OCR Text |
Show l I Florence's Triumph By IDA MELLON t.v Mclliire Newspaper syndicate ' ' WNU Service FLORENCE had expected to have a wonderful time when she went to visit her aunt and cousins In Isew Turk. But somehow when she arrived ar-rived things were not just what she had expected them to he. Her cousins, Dolly and Joan, had changed, for one thing. They seemed to he so anxious all the time ahout their various social engagements. They were anxious, too. about Florence. "You mustn't be too nice to Dick Thomas," they told her, the night after Dick had entertained them all at dinner din-ner and the theater. "He's nice enough, of course, but he hasn't any money, and it's useless to have a man like that hanging around all the time; It keeps other men away." "But he must have spent a good deal," ventured their cousin from the country. "Probably you're right, Florence," Joan answered. "But it must have taken nearly every cent he earned last week to do It. Let's see we'll have to have him here for dinner some time soon, to pay him back for last night; let's ask him the night Peggy Frances, comes, and get rid of both of them at once!" Florence didn't like that way of doing do-ing things. At her home in a sleepy little southern south-ern town you were friendly with people peo-ple whether they had money or not. Florence knew without being told that her cousins wanted to get marriedand mar-riedand with them, getting married meant marrying a man who had money. To Florence It seemed hideous, but Joan and Dolly and their mother seemed to think It was the only thing for a girl to do. "You just have to have money," Joan told her once. "Without It life's just Impossible." One of the young men to whom Dolly Dol-ly was especially nice discovered that Florence was the daughter of the famous fa-mous Samuel Darwin, and devoted himself to her after that. Her aunt told Florence that she ought to be delighted, de-lighted, that the young man was a great catch. Florence said nothing. He gave a dinner for Florence a month after she arrived in New York, at a very smart new restaurant. It happened to be an evening when she was feeling especially homesick, when It seemed that she must pack her trunk In the morning and go straight back home. She was trying hard to pretend to enjoy herself, when, glancing up, she saw the face of the young man who was picking up the soiled dishes. ; "Why why " she turned in her chair, but he had gone off to the kitchen, kit-chen, and the next course was being served. Florence was very quiet until It was over, and the young man appeared again. Then, as he removed her plate, she laid her hand on his arm. "You're Billy James, aren't you?" she said, in her soft, southern drawl. "Yes I am," he said, and his voice had that same soft drawl in it. "Florence !" exclaimed her aunt, from across the table. "That's the bus boy !" "I don't care," Florence answered defiantly. "I used to know him down home and " He had come back for more dishes, reluctantly. She motioned him to her side. "Billy, what are you doing here? Won't you come to see me?" she asked. "I'd really like to see you. Please?" "Why, Florence, I I' "Florence !" her aunt exclaimed again, and the young man disappeared once more. He didn't come back again. "I haven't seen him for ages ; he ran away from home," she said. "And now maybe I won't see him again. . Oh" And suddenly the other diners in the smart restaurant were amazed to see a pretty young girl in a white and silver frock rise from her chair and hurry across the dining room, to the door of the kitchen and rush straight through it, with the head waiter following. fol-lowing. "Billy !" she cried, as she caught up with him. "Why are you running away from me?" "Because I'm a flat failure," he told her. "I said I'd come up here and make good, because I was sure I could sell that play I wrote down home. Well, I haven't sold it, and I had to earn a living somehow you shouldn't have spoken to me!" "Don't be silly!" Florence told him, catching hold of his arm with both hands. "I don't care what you're doing do-ing I love you, and I always will !" Florence's aunt scolded frantically, and tried to prevent the wedding which, nevertheless, took place the next morning. She stopped scolding only when Billy's play was accepted, a week later. Then she told her friends, as Florence had told everyone from the start, "Of course I knew that dear Billy would succeed !" And she took credit to herself for the very pretty romance that grew out of Florence's speaking to the bus boy. |