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Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, SUNDAY HORNING, MAY, 21, 1922. By Inez Haynes Irw complete failure. Out of the doen 'young people who formed the house party she alone was not a success as a guest. What was it that mads her different from other girls? Or, was she, O, too she what Bob called a dumb bird? Flutter , Chatter, Laughter Letty Lacked These Magic Gifts of Flapperdom Until She Made the Great Discovery. Letty opened the door of her bouse her eyes fell first on on the hall floor. It had come through the quaint slit In the quaint door, and It lay face up. It was almost as though somebody, softly welcoming, had called her name, for the envelope was addressed to her. Letty picked It up; walked Into the room at her right, tearing It open. Lear Miss Mannering: I am more sorry than I can say that I cannot keep my promise to Margaret to spend the coming three days with you. I stumbled on tlje stairs last night and sprained my ankle, which will of course keep me Indoors for many days. But I want you to come at once to" stay with me here at my boarding bouse until your sister comes back. I am so sorry that this accident happened; for, aside from the pain and Inconvenience to myself, I did hope to show you something of Boston before Margaret's return. But as it la, I can only direct you what to do. Cordially, WHEN "Adeline ' . BtraroN. I should have said first of all, of course, that Margaret was very well when she left, but heartbroken that the sudden call to New York took her away during the first days of your visit Letty read the letter twice; sat down with it In her hands. She became conscious she cold not ignore it of a soft sense of relief, the first faint melting of an Inner tension. Most poignantly she yearned to be she had seen with Margaret and Paul neither since their marriage last June but even more she yearned to be alone for a while. She wanted to make a little mental survey of herself. She wanted to consider a problem which in the last year had loomed larger and heavier in her consciousness; that during her visit to Dora Elwell had developed malignant weight and ache. She did not want to go to this unfamiliar to go anyMiss Burton. She did not where where there would be strangers She glanced about her from the tiny drawing room to the timer dining room, to the even tinier hail. How quaint it was Margaret had written that her little two storied, six roomed house was older than anything in their own flourishing middle western city and It looked every year of Its great age. Yet how hospitable, with Margaret's share or their mother's things giving it a poignant familiarity, Margaret s wedding presents making it gay! The many paned windows of the drawing room were on a line with the shoulders of the nassersby. But how few there were jf these: and what a friendly utreet so narrow and curving, with trees heie and there, a great murmurous, fragrant linden at their . very door! She would not could not be surafraid of solitude in these roundings. Her mind suddenly snapped o resolution. She would . stay alone there. And on the impetus of that first' snap she wrote a sympathetic and appreciative letter to Miss Burton, declining her hospitality. There was ice in the ice box; bread In the bread box; cake in the cake box; milk; and there were In addition egga. oranges, honey, lettuce, strawberries all she might need for dinner and breakfast.. Letty rummaged Into this squat doored cubby hole of a closet, into that slttn doored, long paneled one. The Joy of youth In the adventure was setting Into palpitation all kinds of emotional currents in her mind. O, if only they would wash her problem away! But the problem stayed like a worry logged chest, caught so fast on the floor of her mind that no current, however happy, could stir it. Must she think of it now? On her question the bell rang her trunk. She began feverishly to unpack it In the square back guest chamber. I feel as thoungh I ought to take out a family of dolls and a set of dolls furniIf I only knew ture, she said to herself. a Iltlie girl in this neighborhood I believe I'd buy a lot of toys and go straight to playing P. S. doll-hous- house ! But what emerged from the trunk " flapper flufT, her brother described it was lace and ribbon trimmed piles of lingerie that went Into bureau drawers, organdy and taffeta flies of gowns that went on hangers into the closet; a bathing suit, a tennis racket, sport shoes, sleeveless sweaters In every color, tarns to match. She disposed of them all with a neatness so long drawn out and meticulous that time withered away before it. Dusk approached and she flew feverishly to the preparation of her supper. Cold, abbreviated that took but fifteen mlnuteH--t- h eating of it less. The problem stirred. In another Instant it would float up to the surface of her rfund. To what should she turn now reading? Rummaging among Margaret's book shelves, she came across one of the year's literary sensations. Sbs plunged Into It. It could