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Show (C'oiilKht 1905, liy Dally Story Pub. Co.) Little Miss Peters tolled up tho three flights of steps to her tiny hall bedroom. Sho threw her bag on tho bed and walked deliberately to tho mirror, only stopping to throw open tho blind for moro light. She sat down deliberately before tho hideous llttlo glass and began to take another Inventory of her good looks. Not even ono who loved her sho smiled bitterly at that thought could call her pretty. Sho was hornoly. Not with that piquant sort of plainness that is almost as attractive as beauty,-but beauty,-but with a sort of ugliness. Tho forehead bulged, tho eyes wero dull and sunken, tho chcoks presented no contours to speak of, and tho whole expression was owllsbly pathetic. She examined each featuro as callously cal-lously as If It were a statue she wero appraising. Tho face was tho' same. As hateful to her as ever, Sho closed her eyes wearily. Sho was plain, un-VtractJvo un-VtractJvo ugly. And If one ever wants good looks It is when sho Is twenty. Miss Peters was barely that, but sho looked nlmost any age, up to forty. She slipped tho pins out of the tight llttlo knot nt tho back of her neck nn 1 shook her hair down over her shoulders. It was not pretty hair. It wns thin nnd scraggly and mouso colored. col-ored. In tho hand mirror sho rnlsed to got a glimpse ot her profllo she could seo her bent llttlo shoulders rctlccted. A bookkeeper who bends ovor her work from eight In the morning morn-ing until six at night rarely has pretty pret-ty shoulders. And soventy-flvo dollars Is not much to pay a girl who does the work of two men. Miss Peters sent fifty dollars dol-lars of this amount homo every month. After her board was paid, llttlo was left to waste on fcmlnino finery. "I wouldn't care," (sho hnd fallen into tho habit of talking to herself), "I wouldn't euro ir I wero ugly and poor ir any or them liked me " Sho burled her rnco In. the pillows and began be-gan to cry. "I never have any fun." Sho lay staring nt tho celling, thinking hard. And her thoughts wero oven moro pathetic than her face Ono by ono sho took the girls In tho boarding house, and studied their rnces from memory nnd their friends. Thcro wns only ono of them who had over manifested tho slightest friendliness Tor her nnd thnt wns Miss Muthis. Sho did not wonder thnt people loved Miss Mnthls and thought her benuti-ful benuti-ful sho was. Sho reminded Miss Peters Pet-ers always or n queen who had strayed stray-ed somehow Into n cheap boarding-houso boarding-houso Incognito, thnt she might lenrn to know and lovo tho least or her subjects. sub-jects. Miss Mnthls, with her gorgeous hair and eyes was so beautiful and magnetic no one could keep from loving lov-ing her. Hut It wns the others sho wondered about tho dozens of stenographers, sten-ographers, book keopers and school teachers. Very few of them were really real-ly pretty, yet they had friends. Tho landlady's daughter was no beauty, but all tho men liked her. "I know," exclaimed Miss Peters, with sudden energy, "It's only tho gay girls that aro popular. I will make 'lii1 I ill , I &'- 1 If Not even one who loved her could call her pretty, 'em llko me, too!" Her fnco had omorgod from tho pillow A now light was In her eyes, the light ot ono who determined to conquer. "A girl who goer along, tending to her own business busi-ness and living up to her ideas of hat a lady should bo. What's coming com-ing to her? " Unconsciously sho fell into tho slang ot the other girls. She rose with rresh determination and began to dress for dinner. Sho pulled out her best frock, tho one kept religiously for Sundays, and her good ftllppej-g. BheMou!d,.dr$ijs up .like the other girls. She would even "mnko up" llko Daisy, the landlady's daughter To do this she had to Improvise cosmetics. cos-metics. A rose petal from her best hat put color Into her cheeks nnd lips She darkened her brows and lashes She almost fnncled that sho saw In the fnco reflected a likeness to Mrs. Lively, Live-ly, tho wlfo ot a drummer further down tho hall. Then sho began to comb her hair. Not in tho usual knot but In an elaborate and much tangled pompndour. By the time sho hnd her dress buttoned, but-toned, tho dinner bell rnng nnd, without with-out taking time to consider her dar "It Is," she admitted. Ing, she ran lightly down to the dining din-ing room. She did not see, fortunately, fortunate-ly, tho elevated brows behind her back, or hear any of tho whlsporcd comments on her appearance. It wns n pity she did not know that one man, Mr Hughes, tho kindly-faced new boarder, was disappointed In her. Be-foro Be-foro this he had felt a certain shy friendliness for tho modest llttlo bookkeeper, book-keeper, who reminded hlra somehow of a fragrant clover blossom in a bunch of artificial flowers. And so, he wns thinking, ns ho watched her flippant and pnlnted, that sho was llko the others, after all. Ho felt a mild sort of pity that he could not have explained ex-plained to himself, but all tho timo ho knew that tho others wero making fun ot Miss Peters behind her back. But tho llttlo bookkeeper, with nn almost fierce gaiety, was chattering nwny to a commercial student Who sat next to her. After dinner sho followed tho others In tho parlor, still determined deter-mined to bo ono of them. Her companion com-panion at dinner was at her heels, encouraging en-couraging her. Later sho went to sit on tho stops to the side gallery with him whllo ho smoked a cigarette. "Have ono?" ho Invited, companion-ably. companion-ably. "Daisy smoked ono with me last night." For an Instnnt Miss Peters' Pe-ters' face went white under tho paint with anger. Then sho remembered Bho must be like the others It sho wnnted to bo populnr. No ono could bo popular and be a prig. Sho reached out for tho cigarette, and the young mnn offered her a light from the one he wnB smoking nnd moved up nearer. Two whiffs of tho clgaretto turned her denthly faint. "I think I'll go up to ray room," sho faltered, throwing It asldo with a llttlo llt-tlo forced laugh. 'Don't go." ho begged. "Ain't you gnme enough to finish It? Must bo jour first one." "It Is." she admitted, fighting back her disgust for her companion. "Good night " Aren't ou going to kiss me good night?" ho whispered, rising. "Daisy always" "How dare " But Miss Peters did not finish. Sho stumbled blindly through tho dining room aiid on up the three flights of stairs to her own room. Sho slammed tho door and dropped on her knees beside tho tiny white bed. "O God." sho sobbed, "what have 1 done? Why did you let mo do It? What did It matter If I were ugly! That I had no friends. Nothing matter nny more! I have lost ovcry thing ow. My self re-spect Is go-one for-ev-er " Ayd sho was on her knees, still sob blng nnd praying In tho dark when thf Inbt boarder camo In tor tl nlpb. and passed whistling to his room at ' o'clock. Some men's Iden or tho pursuit ot happiners Is to sprinkle salt on lt New Sundial. Ilecontly Invonted by Prof. C. Cre- ' horo. ,:- |