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Show The Girl Who Cams Back BY JACK WOODFORD Copyrlflht W. N. U. 6.rvlc. ' CHAPTER IX Continued 16 "Oh, don't say (hut, Ilea quite rlianued. lioesu'l drink; Is working up his own business, lie's so dUToreul 1 hardly believe you'd recognize liliu lie's iisked me lo many him." ! "W'h a a t !" (lerlrude's query could tie heard the entire length of the ! room. I "Yes. lie asked me to uuirry him. and I rejeeled him." j "(Ih. oh. oh, you rejeeled two mil-i mil-i littu dollars when you haven't got enough money lo eat ! 1 could crown ! sou wlili a lioiile. Why on earth did ! vou t II i ii him iho ii?" "I'.ecause 1 don't love him." j "Well, what of 11? Noliody could I love him, hut Ihlnk ol the money." j "1 luidn'i thought ot It; bul now ; thai you mention it, Ii would be nice. , hal u difference money does make, j Slid. eeu leaving thai phase of the I question out ol it, 1 do rulher like j him. Kin I inosl certainly don I love hi in." lien rude leaned across the ta-I ta-I ble to speak earnestly, j "Now l(.okit, kid; don'i you be any d u fool. However, yuu look ut the I lliiug. uud uoi wauling to burl youi feelings, lei me say Unit ul'ler whin's happened to jou, you'll look different lo most men If lliey find out ubout II and they always do. somehow, soon er or later, tlnd out those things and they never forgive 'em. It's the turn dicup every woman has In life. Take it from me. If you've got a chance to grab a ring, you grab IL Lf you don t like the guy. It won't be any trouble at all to gel something on him Inter and divorce him and knock him for a row of flocks and bonds for alimony. That reformation stuff Is all the bunk. Oil, he may be serious enough aboul It and be fooling even himself, bul take It from me, I know his breed. They take a notion to reform about every five years or so, but It never sticks. You'd do belter to marry him, not loving hi in. than to marry some one whom you did love. For every reason in the world, lf you can get young Watterson, you grab him take it from one who, etc, etc., etc., I guess 1 don't need to explain." Lolita was a little moved by the other's un-grammatical un-grammatical forensic despite heryelf, and the fact that she was a little moved though not by the argument per se was to her significant. What got nnder her skin was the thought that should she marry Watterson. she would have plenty of leisure for solid study and real worthwhile writing, and the fact that this thought did touch her made her see In a vivid new light Just how Warrlll had thought and felt Thoughtfully, as she walked toward her room, she remembered the last words that had passed between Gertrude Ger-trude and herself after luncheon ; she .i remembered and wondered Just how much she had really meant by them: Gertrude bad said at parting: "Yob take me seriously, now, and cultivate this chap Watterson while he's In a marrying mood?" "Well, maybe," bad been ber reply. CHAPTER X The following morning, Sunday, was a beautiful bright day. Lolita bad an appointment with Watterson at one o'clock. They were to have lunch together. to-gether. Thoughtfully she recalled her remark to Gertrude the day before. Wallerson, she knew, could be made to propose again today by the slightest slight-est word or look. Her room rent, she reflected, was due in the morning, and she had not the money to pay it. Had. altogether, only fifty-seven cents; she had counr-ed counr-ed It carefully the night before. She dressed with Infinite care, picking pick-ing out the prettiest and most becoming becom-ing ot the things that she found presentable. pre-sentable. The remit was not wholly satisfactory. Her clotbes were beginning be-ginning to have that worn, rnmpltd look. She happened to glance at the cal-' cal-' endar. In two more days It would be tbe first ol June, Warrlll would be married In the first week of June. She would. In all probability, not see him again as long as she lived. With each Increasing week and month it seemed that life got harder and harder. In order to conserve to the ultimate the fifty-seven cents remaining to her she decided to walk down to the meet lug place. This would take tbe bettei pari of an hour and necessitated start ing at once. Drying her