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Show Rat silently listening to the pianlst'i somewhat sketchy rendition of "Hearts and Flowers." "Tell me," said I.ollta, suddenly remembering; re-membering; "did some man come and talk to you. while I was In the police station. asklng you things about me. and" "Some man; Dear G d, girl It seems to me that every policeman, reporter re-porter and plain citizen in the whole city of Chicago did; 1 never talked so much In my life." "But did one of them ask you ahou! my 'ambitions?' " "Oh yes." said Gertrude, suddenly remembering; she stopped to light a cigarette. "Yen, there was that one guy who was different from the rest I remember him awful well because he was the only one who believed what I said when 1 opened up and told hlra the truth; In fact, he was the only one that I did give the inside dope to There was something about him, different, dif-ferent, sad like, 1 bulled him along about how you was going to go to school and everything, when you got out of the mess, and he got right happy over that." "lie's paid my room rent, given mo some money, and, In fact, even paid n year's tuition for me at the South western university," confided I.olita. "Hot diggity dog!" was Gertrude's enthusiastic comment. "Ob course I can't accept IL" "Oh-h-h Lord! You make me sick. Why, listen. This guy is right. 1 got the feeling somehow that he would l I SMssMasaMssaMswsaMisiwaWWulaij The Girl Who Came Back Q Q Q I By Jack Woodford a a a Copyright W. N. U. Service . THE STORY Influenced by loneliness, without with-out relatives, or real friends, in Chicago, Lolita Forbes, young and pretty, yields to the Importunities Impor-tunities of HSrvey Torrence, wltb whom she fancies herself In love She discovers his true charactei and leaves him, taking refuge with an acquaintance, Gertrude Watson. Lolita Is accosted by th-son th-son of the wealthy owner of thf apartments, Fred Watterson. She repulses his advances, but he in slsts on driving her to the store On the street Torrence Is waiting. wait-ing. He puts the worst construction construc-tion on Lolita's being with Watterson, Wat-terson, and the two men engage In a fistic battle In which Torrence Tor-rence is killed. Lolita spends a night of misery in a police cell She informs her father, by wire, of her situation, but he answers that he "never wants to see her face again." Next morning the Judge, at the Instigation of a lawyer, a stranger to Lolita, dismisses dis-misses the case. 1 I KSVfsT 1 Cold Need Cause No Inconvenience Singers can't always keep from catching cold, but they can get the best of any cold In a few hours and so can you. Get Pape's Cold Compound that comes in pleasant-tasting tablets, ne of which -will break up a cold so quickly you'll be astonished. Adv. "G d. yes!" commented Gertrude and rose hurriedly. She reached for her coat, but a young man got It first. "May 1 help you on with It, my dear?" he said politely. "Certainly." smiled Gertrude. He helped her put on her coat. "You wouldn't give a fellow your telephone number, would you?" he next asked. "Certainly," said Gertrude, "It's Ard more 6!KI4." "Thanks," he commented significantly significant-ly as they walked off. Lolita noticed that he bad paid no attention what soever so-ever to her. She remembered her glasses and congratulated herself that she had been able to put un end to the good looks that usually caused men to stop and turn upon the street to look at her at least she was glad that she had put an end to them temporarily, a gladness which she would, perhaps, not have felt had they been permanently permanent-ly gone. "Why do you give men your phone number so casually, Gertrude, dear?" Lolita said softly reproving; "1 do so wish you'd change a little; you're such . a darn good kid. down undented! h." "The trouble is, my dear," said Ger trude brightly, "that you're the only I one who has ever troubled to look down underneath, so what's the use? And, besides. I didn't give him my telephone number, 1 gave him some body's else's telephone number God knows whose; and I hope whoever it is, they'll have him arrested when he calls up. It's the easiest way to get rid of birds like that." Lolita laughed When Gertrude' had hurried off back to the store, Lolita walked slowly along, thinking. She had not Intended to go near Southwestern university; she had intended to get another position posi-tion and save her money so that she could repay the kind stranger; but now that she had seen him, she felt entirely different She speculated upon the fact of how a person's face, molded and shaped by the accumulation accumula-tion of thoughts that they had been In the habit of having through the years, was almost Invariably an outward Indication In-dication of the person Inside whom the world is not supposed to see and yet almost Invariably knows. She un consciously raised her hand to her face, terrified by the thought that per haps it was beginning to be marked unmistakably by her inner self. She firmly resolved to see that the markings, mark-ings, hereafter, would be such as she would want the world to see; after all, there was no hiding anything unpleasant un-pleasant and unpretty. The man's eyes had been so kindly, and withal, so disappointed ; for, had he not asked ber to refrain from further association with Gertrude? How he must have felt upon noting that her only reaction to his kindness and help was a failure to observe a very slight wish that he had expressed. She resolved to at least please him by going to Southwestern South-western university and talking with the registrar; It was the least that she could do. At the registrar's office upstairs she was greeted by a lovely girl who looked very young, had wavy chestnut hair, hazel eyes, and a delightful manner man-ner of speaking correctly without seeming to make any effort to do so. "Won't you sit down?" invited the girl pleasantly. Lolita sat down In the little office. Briefly she related what her educational educa-tional background had been. "Well," the girl began slowly, when she had finished, "since you have nothing noth-ing beyond high-school credits, you could hardly take the regular four years' credit course without a good deal of preliminary work; still," she leaned forward as though talking confidentially con-fidentially to nn old friend, "1 wouldn't worry about that, if I were you. If you were to attend school here, taking special courses, I think you would get everything you wanted oui of It. I'm not the