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Show ' . CHAPTER XIII Continued V ' 1 -17- , The words, spoken In their sweet deal) j' . voices, fell nonchalantly from their pretty Hps. All very fearless and un-- . , Inhibited and free. That, they told J you, was the main thing. Sometimes Dirk wished they wouldn't work so bard at their play. They were for-1 ever getting up pageants and plays ,,' and large festivals for charity; Vene- ,! tlar fetes, Oriental bazaars, charity ' balls. In the programme performance ' of these many of them sung better, i seted better, danced better thnn most , i professional performers, but the whole ! thing always lacked the flavor, some- V bow, of professional performance. On these affulrs they lavished thousands . , j In costumes and decorations, recelv- - f Ing In return other thousands which they soberly turned over to the cause. They found nothing ludicrous In this. ' Spasmodically they went Into busl- ness or semi-professional ventures, do-t do-t f.vlng the conventions. Paula did this, ,;' too. She or one of her friends were j forever opening blouse shops; starting Olfte Shoppes; burgeoning into tea C rooms decorated In crude green and P By I EDNA FERBER $, Doebledar, Pass a Co.) WNU Service. She enjoyed listening to street car conductors, con-ductors, washwomen, Janitors, land-ladles, land-ladles, clerks, doormen, chauffeurs, policemen. po-licemen. Something about her made thera talk. They opened to her .as flowers to the sun. They sensed her Interest, her liking. As they talked Sellna would exclaim, "You don't sayl Well, that terrible!" Her eyes would be bright with sympathy. Sellna had suld, on entering Dirk's office, "My lundl I don't see how you can work among those pretty creatures and not be a sultan. I'm going to ask some of them down to the farm over Sunday." "Don't, Mother I They wouldn't understand. un-derstand. I scarcely see them. They're Just part of the olflce equipment." Afterward, Ethellnda Qulnn .had passed expert opinion. "Say, she's got ten times the guts that Frosty's got. I like her fine. Did you see her terrible ter-rible hat I But say, It didn't look fun- 9 for a week or ten days at a stretch, and Indulged In what she railed an orgy. A1 uch times Julie Arnold would Invite her to occupy one of the guest rooms at the Arnold house, or Dirk would offer her his bedroom and tell her thut he would be comfortable on the big couch In the living room, or that he would take a room at the University Uni-versity club. She always declined. She would take a room in a hotel, sometimes some-times north, sometimes south. Her holiday before her, she would go off roaming gaily as a small boy on a Saturday morning, with the day stretching gorgeously and adventure-somely adventure-somely ahead of him, sallies down the street without plan or appointment, knowing that richness In one form or another lies before him for the choosing., choos-ing., A sociable woman, Sellna, savoring savor-ing life, she liked the lights, the color, the rush, the noise. Her years of grinding work, with her face pressed down to the very soli Itself, haj failed to kill her test for living. She prowled Into the city's foreign quarters-Italian, quarters-Italian, Greek, Chinese, Jewish. She loved the Michigan boulevard and State street shop windows In I -1. . I . . I i : . . . gave way to a rich taa; tired-looking women with sagging figures who drank Sellna's cream and, ate her abundant vegetables and tender chickens as though they expected these viands to be momentarily snatched from them. Sellna picked these up la odd corner of the city. Dirk protested against this, too. Sellna was a member of the High Prairie school board now. She wus on the Good Roads committee and the Truck Fanners' association valued val-ued her opinion. Her life was full, pleasant, prolific. Chapter XIV Paula had a scheme for Interesting women In bond buying. It was a good scheme. She suggested It so that Dirk thought he hnd thought of It, Dirk was hend now of the bond department In the Great Lakes Trust company's magnificent new white building on Mlchigun boulevard north. Its white towers gleamed pink In the lake mists. Dirk suld It was a terrible building badly proportioned, and that It looked like a vast vanilla sundae. His new private domain was more like a splendid bookless library than a business office. It was finished In rich dull walnut and there were great upholstered chairs, soft rugs, shaded lights. Special attention was paid to women clients. There was a room for their convenience fitted with low restful chairs and couches, lamps, writing desks. In mauve and rose. Paula had selected the furnishings for this room. Ten years earlier It would have been considered absurd In a suite of business offices. Now It was a routine part of the equipment. Dirk's private office was almost .as difficult of access as