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Show I ' ji The Girl Who Came Back BY JACK WOODFORD Copyright W. N. U. Service CHAPTER X Continued 17 "Don't be silly," ho nnswcreil her n little sharply, "you are the Inspiration for the work. Since 1 fouiul you ngiiln I've done better every dny. 1 could alTord duw to tiiko cure of you In a fair decree of luxury. Just on what I urnko myself without Imvlni; recourse to dad's money. In fact. I've already begun to pay hi in hack whut I owe him. lie knows all about you. 1 explained all about how what hap pened before was all my fault, and he didn't believe It at first, but he does now. How are you cetlliiK "Ions, by the way, with your stories; are you selling theiu rl'lit along so that you have plenty of money I've noticed that you looked a little peaked lately." For a moment I.ollta debated her answer to this question. She knew that she had but to Intimate that she wanted a small loan "I'm getting ulong all right." she told him firmly; "working harder, that's all." Presently they came to a bench and sat down. For a ehort time they sat In complete silence. I.o-lita's I.o-lita's thoughts drifted back to Elgin. She saw the lawn before the big watch factory where, as a little girl, she had played with other children who came at noon to bring their father's lunches. Lonesomeness lay upon her like a pail. Presently she felt Watterson's arm behind be-hind her along the tvp of the bench. U is other arm crept along her forearm fore-arm until It reached her hand. She turned and looked at hi in. "1 love you so," be said softly under his breath. There was Infinite lunging In bis eyes. She made no effort to resist re-sist when tie bent over and kissed her on the lips. Aching, herself. Inside, for some one that she loved, she bad not the heart to put him from her; she lay back, eyes closed, upon his shoulder as his kisses every few moments mo-ments brushed her face. "1 suppose It's useless to ask you again today to marry me; but please let me see you every day. Even if you don't ever Intend to marry me I love to be with you. It takes you away from that darned work of yours long enough to assure your gelling a little healthy exercise and fresh air. You will see nie. won't you?" She opened her eyes and looked squarely Into his. The expression there startled and frightened her, but It vanished almost Instantly. It wa9 i as though, for a moment, the man that i he had been had looked out through the eyes of the man that he was. She decided that It had Just been a notion ; of her own and dismissed that thought 1 Instantly. "Yes, I'll meet yon at the old place, day after tomorrow, and we must go now. It's time for the second mall, and there may be something In It for me." "You're sure you don't need any money?" he again asked as they rose. "No," she told lim firmly. They walked to where he had parked his car. When he bad driven away Lolita hurried home. Uer first glance upon entering the house was at the halltree but though there were additional addi-tional pieces of mail there, showing that the postman had made his second call, there was nothing for her. She wanted to go to her room and work, but she dared not, since the landlady, hearing her typewriter would. In all probability, come and ask for the rent. She was a stickler for promptness In this connection. Going hack to the sireet Lolita again walked toward the park, walked through It to the outer drive which ran along the shore of the lake, and started walking toward town. She had no very definite plan of action. Only grim determination possessed her; she would not give In to circumstance In any particular, come what might It was two-thirty, and time for the last mall of the day. She met the mailman and asked him if there were anything for her. There was not. Exhausted and weary she decided to go In and have It out with the landlady. land-lady. She walked through the house and out to the kitchen. The landlady, a bent and worn old lady of not mine than thirty-six, old, somehow, in spite of the obvious fact of her few years, looked up from a dishpan full of dishes. "That you, Miss Forbes V" she asked. "Keen looking fur you all day. Special came for you this morning, and I knew you were not up, so I signed for it ; hut when 1 went to your room you were gone. Didn't want to leave it on the hall rack, It looked important.' She wiped her hands upon her apron and fished a long envelope out of some recess in her dress. With trembling lingers Lolita took the envelope ami siil It open, remembering, as soon as she saw the uame in the upper lefi hand corner, that she had asked the editor to send the check for the story by special delivery in case tliey bought It Sure enough, there was a check for fifty dollars enclosed. It looked a hundred times lietter. huge and green, and signed b. three names, than the first S3."0 check that she had gotten for her first slory. She showed it to the woman. "You couldn't take my rent out of It, could you, and give me the difference?" The woman Nliullled into the pantry, took dow n a crock marked "spice. ' extracted a small roll of bills anil counted them Finally I.ollta paid two weeks In advance Instead of one. since there was not enough money to cash the check otherwise. With brief thanks to the landlady she turned and made for u restaurant. Fairly Hying along she reached the pi act! and entered. The waller eyed the rather small and dainty looking girl with aslonlslunenl which lie could hardly conceal ut the order she gave hi m. "A steak, a large one medium. An order an order, not a ride dish, mind you of lyonnaise potatoes. A plate of sliced cucumbers. Wuldurt salad, with plenty of nuts. And, oh, yes while I'm waiting for the steak, bring me a shrimp cocktail and some French bread and butter. And for desert a piece of coconut custard pie, and don't forget a pot of tea. I'.ring Hint right