not hold her, though. Her eyes running swiftly along the print, ate up the pages; but at the end of the first chapter her mind was a blank. She tried another Wok, and another, and another. No use; the hour had struck. And on her recognition of the fact that worry logged chest pulled up its anchor, floated straight up to the surface of her mind caught Immovably- - there, She threw the book down, angled her elbows on tha window seat, cupper her chin In her hands, looked at her problem square. Yes, her visit to the dwells had been a Why was it that the instant a boy entered the room she turned tongue tied?. She liked boys, and how much she wanted them to like her she could not tell! Not that she desired them to be mushy! All she asked was that they pick her for a partner, for tennis, for golf above all, for dancing. But It a as obvious that they liked to do none of these things with her. On the other hand, they liked so much to do them with Dora that they almost fought for the privilege. What was It Dora bad that she lacked? Or what was It she had from which Dora was free? In her heart she knew well enough what her handicap was. Her inevitable, her inescapable, her horrible shyness! What a blight that shyness laid on her! It descended the Instant a male (under twenty) entered the room descended like a for a fog so heavy, so soggy, so gluey that it bound her body, choked her speech, slowed her thought, muted her vision. Dora bore no such social burden. In the two weeks that Letty had spent with the Elwells a two weeks in which the house was overrun with boys Dora had always been the dominating figure. Letty, silent, heavy ever thinking that In another instant she would break into that stream of chatte,r which flowed In a starred rainbow colored torrent between Dora and the boys never o.nce succeeded In doing It. It was as though she were a piece of furniture standing inert there. What wat the quality in Dora that produced the flutter, chatter, laughter? Jrhy hadn't she it? In the meantime a wan dusk, attended by a pale crescent of new moon, tentatively Outside Lettys window the lindescended. den kept up its friendly murmur, poured on her Its delicious perfume. A syrlnga bush. In the tiny slit of garden across the way, A single spear wafted odorous welcome. diamond of silver pricked tipped point through the sky. Suddenly over the sky surged waves of stars. A cool evening slid Into the place of the warm day. A group of children, making the most of the meager hour before bedtime, materialized from no-here. A trio of girls, welded by their Interlocked arms into one group, walked up and down. Pairs of absorbed lovers passed. Fragments of their talk, strangely close, flew In at Lettys window. They deepened a strain of melancholy that wound In and out of Letty' a reflections. Some girls were not only social failures at first but all their lives Social success had nothing to do with being pretty, wearing charming clothes, having a nice family and a delightful home. She herself had so much. In boarding school, for instance, she had even rated higher than Dora for looks. How could she avoid realizing that, when everybody told her so! And Indeed she knew she was not plain. It all came down again to that something, compact of flutter, chatter, laughter, that Dora had and she hadnt. There were other things a girl could do social settlement and charitable work. Hadnt she better make up her mind now to retire from the world and devote herself She had. alwiji. hoped- - that to the poor? she might marry and and have a fama quite large family two boys ily and two girls But manifestly she could not marry unless somebody asked her. Equally nobody would ask her unlefs he fell in love couldn't fall in love if he withher And-hdidn't even notice that she was in the room! She must signal to him that she was there! But she had no signals not a single, one. It must be. she decided, a retirement from the world, service to the poor. She pitied babies most, and old people. But O, never to swim or play tennis or dance again! A tear splashed off the' round of her cheek. She put her arms down Others followed on the window sill and her head on her arm. Gradually the rdmping children retired from the street. The giggling ggirla withdrew. But all the time the linden murmured and the syringa poured its perfume on her. Her eyelids fluttered, closed. She awoke suddenly; awoke with a start awoke with a paralyzing sense of terror. Somebody seemed with awkward, Inexpert ftngere to be fumbling at the screen. Trembling violently, she pulled herself upFollowed a detonation which, rasping right across filmed ear drums, sounded in the midnight silence as loud as an explo-s.oBut the orange-tawnflash whicH tt ailed It revealed that it was only the scrape against the clapboard of a match. It revealed something else the head and shoulders of a man a lad tall and reedy. It was he who had lighted the match. And now, head down, he shielded the flame with his hands until it burned steadily, lifted it to the cigaret in his mouth. He