Uiat of the nation's na-tion's executive. Cards, telephones, office boys, secretaries stood between the caller and Dirk DeJong, head of the bond department You asked for him, uttering his nume In the ear of the six-foot statuesque detective who, In the guise of usher, stood In the center of the marble rotunda eyeing each visitor with a coldly appraising gaze. This one padded softly ahead of you on rubber heels, only to give you over to the care of' a glorltled office boy who took your name Yo'i waited. He returned. You waited. Presently there appeared a young woman with Inquiring eyebrows. She conversed with you. She vanished. You waited. She reappeared. You were ushered into Dirk DeJong's large ' l vermilion and orange and black; an- j nounclng their affiliation with an ad- vertlsing agency. These adventures , blossomed, withered, died. They were j the result of post-war restlessness. j Many of these girls had worked In- t defatlgiibly during the 1017-1913 pe- ? rlod ; had driven service cars, man- . aged ambulances,, nursed, scrubbed, j conducted canteens. They missed the J; excitement, the satisfaction of aehieve- ; f ment. They found Dirk fair game, resent- f ed I'uula's proprietorship. Susans and t Junes and Kates and liettys and Sn'- i lys plain old-fashioned names for ' modern, erotic misses they talked to ' Dirk, danced with him, rode with htm, f, flirted with him. His very unattaln- i ableness gave him plquuncy. That Paula Storm hnd him fast. He didn't ' care a hoot about girls. . A "Oh, Mr. DeJong," they said, "your name's Dirk, Isn't It! What a slick name! What does It mean?" . ' "Nothing, I suppose. It's a Dutch , name. My people my father's peo- pie were Dutch, you know." ny on her, did It? Anybody else In that getup would look comical, but she's the kind that could walk off with anything. I don't know. She's got what I call an air. It bents style. Nice, too. She said I was a pretty little thing. Can you beat It I At thut she's right. I cer'nly yam." All unconscious, "Take a letter, Miss Qulnn." said Dirk half an hour later. In the midst of this fiery furnace of femininity Dirk wulked unseorched. Paula, the North shore girls, well-bred and professional business women he occasionally met In the course of business, the enticing little nymphs he encountered In his own office, all practiced prac-ticed on hlra their warm and perfumed wiles. He moved among them cool and serene. Perhops his sudden success had had something to do with this; and his quiet ambition for further success. suc-cess. For he really was accounted successful now, even In the spectacular spectacu-lar whirl of Chicago's meteoric financial finan-cial constellation. North-side mammas regarded his Income, his career, and his future with eyes of respect and U'llv Rnpclltntlrtn Thpro trna dIwbvi m wiucii uHugui)' wuxeu uiuies in guuer-Ing guuer-Ing evening gowns postured, fingers elegantly crooked as they held a fan, a rose, a program, meanwhile smiling condescendingly out upon an envious world flattening Its nose against the plate glass barrier. She penetruted the niack belt, where Chicago's vast and growing negro population pop-ulation shifted and moved and stretched Its great limbs ominously, reaching out and out In protest find overflowing the bounds that Irked It. Her serene face and her quiet manner, her bland Interest and friendly look protected her. They thought her social worker, perhaps; one of the upllfters. She bought and rend the Independent, the negro newspaper In which herb doctors advertised mugic roots. She even sent the twenty-five cents required for a box of these, charmed by their names Adam and Eve roots. Master of the Woods, Dragon's Blood, High John the Conqueror, Con-queror, Jezebel Roots, Oralns of Paradise. Para-dise. "Look here, Mother," Dirk would protest, "you can't wander around like a oirn s a sort or swora, isn t it, or ponlnrd? Anyway, It sounds very keen and cruel and futal Dirk." He would flush a little (one of his i assets) and smile, and look at them, " . and say nothing. He found that to : .? be all that was necessary. He gut on enormously. it Between the girls he met In society ; ' snd the girls that worked In his of- i' tlce there existed a similarity that J struck and amused Dirk. He suld, "Tuke a letter, Miss Itoach," to a slim I young creature as exquisite as the t girl w ith whom he had danced the day j before; or ridden or played tennis or M bridge. Their very clothes were fuult- less Imitations. They even used the ' sume pel fume. He wondered. Idly, l(1 how they did It. They were eighteen, ij nineteen, twenty, und their faces and J bodies and desires and natural equip- 5 ment made their presence in a business office a paradox, an absurdity. Yet they were capable, too, In a mechanical Fort of way. Theirs were mechanical jobs. They were lovely creatures with i the minds of fourteen-year-old