away. If you please." It seemed to His Kisses Every Few Moments Brushed Her Face. Lolita that It was the most delicious uieal she had ever eaten in her lite. With every bite troubles, doubts, worries, wor-ries, fears dropped away from ber She saw herself In Warrill's arms. She saw long vistas of time marked and punctuated only with the receipt of increasingly large checks for stories. She saw paper-wagons with ber name upon them, and the title of her serial "Temptation."' below her name In smaller letters. After dinner shewalked gaily back, her bead fairly seething with a new chapter for the serial, and a short story to be written before going to bed and gotten off immediately to the pub lishlng company which, in the letter accompanying the check, had asked for more material. At the corner of the street she stopped at the drug store and bought a package of cigarettes. On the way out the cover of the magazine con tainlng Warrill's story caught her eye. It looked rireadrully interesting. She snatched It from the ruck, threw a quarter down upon the counter anil walked from the store, little knowing that under her arm, within the covers of t lie magazine, was the story ol Warrill's that would have made her so happy, bad she read IL that her pres ent happiness would have seemed like the deepest grief In comparison. Back In her room she stood for a moment In the center of the Mom thumbing through the magazine; how ever, before ber eye caught Warrill's name, a perfect Itch to he at the story she had thought of In the hotel dining room took hold of her. She threw the magazine down, snatched the covei from her typewriter and set to work furiously. CHAPTER XI The following morning Lolita still felt lucky and happy, but she decided that this time she would be more pru dent than she had been after the ar rival of the last check, fur she had learned what every beginning aulhor must, that checks for Holies almost never come when needed and that I ha best lime tu look for tl.eiu la when one doesn't care whether they come or not. tlolng to a neighborhood hank she opened a small savings account and decided to he most frugal with what money she did not deposit lu the account. ac-count. Later on Klie went downtown to take back some books to the library anil to get more. She had Just finished Drcslor's "The tlcnlus," and been comforted by It, admitting, In all Talr-lies, Talr-lies, thai If Hresler's picture of life In It was. a true one. as she had every reason to believe it was. her own experiences ex-periences In comparison had been like lying sprawled upon an Elinor (Jlyn-nish (Jlyn-nish bed of ruses, under u blight sun. James r.ianch Cabell's "Straws and Prayer Hunks," had begun to make her see hei writing in a mure serious light than ever belore. She knew that her ta-te was considerably Improving, and he was beginning to realize that she had as yet but scratched Hie surface, su far us her understanding of the true meaning of the verb "to write'' was concerned. She could now dimly see lung vistas of study yet to come that would stretch out to cover many years, a vista which had no conceivable conceiv-able ending. It was not like learning anything else, where eventually one came to the end of the necessary knowledge and then Slopped learning; there was ntner uny possible end to it. Utterly she stopped to relied that If Warrlll and she could have worked together through the years . . . bow beautiful that would have been! When she had exchanged the books, she decided to get a bite to eat before guing home, and. as a familiar tea room was not far away, she slipped In there. It was after twelve, and the place was Jammed with young stenographers stenog-raphers as usual trying to look frightfully sophisticated and young male clerks from near-by ollices. en deavoriug to look Interestingly dangerous. danger-ous. It was somehow nice to be in the restaurant again, where she had luncheon so many times In those care-tree care-tree days at the Emporium. Suddenly Lolita saw a familiur form weaving its way through the tables and recoguized the girl from the Emporium Em-porium who, that fateful night in the dance hall, had told ber for the first time how Harvey Torrence was making mak-ing a fool of her. The girl saw oer and came at once toward the table, "Well, for crying out loud I Where did you come from?" Lolita smiled up at her and indl cated the empty chair at the table. "Jeez!" weut on the newcomer, "I'm glad to see you. I often ast Gertrude about you but she's gut a mouth like a one-way pocket. Uow did you come out after your swell friend bumped Hurvey Torrence off? Jeez, that was a good Idea on his part, you should ought to of g:ven him a lot of credit for It." Lolita looked painfully about to see If anyone had heard. No one bad. a-parently; a-parently; the other observed ber look and lowered her voice, "For cry-l, kid, tell me what you ueen doing ever siuce 1 seen you last?" Lolita thought for a moment. "Oh, I've been working hard, and trying to be a very good girl in order to make up for having been a decidedly de-cidedly careless one." "Hal" exclaimed the other, without tiumor. "I tried that once. It's the bunk. It can't be done. When you re down, the parade runs over you with spiked boots! No use pulling that stuff. What you want to do. kill, is get married. You're pretty enough to marry about four millionaires. Say 1 you'd knock a millionaire use to see ing a lot of dried up society chickens for a row of ash cans. Why don't yuu hang around the swell hotels and let one ot tliem pick you up, and then say 'naughty, naughty' and run every lime he makes love to you. until he gets crazy aud marries you?" "That's a thought," admitted Lolita. who did not like the girl, but who. after what she had heeii through, could withhold her sympathies from no one. "1 hud been thinking a little of getting married." ITO BE CONTINUED.) |