took a rapid puff or two and th$n, while still the match burned perhaps drawn by the steadiness of Letty's gaze he looked up. He stood, stock still, and stared at Letty. She eat. stock still, and stared at him. Letty saw a tall, slim lad with a cheek innocent of beard, as smooth and warmly colored as an apple. His black hair, flowing straight up from a rectangle of white forehead under the pushed back straw hat, showed the beginning of one of those permanent waves with which nature so often dowers ungrateful masculinity. Hla eyes were brown, steady, and clear, the lashes' turned So far back that their curling tips - ... e her-slee- p n y - but the morning air struck cool on her cheek. walking alone was an unsatisfactory process. "The street looked dead;" all the houaee were"" 'Her syo did not long contemplate what it fell upon. Her memory kept going back blanked by drawn curtain and there' eras to that fatal cigaret She returned to the only one person in sight. Idly she followed house, tried again to read, again failed, fell him with her gaze a man, no, a boy. , . into re very. Flutter . . chatter He was coming slowly along, stopping at each house and examining the ledgea of all laughter. To retire from ,th world. Very little 'babies and old, old people. That cigthe ground floor window. What an extraoraret ."It the could only see him again dinary proceeding! Yet there 'was something to the Impression of tha social wash himfamiliar away Where had she about vaguely horror aha had committed. Shf would aak seen him before?,- - On a flash she remembered. It 'was the young man who had nothing more of fate the chance to talk with him once. She invented nimble wonlighted a cigaret under her window. But ders of repartee and epigram to scatter along what in the world was he doing? Why the conversational way. was he for What why, looking something! The afternoon dragged its alow length away did he expect to find on window ledges? to course. to came Of twilight Lettys thoughts dragged with it her. Tha Suddenly it After a while, not because she was hungry, cigaret case belonged not to Paul but to him. It was the touch of the case against the but for diversion, she began to cook her lonely dinner. Suddenly there came a sharp peal screen as he deposited it on the window ledge of. the belt Who could that be? Not Marthat had wakened her. garet' She was not due till dsy after tomorShe rushed frantically upstairs; tore row. Letty ran to the door. The hero of the downstairs. She opened he front door cigaret case panting and flushed, but an and stood on the threshold panting. listeneager light in his eye was standing on the ing to the footatepnthat slowly came nearer --- i s' t steps, and nearer. O Pm Im eo I'm glad to find you In, Closer he drew. She heard him stop at the he stammered, remembering, after an Infirst of the drawing room windows; then at stant to take his hat off. A little while the second. He passed the doorsteps; cast a casual glance upwards stopped and stared 'ago I put my hand in my pocket and found your brother cigaret case. I don't know as Letty held out the cigaret case to him. I I beg your pardon, Letty faltered; ' how I happened to steal It on you. I I ran all the way here. I hope he hasnt milled are are you looking for this? It The lad faltered, too. Yes I I am! O. no, Letty answered, taking the cigaret Im much obliged to you for for keeping case. Words of explanation came in a rush. It for me. You see. I rested It on the window Hes away. Sos my aister. I'm all alone while I ledge last night lighted my cigaret" in house. They wont come back until the Yes. I I found tt a few, minutes later tomorrow. I hadn't missed the after day exwhen I I took the screen out Letty case yet Her mind started glibly cigaret I still I I but plained, faltering, thought The on her carefully rehearsed monologue had left It that Paul, my brother-in-law- , smoked that cigaret was just reason I why there. exactly this, but iter Up refused toteke up I sorta hated to lose it, the boy exthe words. The tonguetied Reeling was comMy my sister gave It to m last plained. ing over her again, Invading her Uke a heavy, Christmas. . . . chatter . . . Its awfully pretty, Letty managed to slow tide. O, flutter laughter. al a I I Just adore say after long stop. A thin, gray silence seemed to settle bethings anyway. tween them. . The tongue tied feeling was Invading her. Im glad you hadnt I'm glad you didn't Flutter! Chatter! Gesture. Why couldn't think the boy plunged into that silence. "she? Why couldn't she? Again there was to have you to have you hated have I'd Then the lad broke it. pause. case when you when stolen I'd think your I I missed It the' moment I got home, when Just given mine back to you you'd but I I I knew I'd left it on your window ms" ledge. I I couldn't seem to remember what The tonguetied feeling had her tight. part of the street it wae in, though. That's Thank you! oozed stupidly out of it. But I came to look for It so early. I I was why that of Jhe volume she had to say to him afraid people would take me for a burglar or was all Letty's tongue would tackle. a or a lunatic, or or something! I I found a place to eat, he went on, His halting speech came to an end. Letty Not backward down the step. retreating tried to think of something to say, but the all all right. Good-by.