registrar; he's away today; I'm hi3 secretary, but perhaps 1 can advise you. 1 often do help people select their courses. There are several sev-eral things you might take up " She turned and looked off out of the window win-dow a moment speculatively. "My dear," she went on turning back suddenly; sud-denly; "perhaps it is perfectly silly of me, hut I have an Idea that you could wrile. If you cared to take up a line of study consistent with that general subject you'd find it absorb ing." "Do you really mean that 1 could ever make my living as a short story writer?" "Why. certainly, 1 mean that you could. A great ninny girls have taken the short -story class here and subsequently subse-quently been able to support them selves, after a time, by their writings You are. If you will pardon my saying so, the 'subjective' type; thai is, you are mental (a misleading use of the term I know) as opposed to dynamic or at least that is my thought, my reaction to you. I " (TO BE CONTINUED.) "Why Certainly I Mean That You Could." have been just as interested in you If you were a boy. He ain't the usual kind, take it from me. Why he's got the gravest, saddest, nicest eyes I ever saw In my life. Don't think for one Instant that he's got 'Intentions.' 1 don't see how you could possibly think anything like that after seeing him." "But I haven't seen him. He sent me an unsigned letter by a lawyer. I've seen nothing of him." "Well, I'm here to tell you that If you don't do like he wants you to, you ought to be shot; why .he Good (3 d 1" Gertrude broke off and stared across the room, "there he Is." "Where," cut in Lolita breathlessly. "There 1" Gertrude pointed, forgetful of manners. Lolita saw a kindly looking man ot perhaps forty or forty-five, rising from a table. For a second his eyes, which were gray, rested upon hers, then he turned his back toward her, walked lo the cashier's desk, paid his check and withdrew. She saw, as he put on his hat, that his hair was graying at the temples. Instantly she knew what Gertrude meant by saying that he had no 'Intentions' (at least he could have none In the sense that Gertrude meani it) and, furthermore, she was con scious of a pleasing sense of famil larity; somehow she felt that she hurl seen him before, known him at some time or other, and yet. too, she wa perfectly certain that she hud not. It was one of those feelings that come to -all of us at times, which lead us a little to believe that we have lived lu some former life. "Ain't he a nice old chap?' said Gertrude enthusiastically. "1 don't think he's so old." returned Lolita softly; "and he certainly is nice. I'm ashamed to have suspected him of ulterior motives still, it does seem impossible to accept his aid without knowing exactly why It is given, doesn't it?" "What seems Impossible about It?" Gertrude asked in great puzzlement. Lolita sighed "You wouldn't Understand, dear. Well, I expect it's about time for you to be gelling back, Isn't It?" CHAPTER III Continued 5 Amazed, Lolita examined the envelope en-velope which the note had come In. There was nothing upon it to Indicate from whence it had come. There was no signature, nothing upon either paper or envelope to identify them by. She leaned back In the taxicab, spent, exhausted and put everything from her mind. For more than a week Lolita did nothing but rest and attend to her worrying. After that, however, and nothing worse having happened to her, she began to think that perhaps, after all, she had paid the piper in full. Avidly she watched the papers dally with a sort of horrified fascination, expecting ex-pecting each day to see a date set for the hanging of the Watterson boy; but, oddly enough, the whole case dropped from sight in a few days; everybody seemed to forget all about It, and the papers stopped saying anything any-thing at all about It. Watterson's father not only owned the Grantham, he owned a v lot of other buildings beside. Finally, one day, Lolita ventured out She had dyed her reddish yellow hair a dark brown, and had bought a complete outfit of new clothes and, to make assurance doubly sure, a pair of horn-rlmmed glasses, with neutral lenses In them, which changed her appearance ap-pearance so that she almost felt as though she were looking at a stranger Tvhen she looked into the glass. She had lost a good deal of pride In her good looks, and had come to feel that . to be nersonahle was more or less of a drawback. The first thing that she did, once downtown, was to call up Gertrude and make an appointment with her for lunch. They met In a tearoom where a good many stenographers stenog-raphers and clerks took their lunch. "My God!" Gertrude commented "you look like something that a blind cut dragged In; I hardly knew you at first. You're twenty pounds lighter, paler, and your hair! why It takes ill of the life out of you dyed that way And you look kind of scnVed sort of." "Kind of scared, sort of, Is very correct," cor-rect," said Lolita gravely. "I have been frightened out of seventeeen years' growth In the wrong direction I shall never forgive myself." "Oil, come out of It; he yourself What Is there for you to be forgiven for? My goodness, if nobody were ever forgiven a mistake, there wouldn't be anybody In Heaven at nil. except Got! and a few. scraggly maiden aunts." "But to think that 1 caused the death of " "Oh, don't think about It. You performed per-formed a service for humanity a: large. He was long overdue dead. Don't you know tiiat a few years ago a girl that he put on the hummer was found floating around near the Mu nlcipal pier one night? And God knows how many more they haven't found, after he got through with them. "I know, that may be true, still " "Oh. you'll get over It. girlie." "Where are you living now?" Gertrude looked surprised at this queslion. "Where am I living? Well, where do you suppose I'd be living? I'm at the GranUiari". only I got a better room, and my rent Is paid for life In full. Watterson's old man told me to lay off the reporters and I wouldn't ever have to pay nny more rent as long as I lived. I made him put it in writing." Lolita looked disapprovingly at her, b'.it Gertrude merely laughed and then added : "Don't think the old man was so broken up. either. Say. that kit! caused him more trouble than a harem full of five hundred wives could. He was glad of the necessity for packing him off to Europe." ; "But Mrs. Watterson?" ,; "There isn't any Mrs. Watterson ; ' they were divorced years ago and she's dead." Fot some moments they I |