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Show The Queen of ' SKeba By H. IRVING KING lt (Couyrlk-ht.) P GI5ERT LANGTOX was on duty as aide de camp to his aunt, who was making a foray on a department store. It occurred to Egbert that he wanted a pair of gloves, so he strolled over to the counter where they sold such things. The young woman who waited on him struck Egbert as being very attractive indeed. Her voice was low and well modulated, her manners easy, her dress very plain but very neat. Was she pretty? Egbert concluded con-cluded that she was, and at every glance he gave her she seemed to get prettier and prettier. Egbert was interested ; he bought two pairs of gloves and took as much time about it as he could. The other girls, a keen-eyed lot, whispered to each other : "Look at his swell nibs playing linger longer Lou at the glove counter! Queenie's made a hit." The queen of Sheba, one of the girls had called her when she first appeared in the department store which name had "stuck," though generally shortened short-ened for everyday use into "Queenie." On the pay roll of the establishment I she was registered as Miss Margaret Kills. Although the girls nicknamed her tney liked her immensely. She lived r just as the other girls lived that Is to say with a straitened economy. And she had no "gentleman friends," as most of the others had, to vary her drab life by excursions to Coney island and evenings at the "movies." "Too bad," said the other girls, "Queenie ought to see some life. She could, too, if she wasn't so offish." After that first visit to the glove counter it was marvelous the number num-ber of pairs of gloves and the number of neckties Egbert Langton was constantly con-stantly wanting. Egbert learned Queenie's name and she learned his. After that it was Miss Ellis and Mr. Langton, which made it easier and the acquaintance ripened. "Miss Ellis," said Egbert one day, "would it be presuming too much to ask to be allowed to call upon you?" Queenie looked at him thoughtfully for a moment and then said with a smile : "In die place where I live there is no reception room no place to receive callers." "We might go down to Coney island," is-land," he suggested. He had always heard that Coney island was the delight de-light of the shop girl. "Yes, we might," replied Queenie. "I have never been to Coney island. Yes call for me at seven o'clock'." And she gave him her street and number. num-ber. They had a delightful time at Coney. All of it was new to Queenie and most of it to Egbert. They took in all the shows, had their fortunes told ; and were happy as two children. "Mr. Langton," said Queenie as they parted at the door of her rooming house, "you must not come to the store again. You have gloves enough now, I am sure, to last you for a long time. If you persist in coming there I shall leave and try to find another job." Langton started to blurt out some incoherent in-coherent remarks about lov- and marriage mar-riage ; but Queenie stopper am with: "Don't talk, please. I mean it. Don't come to the shop again for six months. Good-night." 1 And she was up the steps and in at the door. Egbert walked away meditating. He had nearly proposed marriage to a shop girl. He pictured the fury of his x aristocratic relations at such an alii- i ance. Yet wasn't that what he had been looking forward to all the time? i And why shouldn't he marry her? His relations might go hang; the decision lay with Queenie. And and she had banished him from her presence for six mouths ! , Egbert went off for a little run in i Europe, but six months from the day of the Coney island trip he walked j into the department store to buy a j pair of gloves. A strange girl was behind the glove counter. He sought the floor walker. Miss Ellis had left the day before; he had no idea where she had gone. The floor walker interviewed in-terviewed the other girls. He could get no trace of Queenie she had disappeared dis-appeared from her lodgings as mysteriously myste-riously and completely as she had J from the shop. It was a desperate and baffled young man who walked out of the department store without buying a pair of gloves. He thought of "personal ads", in the papers, and private detectives. While meditating which of these courses to resort to he dressed himself for Mrs. Van Dunder- berg's dinner, which he had promised to attend that night. "Oh Bert, dear!" said Mrs. Van Dumlerberg, "I have the loveliest girl ' for you to take in to dinner; Kiltie! Clavering. She's so intellectual and so interested in social welfare work besides being a great heiress anc she's just finished the sweetest experiment experi-ment ; she's been living for a year as ' a shop girl, just to study conditions ' Here she is now." And the queen oi j Sheba and of the glove counter approached. ap-proached. I The honeymoon was over and they were beginning to feel quite like old married people when one day Egbert said: "What was It they used to cal' you at the department store?" . "Queenie?" "No. the longer name." "Oh. the queen of Sheba." "That's it. Well, I'm Sheba who- i ever or whatever that was and you are queen thereof." "Don't talk nonsense of course I ; am." replied Mrs. "Langdou witii 0 warm kiss. i |