Show window shopping as an occupation by R RAY BAKER alls by mcclure newspaper Syndi syndicate syndicat cat lets go home now suggested suggest ed ruth paige and pop corn or ma make ke fudge or something ive had enough walk you sonic some walk alk growled john gregory us as they turned a comer carrier which took them off main street into a residential th thoroughfare brou il fare weve been at it more than lin an hour and a half but how far have we gone I 1 ask you by the time lime we get to your home it will be exactly six blocks one to get downtown four to cover both sides of thu tho street in the retail section and one to return and it really a walk it was just a poke with you drag dragging braggin gin g we me to every window to stare la in at the finery displayed ruths mouth became firm and her dimples disappeared and lire flie flashed from froin her ber ees too bad site she said sarcastically ti cally St Str auge you want me to enjoy myself a little I 1 cant lave hive all those handsome gowns and things but you want to deprive me the pleasure of looking at alem just because im fid going to be nour bour wife mabe is no reason ou can start in right now trying to take all the joy out of my life ive enjoyed myself this afternoon only now you lind had to go and spoil everything I 1 dearly loe to louk look in the windows especially when ullen the spring styles are on display the trouble with you la Is you dont doat appreciate art and those displays are art and the men that trim the are artists youre too prosaic with your dirty old job in it a musty printing shop and you the finer sensibilities to be affected by the more inore refined efforts of men who dress well and keep their hands and face free from printers ink window shopping Is a great occupation john returned just as sarcastically ti im shut up all day in a print shop and when I 1 suggest a little fresh air and some exercise on a bunday afternoon aft ernon you drag me down to the stores and make me gape into the windows like a country rube well ou gut got fooled at one place bebau because e they had the window covered with a curtain just the same id get a look into that window it if I 1 could ruth declared soine somewhat what savagely and you and ud all tile printers in town stop we me it if joure so fond of exercise and fresh air you can keep on walking right past my home bome and you ever walk back this way of course jolin john returned his own oes spi spitting EtIng fire if the way ay buu ou feel fee labout it ill do just that from w aich it might seem that ruth paige and tier her fiance were mated about as well A ell as two dosith e poles of a in magnet agnet on the hie contrary tills this was their first quarrel during the year they lad been acquainted they buth both possessed of stubborn dispositions with fiery tempers but they were ere genuinely la in love with nith each other all and had operated cooperated co to prevent clashes it just happened however that julin john was peel sli tills this sunday after li noun cioll and his happened to strike lian alien site she was in an exceptionally tio nally irritable mood after each had biad expressed himself and herself they walked ed in id silence the ii remainder lema inder of the distance to her home at the entrance to the house they la paused USed surely you arent coming coining in when there lb is so much fresh air outdoors slie she said cuttingly unable to resist it the temptation for a final fling of course not lie he responded and lifted ills fiat as he moved off dov down n tile street goodby good by he called arid and did lait once look back ruth stood looking after tier her departed fiance for a moment then walked bliskey into the house instead of cupping pupping corn or making fudge slie she to tier her room and held a private se sion with ili herself in which a lew few leal drops flowed it looked like an irreparable break tor for bith their obstinate dispositions neither ruth nor john would take tile the dijt step to effect a reconciliation ruths s makeup nias w as such that she auld pei lull tier heart to be wrung rung dry by misery before she would yield une ulle jot ut arld and johns temperament was as constructed of tile same kind of material maut they were bot both li wrong 1 but ut they help hell it what wa was s needed us as a clever mediator who quaid bring them together apparently by chale name how ever there was little likelihood of this because ruth kept her ber oln counsel and john was nas tacal luiu about atis is alT affairs aIrs As an example of this he be had been calling on ru ruth th for about two months before she even lieu had au an inkling as to ills his means of making a liang with jolin john out dofher of her life ruth took up with susie Att atterson erbon who worked in ili the stenographic department with her at miller brothers wholesale paper house every evening at the close of the days dayi work they walked together for or their homes were nere not far apart and they window shopped to their hearts content susie suspected something was rong with ruth arid and JIl john ll because the latter no longer called fur for the alie former and escorted tier her home bu adroit questioning failed to bring enlightenment HL department store proved a mystery to both the girls the big display window continued screened from view with curtains and their love tor for finery and riat natural ural sense of curios ity kept thorn them busy speculating as t what new product ot of the trimmer skillful hands bands was to be revealed tc the public the mystery grew on thew them till it obsessed them and it helped to assuage the pain cuth wag as suiter suffer log because of johns exit flo liei be life for two weeks ruth saw nothing ot ol john and it was a long two works by this time she had abandoned all hope of a reconciliation ever beang belli reached aud and un on saturday afternoon after noot noor she wrapped ills his diamond ring and set s i out for tile the post office to mall it her saturday afternoon was a half doilda for bior brothers employees the route to tile lie post office took hei patst 1 store anti and with will in ili eyes she surveyed tile llie hie bi curtain coveted window U dow uli oil fol foi just a heckl she softly odd and then paused tili almost oust s lai lied by bat slie bile saw it was Us a ciack in the screen where two of tile jig curtains cur lains met llewes lle ies biance for a big victory oner oer susie blie bile sald baid gleefully alla sidled up to the crack keeping keep ilig het hei face toward the street as ai though she was vias in wait for some ou ahen she was its in the right beitf stooped suni somewhat ebat and craned hei bel neck aso 0 she could glance luto into the aper ture lure which so opportunely itself elf to her surprise a pair of ees out at her at first arst sliu she was nuz to think it was a i of tier her own but gradually gia dually a tace late to look tiiu in before hei fiet aud it was inas abit hers she was astounded almost to the point ul qt being iu in a panic it was actually weird i el rd johns face slie she thought surely it must be a ive elve been thill king so much about him that hat ive started having inious of him film but no there could be no vision about this face ace it was hawaii hin tiesh and blood even to a tiny duy wole mole that belonged belou ged to john the situation was so u judicious ludi cious that she could not kielp stalling smiling when nhen once tier her oie ulf off and the fate face on oil the other oilier side of tile glass smiled in response of a sudden tle the face angshed there was a noise at the door of the e dud and john came callie out Win window clow shop shopping 7 he asked pleasantly yes she replied very meekly and quickly tucked the small package into a pocket wha what are you doing lueje leeier 1 I 1 work burk here lie he returned quietly im tile the window trimmer I 1 neglected to tell you that I 1 changed jobs a month th ago you ou see window trimming Is my illy profession profess fou but I 1 get tired of it tiow now and then and try printing I 1 nas as offered special inducements to lake hike this job and fix up this surprise window in dow and ie been working so hard at it I 1 cant bear to think of window trimming ullen off duty I 1 feal like taking a walk right now LOW what alst do ou s say av and ruth did not demur |