eyes she powdered again carefully and sei out Ai a street corner a familiar voice spoke ut her elbow : "How do you do. Miss Forbes?" Lolita Lo-lita looked up In surprise into the face of Miss Truxion. "Why." she breathed in some emhar-rMssinent. emhar-rMssinent. "how do you do?" Miss Truxion fell Into slep beside Her. She was a woman ol thirty-live or forty, ol whom Gertrude had mice said. "Iheres no possible chance that she'll ever go wrong n-ihoilv woini help her." Neveitheless. I.olila though; that there was something uimosi lieau tiful ubout her this morning; she had nevei seen bet look ihal way in lb-at lb-at ore. "I've ofren ivoudrved what became f you." il.ss Truxion confided in a level tone. "You were ulwaya such a preny Utile thing." "Well," returned Lolita a Utile cynl cally. "If you read the papers and he llevcd " "Yes, I read them but I didn't be lleve them There was always some thing about you that led me to huh peel Unit even under the clrcuui-Klaneea clrcuui-Klaneea you'd come out on top some how." "I'm far from the top," laughed Lo Ilia, "hut. on the oilier hand, 1 am not exactly on the bottom, ellhei." Miss Truxtou laughed gaily at this. "I've oflen wanted to ask Gertrude about you; but Gertrude anil 1 barely speak to each oilier. She thinks that I urn nil unexperienced prude ami know nothing ubout life. And I've ill ways been n f raid to be (he least bit friendly with her anyway, for fear she'd take advantage of It and las down on (he Job she's an excellent saleslady If she's held tightly in hand." I.olila smiled to herself mid asked a daring question. "After all, what do you know aboul life. Miss Truxtou V" For some reason this question caused Lollta's former boss to laugh unrestrainedly. "You'd be surprised, my dcur thai Is, If I were to tell yuu; but 1 shan't, except lo say that w hen 1 was a good deal younger 1 had much the same experience ex-perience that yuu had with thut Tor-reuce Tor-reuce person. In fact, the man 1 have In mlud was so much like llurvey Tor reuce. It must be hard lor the devil to tell them upart now. 1 learned about life from him, and no other man has ever gotten within slapping distance dis-tance of me since that lime. However, How-ever, I was foolish . . . terrlhiy foolish In letting my experience wHU one man cause me to hate ail men Shortly after It occurred unoihcr mau wanted me to marry Mm. 1 was a fool not to do It Personally. I lliluk that men ought to be abolished, but as they exist, tbe best way is to marry a half-way decent one If you can find such, and then do the best you can with him." "You mean, even If you don't loie him?" "Most particularly, If you don't love film. The best thing lo do about a man you love Is lo run from him us from the plague he'll torture yu. I'ick out a sol-er, respectable, reliable one, and thank your lucky stars for him." "1 wonder lf you're right?" mused Lolita aloud. "I gather from that," went on Miss Truxtou swiftly, "that you already have a prospect" "Yes, I'm on my way lo meet him at the present moment." "Well, salt biui down before some other seiner scoops him up." Lolita laughed and then grew suddenly serious seri-ous as a new thought struck her. "Would you take me buck at the store?" she asked. Miss Trurton looked down at her curiously. "Yes, 1 would ; you were an excellent excel-lent salesgirl, and no one would remember re-member the first-class news you provided pro-vided for the papers except the girls around the place, and they'd gel over the shock the first day Lord knows few of them have any right to talk about you but In heaven's name, why go back there? I couldn t pay you any more than you were getting before." "I Just wanted to know whether or not I conid come back. I'm pretty well up against it for money. I may have to. It's been nice to see you again." "Good-by," smiled Miss Truxton, swinging on. Watterson was waiting for her. At the end of tbe luncheon they started for a drive and at a little park he stopped the car and. reaching down Into his pocket, brought up a purple plush box. the sight of which struck terroi to Lollta's heart. Opening It he displayed a diamond solitaire which nearly took Lolita's breath away. She fingered It lovingly, put It carefully upon the wrong finger and held