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Show Only Married Men Are Raised a1NSaW4asW the Weekly Short Story By MARY MARCH Kate thought a little unpleasantly. Then he and Tom Hampton went away and Kate sat there thinking. Perhaps those women on the bus top had been right perhaps any woman could marry any man she wanted to,, providing he were free. With these thoughts was the impression of the strength and good nature and the good looks of Tom Hampton. It is small wonder if Kate's thoughts wandered a little from her work tbat day, and if a strange new idea half impulse, half resolve took form in her mind. The next morning when Kate encountered en-countered Tom Hampton as he came Into her office she looked at blm with a rather arch smile, "Oood morning, Mr. Hampton," she said, and Tom commented to himself that it was an odd thing that he had never noticed what a trim and pretty stenographer Mr. Standish had. After that be felt a species of self-consckrasness whenever she passed him. Always she looked at him a little archly. Mr. Hampton had to admit to himself him-self that the girl really seemed to like him. When he talked now she listened attentively. Doubtless she found him entertaining. Well, he was rather entertaining, thought Tom to himself, and the next day he asked her to have dinner with him. Three weeks later Tom Hampton asked Kate to marry him, and Kate said she would. "Funny thing Is, said Tom, "It all began after what Mr. Standish said about giving raises only to the married men. Of course, I'll be glad to get the raise," he added, "but I think I would have wooed you anyway. When a man finds the woman he wants, nothing stands in the way." And Kate murmured: "I think so, too." . ' (, 1911, MoCIar Newspaper Syndicate.) ; WNU Service.) KATE HICKSON everheard two older women who sat ahead of her on top of the bus as she rode toward her office in the city that May morning. "It's my firm belief," Bald one, "that any girl can marry any man she wants, if she goes about it in the right way." "Oh, of course," said the other. "Only providing that the man In question is freei" "Of course," Kate beard the other woman saying. "So if a man Is not married it is because no woman ever wanted him. If women wom-en aren't married It Is because they never wanted to enough to make the necessary little effort" To Kate's regret she had to alight from the bus at this point To be sure, the women whom she had heard said nothing very original. Kate bad heard some such notions expressed before. Still the conversation conver-sation set her thinking. She wondered won-dered whether it were true that the men who were not married were single because no one had ever wanted to marry them. What abont Morton Cox and Mr. Hampton In the office, for Instance? Kate was still thinking about this as she sat at her desk arranging arrang-ing her pencils, notebooks and other paraphernalia of her trade as secretary to Mr. Standish when Mr. Hampton came into her room. The theory must be all wrong," reflected reflect-ed Kate. Surely, there mnst have been plenty of women who would have been glad to have become his wife. There was old Mr. Standish, who had survived two wives and was married to a third. Certainly his success in matrimony had not been due to any personal attractions. attrac-tions. "Say, Miss Hickson," said Tom Hampton with a little embarrassment embarrass-ment "there's something I've been wanting to ask yen. Yon know Mr. Standish so well." Tom Hampton drew a chair rather close to Kate as if for greater privacy of speech, and Kate, noting the details of his dress and careful grooming, again reflected to herself that the theory she had heard in the bus must be all wrong, at least in this case of Tom Hampton. "It's a funny thing," said Tom Hampton, "but since I've been here I've just about doubled the amount of business I've brought In but I haven't bad one raise. And there are four or five of the men who aren't doing nearly so well who have had raises several times. Of course, it is Mr. Standlsh's affair, af-fair, not mine. But I wondered if you knew why it is that he never gives me any more." "Let's see," said Kate, dropping into her purely business manner. "There was Jones and Grelgson and Ladd and Innls. They had raises, and you and Henley and Jackson didn't You and Henley and Jackson aren't married the others are. Mr. Standish always gives the men raises when they marry, and he keeps on raising them. It's only fair" "Not really fair at ail," said Tom Hampton. "A bachelor might have responsibilities, a widowed sister or a blind aunt, or a or something like tbat. Besides, it isn't any ol his business. He should pay what we are worth." Kate Hickson had never seen Tom Hampton so fervent before. The mood, she thought, became him well, but she said nothing. "Something ought to be done about it" he said. "Only one thing to do about it" came a voice deep but a trifle tremulous trem-ulous from the doorway, unmistakably unmistak-ably that of Mr. Standish, the much-married much-married "boss.!" "Only one thing, and that is to get married. Bachelors Bach-elors don't deserve to get what they earn." Old Mr. Standish laughed, as |