to heart she was queer about such things especially when it bromeir ir another feminine student into the sun of mr arrall s favor she glanced out of the corner of here eat miss prangle and was a tittle surprised to find in stead of an envious look a look of such extreme venomous nesa that she was for a moment startled even as she watched her lillta saw the young lady suddenly start to speak with her eyes boring into her own it Is no wonder began miss pran gle in biting tones that miss far aar as she chooses now to call herself Is 0 o successful there s a ren son for if lightly mr cut in well perhaps its something that will help the rest of the class tell us what it Is miss prangle and we 11 all ape her la it immediately hardly miss prangle smiled pol 1 for one would rattier never sell a story than have that rea son for being able to write a convincing one she stopped now con clous that every ee in the cass was turned upon her lillta sank down in her chair weak with agony she recalled that miss prangle did society notes on a chicago newspaper with an infinitesimal circulation apparently she had seen the photographs of her in the paper and somehow at least associated them with her miss I 1 went on mis pran gle slowly Is the lillta forbes who wis lately mixed up in that odorous narvey torrence killing in which young watterson was involved she Is the one over whom they fought after a night of well after a night of adventure not wholly dissimilar from some of the more torrid passages in her I 1 ite story which drew such a nice arke no wonder f it seemed to I 1 allta thiet the deadly silence which followed alila announcement ts lie ewt horrible thing ehe had ever ex in her life it wis ns though she had been suddenly hung suspended n alie middle of a terrible black vacuum the very walls seemed to be closing in upon her TO OS CONTINUED 1 leai |