It out at arm's length Suddenly she was In his arms, and he was covering her face with kisses: "My dear; Oh! my dear," he murmured, mur-mured, with passionate overtones In his voice beyond anything Loll I u had ever heard before, "I love you so won't you marry me?" It was on the Up of Lollia'B tongue to say yes; but something slopped her. "I'll give you my answer tomorrow, If you'll meet me as usual, about ten o'clock." And with this she made hlra bo content, though be begged her for something more definite. Again and again he kissed her, and Lolita shut her eyes and tried to be thrilled by It, and did succeed In being thrilled, but only by I he thought of how wonderful won-derful It would be were It Mr. Warrlll. War-rlll. At length he drove her back to ber room. After rending for several hours, and working up a current usslgnment on the writing course, Lolita lay down, fully dressed, upon the bed, and for hours gave hen-elf up to thoughts wholly unpleasant. In the morning; her room rent would be due, and she and no money with which to pay It. I After she had bought breukfast she would bnve no money left at all. Certain Cer-tain It was that she would have to do one of three things: marry Watterson, go to work at the F.mporliim, or get in touch with Gray Kyea and ask hlra for help The lufter exigency sin men t ii 1 1 j crossed out of the hazards at once Mr. Warrlll would not like It Still, that was silly, somehow. Mr. Wurrill wouldn't enre a whoop even If she married Watterson, It was all quite Impossible. She ruse and undressed rapidly and, tried to go to sleep. The very depth of her despair, however, finally roused something deep wltbln ber nature which had started to grow the night that she had refused to accept Warrlll War-rlll on his own terms. Since then It had been growing steadily; now, what ever It was. It came to her rescue. She sut np In the dark. Jaws tightly clicked together, hands clenched. "I'll be d d If I'll give In." fhe said aloud lo herself. "I won't marry Wnt-terson. Wnt-terson. It wouldn't be fair to him; I won't crawl back to work at the Emporium, Em-porium, that wouldn't be fair to myself, my-self, and I won't cull on Gray Eyes for help. I'll tight It out somehow, Some other way. Anybody can quit and lay down. If I'm ever going ta be somebody, 1 can't afford to let myself my-self act like 'anybody I'" With grim determination and a brave little Bona, In her heart, she rose, turned on tk light snatched the cover off ber typewriter, type-writer, read the last chapter of her serial, consulted notes on a new chapter chap-ter and set furiously to work. Houn later she dropped on the bed, exhausted, exhaust-ed, an excellent chapter finished. Sleep came to her Instantly. The following morning she rose lata and dressed In a leisurely fashion to delay tbe moment when she should have to look on the bail tree downstairs down-stairs to see what the mailman had brought her. Having had no supper the night before she felt a little weak and exhausted physically, but mentally, men-tally, the courage which had come ta her in the night was still functioning. There was a grim set to her mouth which would have amazed her father. It made her look years older and stronger, and transformed her sheet prettiuess into something deeper that was very close to beautiful. Even she. as she fastened a little bow on her chemise and caught a glimpse of her eyes In tbe mirror, saw a new depth In them. Walking downstairs she looked upon i he halliree. There were several postal pos-tal cards and a letter or two, all ot these addressed to other roomers In tbe house nothing for her. Hurrying on out. lest tbe landlady come and find her in the hall and ask for the rent, she went to a little restaurant res-taurant and ordered rolls and coffee, which she ate right down to the last crumb. An hour later, after a brisk walk, she met Watterson. He did not even ask her what ber answer was somehow he read It Instantly In her eyes. "You'll still let me see you. though, won't you. Lolita?" "Well." she temporized, "1 don't know. I can never marry you; and It seems to me that It would be better for yon If we were not to meet again. I've always been afraid that it's taken too much time from your work." (TO BE CONTINUED. |