chll- . dren. Their hulr was shining, perfoct- ' ly undulated, as fine and flossy and ,' tenderly curling us a young- child's. ? Their breasts were flat, their figures i singularly sexless like thut of a very neat little pile of Invitations In the mall that lay on the correct little console con-sole In the correct little apartment ministered by the correct little Jap on the correct North-Bide street near (but not too near) the lake, and overlooking overlook-ing It. The apartment had been furnished with Paula's aid. Together she and Dirk had gone to Interior decorators. "But you've got to use your own taste, too." Paula had said, "to ghe P. the Individual touch." The aprtrt-ment aprtrt-ment was furnished In a good deal of Italian furniture, the finish a dark cak or walnut, the whole massive and yet somehow unconvincing. The effect was somber without being Impressive. There were long carved tables on which an ash tray seemed a desecration desecra-tion ; great chairs roomy enough for lolling, yet In which you did not relax; re-lax; dull silver candlesticks; vestments; vest-ments; Dante's saturnine features sneering down upon jou from a correct cor-rect cabinet. There were not many books. Tiny foyer, large living-room, bedroom, dining-room, kitchen, and a cubby-hole for the Jap. Dirk did not spend much of his time in the pluce. His upward climb was a treadmill, really. His office, the apart-........ apart-........ A .ii. .. . in. . , and luxurious Inner office. And there formality fled. ; Dirk was glad to see youj quietly, Interestedly glad to see you. As you stated your business he listened attentively, atten-tively, as wos his charming way. The volume of business done with women clients by the Great Lukes Trust company com-pany was enormous. Dirk was conservative, con-servative, helpful and he ulways got the business. He talked little. He was amazingly effective. Ladles In the modish black of recent re-cent bereavement made quite a somber procession to his door. His suggestions (often originating with Puulu) made the Great Lakes Trust company's discreet dis-creet advertising rich In results. Neat little pamphlets written for women on the subjects of saving, investments, "You are not dealing witli a soulless corporation," said these brochures. "May we serve you? You need more than friends. Before acting, you should have your Judgment vindicated by an organization of Investment specialists. spe-cialists. You may have relatives and friends, some of whom would gludly advise you on Investments. But perhaps per-haps you rightly feel thut the less they know about your financial affairs, the better. To handle trusts, and to care for the securities of widows and or- phans, Is our business." It was startling to note how this sort of thing mounted into millions. "Women are becoming more and more used to the handling of money," Paula said, shrewdly. "Pretty soon their patronage Is going to be as valuable valu-able as that of men. The average woninn doesn't know about bonds about bond buying. They think they're something mysterious and risky. Tl ey ought to be educated up to It. Didn't you say something. Dirk, about clusses In finance. for women?" "But would the women come?" "Of course they'd come. Women will accept any invitation that's engraved en-graved on heavy cream paper." The Great Lakes Trust hud a branch j In Cleveland now, and one In New j York, on Fifth avenue. The ri-lve to Interest women in bond buying and to Instruct them In finance was to take on almost national proportions. There was to be newspaper and magazine advertising. ad-vertising. (TO BI CONTINUED.) ' I young boy. They were wise with the J wisdom of the serpent. Their legs I were slim and sturdy. Their mouths were pouting, soft, pink, the lower lip a little curled back, petal-wise, like the moist mouth of a baby that has ' Just finished nursing. Their eyes were 7 wide . apart, empty, knowledgeous. Thev managed their private affairs -') like generals. They were cool, remote, disdainful. They reduced their boys i to desperation. They were brigands, 5" desperadoes, pirates, taking nil, giving ' little. They came, for the most purt, from sordid homes, yet they knew, In some miraculous way, all the fine i arts' that Paula knew and practiced. They were corsetless, pllunt, bewtlder-t bewtlder-t lng, lovely, dangerous. Among them Dirk worked Immune, aloof, untouched. He would have been surprised to learn that he was known among them as Frosty. They admired " and resented him. Not one that did ' not secretly -dream of the day when 4 he would call her into his office, shut the door, and say. "Lorettu" (their names were burhanklan monstrosities, inriii, n uiuur-i, a uiuil'k, run cuumcis were monotonous, and too few. His office was a great splendid office of-fice In a great splendid office building in LaSalle street. He drove back and forth In a motor