1935-12-17 — Page 21

M

TOLLY gripped her pay en- Telope and raced out to

the lunch she had been planning for a week For forty-five

minutes she would forget the Job.

It was humiliating that a big city had nothing better to offer esteemed a girl who had been brilliant at school and had taken pains to achieve qualifications than a position as a show case exhibit Yet the Job, when it had come to her in her despera

something tion, had seemed glorious; and day after day, as she at inside the shop window, an object to be stared at by passers, she had laughed away her repugnance to it. "Molly of the Happy Heart, the father- who had left her nothing but tender memories, her brilliance. and apparently his own inability to find opportunity for it, had called her if she had been able to wear smile in the face of starvation she was not going to to allow distaste for the job dampen her spirits.

By saving very hard she would have the reserves, by and bye, to start the fight again for a better employment. But now there was that lunch; it was to have been a dinner, but a joyful surprise had come in the delivery of.her time that pay envelope at a changed it into a lunch. It was the first real meal she had bad for longer than she cared to re- member.

She found herself so happy that, quite naturally, she 'res- ponded to the remarks of the young man who, diffidently, bad seated himself at ber table. A pleasing-looking young man be face was, with lines on his which were perhaps a little pre- mature; and his conversation was pleasant, too.

"Is that right?" she demand- ed suddenly, in alarm, looking at the cafe clock. He verified it by his watch. "Heavens, I shall be late! I am due back-at the the office."

"One is lucky to have an office to be due at, these days," he said, gravely.

He rose with her, and the waitress put the dockets into his outstretched hand. He smiled at Molly's protests as he paid, for there was no time to prolong them, anyway.

Ignoring his expectation of an invitation to accompany her. Molly slipped away-back to her show-window. Her dread about letting her meal companion know that that was her office made plainer to herself the scorn she had for her employment.

ULGAR

and over-dressed women stared in at the window. Sometimes they laugh- ed, almost as if they were sneer- ing. There was always a chance that someone she knew would pass; someone who had known. her as the bright girl of her school would- wonder about her being forced to this means of seeking a livelihood.

There always had been a way of escape; but the middle-aged Felsted had no appeal to Molly. He was kindly and good natured apparently; he had known her of ther father, and was more father's generation than her own. Felted was anxions fo settle down. Holly of the Happy Heart wanted something better

CHINA MAIL, CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT

THE SHOW

WIND

from the romance of life than to become merely the last resort of an exlibertine

"It might have to be Felsted," she had said, sometimes; but that was only when the happy beart had been very much daɛnt- ed by adversity. She would rather have starved, happily, than endure the company of the man who would press upon her his desire for marriage, although his dinners were glad affairs.

The thought. of Felsted came back to her as she sat in the window. She wondered if this repugnance to the job was some- thing that time would care. The woman who sat beside her in the window seemed unmoved by any of the feeling that torment- ed her so. She had been occu- pied in similar ways for years; perhaps that was the reason. She seemed really able to read the book upon her knees; Molly found such concentration impos- sible.

When, one day, the young man of the restaurant passed, she felt He inclined to shrink back went by quickly; the window. naturally, would not interest

him.

She met him again at another restaurant. He came over, see- ing her, and she could not help giving him a smile.

He had a suitcase with him,

+his time, and 3 newspaper which he tossed on the corner of the table. Prominent headlines referring to a man whose defal- - cations had provided a sensation suggested a theme for conversa-

"He'll be sent to gaol, of course," she said. "He deserves ten years the way he has de franded confiding people.”

"Ye-es," he said, slowly. It "He'll go to gaol, for sure. is undoubtedly deliberate dis- honesty in his case. There's no excuse, at all”

"There can't be any excuse in “No any case," she asserted. excuse for taking other people's money."

"Oh, I don't know!" be pro- tested. "He became used to living in 2 financial paradise. Money came easily. It was quite natural for a man, when the de- pression started and money was hard to get at times, to gamble a little without dishonest inten- tions, feeling that everything would-be right when matters be- came nonal That is the way caught many poor chaps were when matters failed to become normal This man's frand was deliberate; but there were others who had no dishonest intention."

"You have to be sorry for a man who fails like that, course," admitted Molly. "But dishonesty has to be punished.”

