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Show Ijirl " " Who Came Back B1 Jack Woodford sks, THE STORY Influenced by loneliness, In Chicago, Lolita Forbes, young and pretty, yields to the Importunities Impor-tunities of Harvey Torrence, with whom ehe fancies herself tn love She discovers his true character and leaves him, taking refuge with an acquaintance, Gertrud-- 1 Watson. Lolita is accosted by the son of the wealthy owner of the j apartments. Fred Watterson He ) insists on driving her to tht- store. On the street Torrence if waiting He puts the worst con- struct ion on Lolita's being wli h W.tterson, and the two men engage en-gage in a fistic battle in whit h " Torrence is killed 'Lolita spend? a night of misery In a police ell She informs her father, by j wire, of her situation, but hf i answers that he "never wants to j see her face again." Nest morn- tng the Judge, at the instigation I of h lawyer, a stranger to Lolita, dismisses the case. The lawyer gives her $200 and an unsigned note In forming her that college tuition has been paid for a year. i j refuses to give the name of ' j-0- Deneractor. She takes up r short story writing and meets Mr. Warrill. Lolita writes a f short story which Mr. Warrill praises highly. Miss Prlngle, a member of the class, harshly criticises it. The story Is sold for $350 Miss Pringe discJosef Lolita's real identity. CHAPTER V Continued Trying nut to meet the eyes of anyone any-one she ruse and fled from the classroom class-room As she went down the tinll. im.-t the registrar's oltice, Miss Marion culled out u cheery greeting to her. and it stabbed her like a knife. What would Miss Marion think of her. what would all ot her new-found friends think of her and Just as she had he- gun to pluck up hope. The scalding tears trickled down her cheeks as she descended in the elevator. A young medical student, who was running it. stopped it between Honrs sympathet- . Ically and said: "Ceo kid. can't I do anything for you? Sumehruly flunk you? Want me 10 get you a swell anodyne?" Crateful for the "stop in between Moors Lolita fought for composure while the annunciator in the car registered reg-istered the angry calls for the elevator ele-vator upon half a dozen floors. She wiped her eyes and tried to make her self presentable. Presently she man-; man-; aged to nod nt the young man and he v sinned the car down again. On the tun In floo? she hurried out ol the lohhy. dreadfully conscious that she was leaving all this dear and fa miliar atmosphere of friendly smells and railings that bore the signs of wear of two generations of students, for the last time. When she reached her room she dared not stop to think. One tiling beat ifself Into her consciousness. Sh-" mic-'t make herself pretty again. She could no longer stand It to see her ugly ensemble In the glass. At least l If she had nothing else, she had youth N k noil beauty; why not make the mosi j - of them? Standing In Ihe middle of the floor she inlled off her clothes, and. slim and pink, ran to the hath. Tor an hour she splashed around in the rub n Utile comforted as long us she re fused to Ihluk by the cnros-s of warm water upon her body. Meticulously s'.e soaked every vestiire of dye out ot h"i hait and then climbed out of the hnilitnh ller things had come from I ii j. store and she went into the next ' loom and unpacked them. It was tsood i,i draw on soft, filmy nndorthinu'S r.-ei 'he Kiss of virgin silk upon her limbs. Urcsslng only in the frilly un ,let garments- she pirouetted before the Ions cbeMil class on the hack ol the closet dour for several moments. In l,e frothy black sill; underthings and pink, flesh-colored stockings, she knew perfectly well, as she looked In the class, that she looked tremendously sweet If Mr. Warrill could see her now! And yet. she didn't want him to. He wouldn't be really loving her. l would be something else unpretty pi;e poor Harvey ! Ponnlng 'hp m',r dress, she sal be fore the mirror and carefully mas-, mas-, saged. applied with restrii'M all ot I tX old cosmetics that she had been acci.stomed to. a i which sh.' had ' eschewed ince the iieath ot Harvey t rubbed hrllMaiitlne into her 'air combing r out caiefu'lv and cnrvinc It at the ends In front so ..fi.it n thick curl of it upon each side warmly okled her cheek. Even she was amazed wt tde dlt.'eunt girl who. nt last, iippe: red In the mirror For Severn moments she .;n. chin up i knit tinners, ellwws upon tiV dresser top, sum-lug herself She , i, as preity startlingly so and de Klitftilly visri8. M'1 that was all rl at ,vn left to her Her 'ather had ;.,d Mi.-ii ?-le- ght r,eer conn home vtr Wur-iM w-i:i." probably r.evei -I- ; K ti ici :!l:i:ii Ir was ihe con 11 i. r.ct o ler pic isiir-.t-io fu what .(' 'b io- Si:.,' rtalizeC now that ! I .all of the gayety which she had affected af-fected while dn-s'-ing hud been put on, and now that there was Do more oressing co he done, clouds of memories mem-ories were rolling up upon her, threatening threat-ening every inomen. to break over her iD a storm. She ar.fl tried to b. good ; had tried to start over as Gertrude had suggested. II hadn't worked. . hy. then, go on 'Tying? When n. had done what she had, there was no forgiveness; wh.. then try t earn it? Why not Just go on, since there was nothing else left to live for? Defiantly De-fiantly she rose and stood by the win do' looking out. The big white sign oi the Montmarte call she co Id see from the back; she caught a glijipse of the red and gold sign full of rippling rip-pling lights upon the Uptown tbea fer; a little to th" left the Rivie a sign ; there was, she knew, a new cafe over there; she nad over a bun dred dollars which she had received from the stop that afternoon, as change from her check. "The devil with this 'beating back' stui.t." she said at las aloud to herself. her-self. She opened the door and passed v mm ( mm I v wM$ "All Right," Agreed Lolita, Caring Little What Happened to Her. into the hall, determined to run away from the storm, wdiose clouds were getting blacker and blacker with each passing uonienL As she descended the stairs she was vaguely conscious that some one below had just finished a con versa tion with Mrs. Hardy and was start ing up the stairs. On the landing she came face to face with Mr. Warrill She stopped In amazement directly In his path. "Pardon me," be said, "hut I was In searcli of Miss er--Forbes. I won der If" "I'm hei sister,' cut In Lolita ; 'she's not up there I was going to see her myself, liu' she's apparently gone out for Ihe evening. 