car along the boulevards. boule-vards. His social engagements lay north. LaSalle street bounded him on the west, Lake Michigan on the east, Jackson boulevard on the south, Lake Forest on the north. He might have lived a thousand miles away for nil he knew of the rest of Chicago the mighty, roaring, sweltering, pushing, screaming, magnificent hideous steel giant that was Chicago. Sellna had had no hand in the furnishing fur-nishing of his apartment. When It was finished Dirk had brought her In triumph tri-umph to see It. "Well," he had said, "what do you think of It, Mother?" She had stood in the center of the room, a small plain figure In the midst of these massive somber carved tables, chairs, chests. A little smile had quirked the corner of her mouth. "I think It's as cosy as a cathedral." Sometimes Sellna remonstrated with She Liked to Stroll Along the Crowded Sidewalks. that. It Isn't safe. This Isn't High Prairie, you know. If you want to go round I'll get Snkl to drive you." "That would be nice," she said, mildly. mild-ly. But she never availed herself of this offer. She would go over to South Water street, chunged now, and swollen to such proportions that It threatened to burst its confines. She liked to stroll along the crowded sldewulks, lined with crates and boxes and barrels of fruits, vegetables, poultry. Swarthy foreign faces predominated now. Where the red-faced overalled men had been she now saw lean muscular lads In old army shirts and khaki pants and scuffed puttees wheeling trucks, loading load-ing boxes, charging down the street in huge rumbling auto vans. Their faces were Hard, their talk terse. Any one of these, she reflected, was more vital, more native, functioned more usefully and honestly than her successful son. born of grafting the original appella- tlon onto their own idea of beauty In nomenclature hence Loretta, Imo- gene, Nadine, Natalie, Ardalla), "Loretta, "Lor-etta, I have watched you for a long, long time and you must have noticed bow deeply I admire you." It wasn't impossible. Those things happen. The movies had taught them that Dirk, all unconscious of their pitiless all-absorbing scrutiny, would have been stlil further appalled to' Jearn how fully aware they were of his personal and private affairs. They knew about Paula, for example. They admired and resented her, too. They despised her for the way In which she openly displayed her feeling for him (how they knew this was a miracle and a mystery, for she almost never S came Into the office and disguised all . 1 her telepnone talks with him). They thought he was grand to his mother. Belina bad been In his oftice 'wide, perhaps. per-haps. On one of these occasions she S htd spent five minutes chatting socla- bly with Ethellnda Qulnn. who had the fac of a Da Vinci cherub and the J soul of a man-eating shark. Sellna always talked to everyone. him, though of lute she hod taken on a strange reticence. She no longer asked hlra about the furnishings of the houses he visited, or the exotic food he ate at splendid dinners. The farm flourished. The great steel mills and factories to the south were closing In upon her but had not yet set Iron foot on her rich green acres. She was rather rath-er famous now for the quality of her farm products and her pens. You saw "DeJong asparagus" on the menu at the Hlackstone and the Drake hotels. Sometimes Dirk's friends twitted him about this und he did not always acknowledge ac-knowledge that the similarity of names was not a coincidence. "Dirk, you seem to see no one but Just these people," Sellna told him In one of her Infrequent rebukes. "You don't get the full flavor of life. You've got to have a vulgar curiosity about people and things. All kinds of people. peo-ple. All kinds of things. You revolve in the same little circle, over and over and over." "Haven't time. Can't afford to take the time. "You can't afford not to." Sometimes Sellna came Into town uirK uejuug. "Where 'r' beans?" "In th' ol' beanery." "Tough." . "Best you can get." "Keep 'em." Many of the older men knew her, shook hands with her, chatted a moment mo-ment friendlily. Willlum Tulcott, a little more dried up, more wrinkled, his sparse hair quite gray now. still leaned up against the side of his doorway door-way In his shirt sleeves and his neat pepper-and-salt pants and vest, cigar, unllghted, In his mouth, the heavy gold watch chain spanning his middle. "Well, you certainly made good, Mrs. DeJong. Remember the day jou come here with your first load?" Oh, yes. She remembered. "That boy of yours has made hlsl mark, too, I see. Doing grand, ain't heT Wa-al, great satisfaction having a son turn out well like that. Yes, sirree! Why, look ut my da'ter Car'llne " Life at High Prairie had Its savor, too. Krequenily you saw stnnge visitors vis-itors there for a week or ten days at a time boys and girls whose city pallor |