"Dishonesty always -is-punished-one-way or another," he said, seriously.

To avoid allowing hire to pay for her again, Molly rose suddenly and beckoned for her ticket.

"You're in a hurry?" he asked, rising too. "I say! Accident has brought us together twice, and I wish-don't think it cheek од my part......If I knew where your office was........”

“To thinking of giving up my work" she said, confusedly.

"Don't," he advised her, de- cidedly. "If you've got a job id these times, keep it"

"I know positions are hard to secure___**

"It's not only that-it's 'cour- age and endurance, even when

• you don't like your work, that is involved," he said.

The way he said that surprised her; somehow the memory of. the words armoured her against her distaste for her work, when she thought of it later.

He the

Then, one day, he passed while she was in the window. looked shabby and tired, suitcase evidently a-weight on a weary arm). He paused sud- denly, staring straight at her although his head turned quick- ly away, she could feel his eyes- staring at her, bringing a warm flash to her cheeks, even when he was gone.

"That's Douglas, the man who went bankrupt two weeks ago.” Miss Hicks was saying. Her companion in the 'window had a surprising trick-of-jerking-out-- remarks, speaking without ap- parently moving her face mus- cles. "The Court said it sym- pathised with Him; believed he had no dishonest intentions; but the public had to be protected.”

That, then, was the reason for his attitude when they had dis- essed the Brown case and pro- bably for the remark he had He made about keeping a job. had thrown his away, apparently. She felt a touch of pity for him. What would a man do with his occupation taken from him? What sort of a struggle was he - having?

He interested her; and yet she see him hoped she would not again. She had told him that half-lie about having to be at the office, ashamed of the work she was doing. He knew now it was 1 Lje. That increased her: humiliation.

She did see him again, how- .And ever--the next morning.

He passed the one after that. the window, and she knew he had stared for a moment, al- though he passed quickly. It be came a regular habit.

That she would not meet him. again was her determined re solve; she was cautions about her movements abroad; in any case, saving desperately, she went only to cheap, remote tea rooms. Being an imitation wax-

في

HAROLD

MERCER

model was getting more

and more upon her nerves; she craved to be in a position to leave and make another bid for a position that was less irksome to her sen... sibilities. All the time she was trying hard, but her applications -for positions seemed to fall into.

a well of silence.

Sometimes she thought of Felsted, again. He could give her material advantages that would make life with him durable.

But when she came to the point she put the idea away. Instead, she rememberéd Dou- glas's words about courage and endurance.

If only Douglas himself would keep away, instead of indulging in this daily stare at the win- dow! He was nothing to her, of course, and should be put out of her mind a broken man who might never find his feet again. Found guilty of dishonesty! Yet there was something about Danglas that attracted her, com- pelled her to think of him: something that was so missing in Felsted.

THE had given notice in a

moment when the show. window seemed to have become

unbearable.

"Are you really going, after to-morrow, Miss Phillips?" -in- quired the matron. If you are, we'll have to advertise; but we would like to keep you."

Molly hesitated. "It is a mat- ter of courage and endurance--" The words sprang into her mind sharply.

"I stay, I think," she said, making an excuse about the posi=" tion she had expected being not quite ready for her. She felt glad, strangely, at her decision. Molly of the Happy Heart again. She met Douglas in cirem- stances which permitted of no escape. As she moved along a crowded street he was standing right in her path, smiling at her; and she found him introducing her to the grey man who was with him.

***This is my uncle, Mr. Harry Rawdon-Miss Phillips," he was saying.

The grey man extended a cor- dial hand, which, in her, as- tonishment she accepted help lessly.

The lady you are going to marry?" cried Mr. Bawdon heartily, looking over her with

"I'm very. eyes of approval. pleased to meet you, Miss Phil- lips-very pleased! A girl who, knowing all the circumstances. Well, you've got courage! And you're just what's needed to steady our young friend here. That's the only real trouble with him lack of steadiness"

*.

"I have loved Molly with steadiness that shows that fault is avercome?” said Douglas.

Molly was dazed by astonish- ment, but behind the bantering laughter upon Douglas's face the (Continued on Page 29.)-