- " not but good tongue tied feeling had all of her now. The Good-by- ! Letty managed to say as he lad took the conversation up with a new and vanished. But an instant later, upstairs in freer Impulse. her room, flat on her bed with her head lost Besides, my lest cigaret was in It. My In piUows, she was articulate enough even my mother made me promise that I'd only through her sobs. smoke three cigaret a day until I was donlemon Idiot dummy blockhead twenty-one- . I I cant tell you how I have some of the were key ninny prune fish, been thinking of that smoke as I walked bad herself. "You at hurled she epithet He came to a pause. along. your chance. Why didnt you take It? O, you Lettie's silence was a frozen one, but a are a dumb bird!" Her accusing very fever began to Invade her cheeks. He her until dragged hunger up kept apostrophe seemed to cast about him for more talk, downstairs. found none, and in default of It pressed the After dinner she tried In various ways to spring of the- cigaret case. The cover flew rouse her spirits. She mixed a loaf of bread. open. She looked over Margarets collection of forLetty's blush was a crimson that paled eign photographs. Sh knitted frantically Paul's Harvard banner hanging In the ball Sh on her new henna colored sweater. behind her. Her merciful lids dropped over She made out the acin wrote her diary. her horrified eyes. counts of her allowance which a stern fathr. the lad exclaimed. Why, It's gone? demanded of her every jnonth. She plaied That's funny. I was sure there was one on the piano and even sang the latest jar. here. He slipped the case Into his pocket. Intida tha case lay a tingl cigaret. none of these occupations .really helped. But Letty faced him full. All the spiritual tears kept coming. The temptation of a long line of Puritan ancestry in the front room, close windows, lock winseemed ready to prick through his eyelids. ' the clock struck eleven. Finally looked of out her but all their eyes, triumphs Hla face tapered down to an Indeterminate dows! Number one done! now number two. Now go to bed, young woman," eb you over those temptations rang in her tone. Hullo, what's this?" boy mouth and ended surprising firmcommanded herself with a feeble, jaded deYou are not mistaken, she said, there This was something that her hand struck ness in a square of chin. And no more foolishness termination. teas a cigaret In it. I I I smoked it" just outside bn the window ledge something He saw what framed by the square of never see again as long about people youll The boy stared speechless. He tried to small and boxlike, cool, and satin smooth. the screen might have looked to sophistias you live! Go Into the dining room and come. words A would not but crimson speak, She lighted the candle on a nearby table. cation like a portrait of a young girl; a wistkitchen and see that everything's locked flush painted his cheek that faded Letty's It was a cigaret case of gun metal studded ful blonde face which would have shown1 a there. as blush had blush the Harvard paled Lettys with turquoises certain piquancy of tip tilted nose and cleft She obeyed herself. Some in took trained flag. impulse Letty up O, Paul, I've certainly gbt one on you!" chin If the hour and the blur of tears and that "Now try the front door and s work. a Walt instinctive its moment, J Letty gibed at her absent brother-in-law- . its own innocence had not rendered it poignlocked." thats please! she dropped in a fainting voice. She ' What a a of such Think goop! leaving ant The disarranged hair dropped in frai! Again she obeyed herself,turned and fled up the stairs, in an Instant loely thing where any passerby might steal Now take the screens out of the window tangles and airy wisps of gold on to her fore was she back her skin white still again, it! I suppose he sat there smoking and Just head and over her ears Nevertheless, the In front room; close Windows; lock winthe showing banners of crimson. Sbs held out forgot all about it." clear gray of her candid eyes carried through Number one done! Now two! Hullo dow to was In her a hand the it boy. trembling She piessed the spring. Inside lay a single " the tangle. And nothing veiled the faint whats case of silver opened to show files of cigaret. cigaret. color in her soft cheek or the Intenser one on did not add this. This time her But Letty " Please take one, she begged. a Take She took her find upstairs to her room for her warm lips tone was not inquiry only surprise; ecstatic, lot! Theyre my brother Paul a safekeeping, she told herself spread it open The lad gazed and gazed aa though spellThe boy docilely took the case from her, r rapturous surprise. Her hand had struck on the top of the old fashioned bureau. She bound And, equally magnetized, Letty gazed