'A'hat. may I ask, If It's not a wholly impertinent ipiestloti. did you want to see het about ?" "Well." temporized Warrill. "noth ing in particular. I Just wanted to us'' her If certain things were true I guess It doesn't matter, though." "I'robably not," said l.olita. crisply "I'd have known you were her sis ler even if you hadn'' told me." went on Mr. Warrill, fingering his hut " . Oi. are exactly i'kt her in toi.s ot ways; but very dilTtrent in others." Ills admiration fairly gleamed from hi.? eyes. Somehow this revollod her Without a word she hurried on down the stairs, leaving him standing there looking after her She was more de terinlned than evet now to forget all about the redernpi.on thing that (ler trade had preached hut not practiced. She didn't want Mr Warrill's regard now. even 'hongh she could see that she might have It It wouldn't be worth the having It was only for the outside of her. the new outside of her. He was Just like all other men. There was nothing good or fine or worth having In the world. Outside she turned resolutely, with a final mental toss that caused a physical toss of the head, firmly toward the new cafe. CHAPTER VI Walking along, with her head down, her mind a wild kaleidoscope of scorn and hopelessness, Lolita suddenly heard a voice close at band. "Hello, girlie!" sang out a boy's cheerful voice. Almost without thinking think-ing she turned and replied: "Hello." She saw a young fellow of perhaps twenty-five at the wheel of a sport coupe; evidently he had seen her from the road, scudded along as she walked, and taken advantage of the first open parking space along the curb to drive In and call to her. "Going any place In particular?" next asked the youth. "No. no place Id particular," responded re-sponded Lolita in a dull tone; she was thinking idly, that he was good looking, happy looking, as though he hadn't a trouble In the world. "Hop into the car," he suggested, "and we'll both go no place in particular." par-ticular." Without a word of remonstrance remon-strance she climbed Into the car. At once he swung the automobile about and started back. Then he suddenly turned to her. "The whole trouble with you," he now pronounced airily, "Is that you probably don't drink enough." Lolita looked t him In astonishment as he went on. "Yeh, that must be It ; you probably don't drink enough. I noticed no-ticed how d n blue yon looked. Me? Say. I , -ink plenty, and I always feel fine; I'm heading for the Goose and Gander, and what's good for both. Care?" "What Is the Goose and Gander?" asked Lolita. "A road house, nine miles out. Swell place. Nobody has ever been able to remember what they were blue aboui five minutes after they got Inside." "All right," agreed Lolita, caring little what happened to her. After all. what difference did anything make? She had done her level best to redeem herself, -he had failed In every particular; there was nothing left to do. the mistake that she had iade would never he forgiven. She had often wondered, previous tc making mak-ing it. why girls who, made one false step alwaps kept on going downward; it seemed so silly, when all that fbey needed downs to "Turn to the Itight," and start over again. Now she understood. un-derstood. She was grateful that her companion did nut speak to her. She just wanted to sit and half think about almost nothing and watch the night and the lights off in the lield in. farmhouses rush by and bear the chorus of the crickets, so loud that It sounded above the noise thai the car made. Almost she began to feel a little happy. Presently the car stopped before an old house that looked as though It were sadly In need of repairs.' It was perfectly dark, but as she looked about she saw that dozens of other cars, with all of their lights out were parked around near the ramshackle old frame building. "Come on. ' prompted her companion, after he had found a parking place and switched off bis lights. She allowed al-lowed him to assist her from the car. They walked up a short flight of steps', opened a rickety door and passed Into a darkened hallway. Her companion, holding her arm. pushed her forward. Anoiher door opened and suddeuly a burst of music fairly leaped out at them; a blaze of light met them, and, almost before she knew It. Lolita was dancing wiih her escorL When the music slopped, and he led her ro a seat, she felt almost light-hearted light-hearted anC gay. The place. Inside, was a miracle ot beauty and perfection, perfec-tion, completely giving the lie to the exterior. Well dressed. Jolly people were everywhere about. Laughter and happiness seemed literally to saturate everything. "Something." specified her escort when a waiter approached, "that's -u"d for the Goose and good for the narnler." The waiter nodded and ' walked off Presently he was back ' with what looked like water in two (' small glasses; hut. upon sipping It 1 l.olita discovered ot once that It was .piile anything hut water. It was more like Are than water. She coughed and choked. Her escort laughed. ITO BE CONTINUED.! |