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Show j Elva's I I Profession I 1 : 1 5 By John Elkins (CopyrlelU, 1917, by W. G. Chapman.) Cedric Shaw was Intently watching the girl across the room. Sometimes the swaying dancers in the hotel bull-room bull-room came between him and her; but always his gn.e went buck persistently to the bright animated face Of a young woman who stood talking with an elderly elder-ly lady. The first thing that had attracted at-tracted him was the absence of the painted lips and cheeks, which he saw on almost all of the young girls present. pres-ent. Next to take his attention was the pretty dancing gown, which unlike the others covered her back, and came above the shoulders all around in a becoming be-coming line. The young man could not have been called old-fashioned or "straight laced," but a certain fine respect for womanhood woman-hood which had been carefully Instilled In him by his mother, felt a kind of repulsion re-pulsion at the artificially covered faces, and the too scantily covered forms of the girls he met In society everywhere. He felt that this girl must be different, differ-ent, and as he watched her face his conviction grew. He determined to know her, and started out to see If he could find someone to Introduce him. Finally he accomplished his object, and soon found himself guiding Miss Burt through the mazes of the dancers. Yes, decidedly Miss Burt was "different." "differ-ent." It was not long before Shaw's heart began to give curious but unmistakable un-mistakable evidences of being considerably consid-erably off Its normal condition. He managed to get an invitation to call, which was not exactly difficult "He Lights a Bit of Paper So's He Can Look Better." since Miss Burt was quite as anxious that he should ask as he was to get the permission. Elva Burt lived alone In a "furnished room" in the big city. The bed masqueraded mas-queraded as a couch during the day, and a screen covered the stationary washstand. She made It look like a sitting room, and the house was clean and respectable, if not fashionable. Still she felt a slight qualm at receiving receiv-ing the stranger In her bumble quarters?. quar-ters?. He seemed to her like a man used to good society, one used to mingling with cultured people in refined re-fined surroundings. In this supposition wns rlL'ht. The mother of Cedric Shaw had belonged to a family of high social standing, and his father had been president of a college. When a lad of twelve, his father had died. Elva, on the evening Shaw was to call, put on her most becoming frock and' sat down to wait for him. "Oh, dear !" she said to herself, "It Isn't very scrumptuous," surveying the room. "But If he's what I think he is, he won't mind. If he does .well ' The sentence ended in a sigh. It did not appear, from the animated conversation and the length of Shaw's call that he did "mind." The next day he wrote a note of apology for having stayed so late, and asked when he might come again. Even after Shaw had become a frequent fre-quent visitor and had several times taken Elva to dine and to places of amusement he knew little or nothing of her circumstances. She had told him her parents lived in a small village In the states, and with the exception of a few friends, she was alone in the city, and was earning her own living. As to how she was earning it she had not informed in-formed him, and had evasively put him off when he had asked. He concluded that perhaps she might have a little foolish pride about revealing her occupation, occu-pation, and said no more. The suite of offices occupied by his firm were in a building which hud been remodeled from a dwelling house. Next to It stood a residence which the march of business up the avenue hnd so far left undisturbed, and It was now rented out for bachelor apartments. apart-ments. One morning the papers had an Item on the front page telling how Spray, Galland & Co., diamond Importers, had been robbed of valuable gems by the blowing open of n safe. This was Shaw's firm, and that evening he tolo Elva thoy were entirely mystified as to how the burglars had entered. There was a watchman on the outside who could not have failed to see them from the front, and the roof and back of the building showed not the slightest trace of any forcible entrance. About two days after this, Shaw, In passing the house next his office, saw a young man hastily coming down the front steps. Something about him caused Shaw to stare curiously at the man. Instantly the man turned away to avoid his scrutiny, and almost stumbled down the remaining steps. Shaw purposely stood in his way, and as the young man dodged him, caught at his arm. "Elva Burt!" he exclaimed. "What does this mean?" "Let me go!" she begged. "Let me go quickly!" "But" he began. "Don't keep me here !' she urged: And, freeing herself from his grasp, she hurried on, hailed a taxi, and had vanished before Cedric Shaw could quite collect his scattered senses. He went to his desk in a dazed state of mind. No woman except a laundress or scrubwoman was ever seen coming out of this house. For the girl whose delicate womanliness had first of all appealed to him to be seen In such a guise, and coming out of bachelor apartments, was a shock from which It was not easy to recover. He had given her the deepest devotion, the love of his life, and he had meant to tell her this. The blow staggered him. Late In the afternoon the telephone rang, the senior partner took the message, mes-sage, and when he had hung up the receiver be cnlled the heads of the firm together and told them. It was from police headquarters; they had made an Important arrest two men from the house next door. Shaw felt his heart stop beating, and things running before his eyes. What If one of these men was Elva Burt? What if he had to face her in the prisoner's dock? A detective was now on the way up, and they wished someone to remain, and go with him to the cellar. Investigation Investiga-tion revealed a tunnel from the house next door, through which the thieves had crawled, and which they must have worked, digging for some time. The police had not yet discovered the gems, but they believed they had got the right men, the janitor and a young fellow. A "young fellow." Shaw shuddered shud-dered at confronting him. They went down to headquarters. The "young fellow" fel-low" was short, stumpy, and red-haired, and both men protested their Innocence. Inno-cence. "Well," announced the chief, "this was about the neatest bit of detective work you'd pull off in a month of Sundays. Sun-days. The finding of that hole In the cellar was a Jim dandy. You see, the detective pretends to go In there to Inquire about rooms, and all of a sudden sud-den he sniffs something, and he yells out to the Janitor he smells fire, and It's coming from the cellar. The minute min-ute the man unlocks that cellar door, he's down there ahead of him, and nosing nos-ing around to beat the band. He lights a bit of paper so's he can lQok better, puts It out, and sniffs a burnt smell somewhere. But he's got what he came for, the sight of a hole, and bricks and dirt behind a box, and he hasn't let on to the janitor he's seen a thing out of the common, and he's awful sorry he gave him such a scare. He finds out there's only a terribly high-priced apartment to rent, and is awful sorry again, it being too much for his purse, and he gets out, ana down here qulcker'n lightning. And the two fellows fel-lows are jailed in just about one hour from that time." Here one of the partners asked If he might see the detective. The chief said he supposed he might that is, if he happened to be in. He went to a door, opened it, looked In, and beckoned to someone. A neatly neat-ly dressed young woman appeared In the doorway. Shaw gasped. "Miss Burt," asked the chief, "do you know' where Sanderson Is?" She gave him an Inquiring look, then she suddenly saw Shaw's eyes upon her. Official caution vanished before the questioning of his gaze. The elder men, rushing up to her, grasped her hand, expressing their thanks and the desire to make It something some-thing more substantial than thanks. Then Shaw said, as he took her hand : "Miss Burt Is a very dear friend of mine but I never knew 'Sanderson.' " Then he drew her aside as the other men talked, and added: "I wanted to say something more than 'friend' may I?" Her look prompted him to add : "And you'll never be 'Sanderson' ageW |