something outside the window something a single cigaret, put It between extracted did not go to bed immediately, however. For and gazed. small and boxlike that felt cool and satin Suddenly he jumped, looked Ithis Ups, tried to light - His fingers made suddenly she found she was not sleepy at all. down at his hand. The forgotten match had smooth. But that was not all she found. awkward work with the match at first. Beside, with equal suddenness, temptation burned to the flesh He dropped the stub, For as she stood there holding the gun ' This is a pretty cigaret case," he finally ' a mighty one, a gay one swooped out of the murmured a confused " I beg your pardon," metal cigaret case in her hand a lightning unIs one It as said who he breathed, but air upon her. She sat down at the mirror flash of Intuition zigzagged across her mind. moved on. conscious of his own worda and examined the case all over again. He was the only person on the street Why. he was shy. too shy aa she shyert Yes, Letty answered. Paul bought it She slept soundly until six. Then, for to his He had wanted to be Invited to call, but he Letty listened footsteps. They stopped In Nuremberg." For an answer she surveyed some unaccountable reason, she awoke with a few houses on. where, she conjeeted, he re- couldn't bring his lip to . . . While the a mental blankness In which w.. no word. a start She tried to hypnotize herself into had wrestled with the tonguetied feeling, he lighted the neglected cigaret. The footsteps Then, as an inspiration. It's It's very old. had. too. He was so shy that he had to play started again, became staccato in th.elr rapidsleep again, for she realized that a long day Ensued a hollow pause In which neither this trick to show how he felt! He was so lay before her, and for an equally unaccountity; then blurred off Into the silence. Letty cigaret nor cigaret case offered conversaable reason that day looked lonely. But her listened also to a nearby clock which almost shy that he had never realized that she was tional inspiration to Letty. aby. Why, If he were shy . . . system of hypnosis did not work, and presInstantly struck twelve Other clocks took Do do you know, the lad finally broke A sudden conviction pulled taut in her up their midnight responsibilities, and she ently she jumped up. dressed; drew on one the silence in- - a voice that seemed to have B of the little gingham gowns that hung In mind. listened to them, too. But all the time she of any absorbed some of Its hollowness, were her she - - ver would was listening most Intently to the clamor of he with If the closet. I shy could I her round where get any place Never! The him. Never! be in with the kitchen she own Downstairs her microscopic shy thoughts. Im Im a stranger In my breakfast? of his evapobuilt a fire; put water on to boiL SJje set the What they were saying she did not exactly miraculously thought shyness Boston." , . . . rated hers. Flutter . . . chatter dining room table with Scrupulous get. She realized only that she felt extraorI'm so sorry, Letty breathed, but I I a on while flowered saucer flowered one a After cheerful. and care; laughter. plat dinarily light don't I'm I'm a stranger, too. A dazzling idea fire rocketed through her for strawberries, a second floweped saucer on she arose, stretched, yawned, smiled- "You'd O'. Thank The lad removed hla hat d mind. He would call tor his cigaret case In a flowered plate for breakfast food; a better go to bed. miss, she advised herself. you for finding my cigaret case. Good-by- . dented silGood-bythe morning. She would Invite him to lunch You're sleepy and tired! And, remember-egg cup; three of Letty said and closed the . . . dinner . v. . lunch . . . dinner no foolishness about being alor.e In this angel ver spoons' that Margaret and she had door. till Margaret came home. Another of a hodse' Now go Into the dining room an fell teethed on. WhllaAhe waited for the water breakfast of Into after orgy Letty She mad to boil ehe went Into the drawring room, and kitchen artd see that everything's locked work. She washed her dishes. dazzling idea broke. She would never explain about the cigaret. He had come back her bed. She dusted the entire house. But there'' opened the windows, and put In the screens. She obeyed herself. The odorof the linden mingled .with the" these tasks took only a small portion of her out In her a curious confidence, a sparkle of Now try the front door and see that Its syringpjfand poured a beady volume of permorning and through them all that scarlet i Flutter . . . chatter locked! fume Into the room. In the garden opposite shame hotly seared her consciousness. sophistication. was calling. She leaned out. The . . . laughter. Well, watch her! In the afternoon she wandered futilely . Again she obeyed herself. 1022 By lues Haynes Irwin.) (Copyright: Now take the screens out of the windows . narrow silt of sky showed a warm blueness. about the West End streets for a while. But ... fren-zledl- -- - -- y -- gun-met- n . - tete-k-tftt- flow-ere- , ?' ... . i |