Wanted: A Husband

med the final malignancy of the mean-spirited fates. Four beetling flights to climb! Was it worth the effort? Was anything worth the effort of

tired limbs. There would be Gloria Greene herself, big and beautiful and radiant, representing everything which poor little Darcy Cole was not but most wished to be, and, furthermore, a sure source of wise counsel, or, at wor

hole affair might have weighed two pounds. To its ill-conditioned bearer it felt like two hundred. She set a hand to her panting chest and a thorn promptly impaled her thumb. Tearing off the offending rose Darcy flu

led itself as one of those tiny paper frills wherein high-priced candy is chastely attired. The departed bonbon had come from a box sent by Paul Wood, the architect, to Darcy's other flat-mate, Helen Barrett, to whom he had just become engaged. Darcy let the inoffensive ornament flutter from her fingers to the floor and crushed it flat with a vengeful foot. Nobody ever sent her candy in frilly collars! Nobody ever sent her

re duh-duh-dead!" mourne

studying and rose from her chair. She looked down at the l

you?" she rema

; I

r another," was Miss Greene's ph

d face above her resentfully. "I'll bet you've nev

nsense," returned Gloria in h

ly poised head to the tip of her perfectly shod toes, she justifies and fulfills in every line and motion the happy thought which inspired the dean of American playwrights to nickname her "Gloria." Deeper than her beauty and abounding vitality there lies a more profound quality, the rare gift of giving graciously and naturally. It is Gloria Greene's unconscious and i

n, you know," cont

," snivel

ndigestion.

"You're making fun of me. They all

ou, i

loor. She shook her until her hairpins fell like hail and her brown-black hair struggled out of its arrangement (oh, but it was a poor and tasteless arrangement!) and tumbled about her face (and, oh, but it was

u're shaking me

s Greene blandly, and s

wailed the victim. "W-

maintaining her grip. "What

e kill

to die, after all?"

way!" gasp

r treatment for

ng's brutal. The world's brutal. I hate i

nded the administrator o

never come h

it probably isn't true, either. Now sit down. Tel

. "You're trying to dodge. Begin at onc

he girl. "I'll tell. But I

ested Gloria helpfully. "Th

, you see, Maud's g

wh

ee, the il

ou want to die? Are you

grin dismissed that supposition. "I'm n

it?" asked the

Helen Barrett is goin

ot be joined together in holy matrimony, let her now speak

ncholic relapse, "were going to be the Three Honest Working-Girls and keep up our

ne of those soft, fluffy creatures that some man always wants to take care of. Bach

manded Darcy, opening wide h

ing engaged yoursel

l life Gloria Greene h

. "I just won't stand it! I get enough of

upon her visitor. "Why, Amanda Darcy Cole! What

ther! It's an old-maid name.

dmitted her hostess. "But Da

-tide of self-revelation, "if you knew how I long to be pretty! Not beautiful, like you

Darcy,

ell my soul to the devil if he'd buy such a weakly, puny, piffling little soul, just really to live and be something besides a 'thoroughly nice gir

out any one," agreed the sympath

ll, no wonder. Look at me!" she cried in pas

woefully inappropriate garments, a muddy complexion, a sagging mouth, a drooping chin, a mass of derange

aid gently, "are you s

as other girls play it-to have a little attention and maybe a box of candy or some flowers once in a while: not to have men look past me like a tree. It isn't much to ask, is it? If you knew how tired I am of being just plain nobody! There's a-a somebody inside here"-sh

tress's intent face answered this noble aspiratio

even that?" returned t

s something, anyway. Are you

, ho

e you going

cour

what started

she drew from her pocket a full-page drawing from "Life" which she unf

Darcy,"

the illustration inter

comb

ner means Lee, does it?

es

o your sitting as mod

said Darcy bet

Miss Greene. "That decided

ural

result just

hink it's

certai

just the least lee-eetle bit

the wistful face before her. With growing ast

e. "That young man knows

wanted. He asked me if I'd sit for him once. Then he had me come back again and again. I didn't mind. I-I liked it. It was the first time any

u?" aske

all photograph holder. "Exhibit B,"

nd shoulders of an e

That's the way I ought to look now, only more

ig

bout it. He seemed to think that I was a waste of good material and-and he was q

. It's in my Yankee blood, I suppose. And a wasted human being-

in the image," she said quickly. "

ge you from this?" Glo

r money. And my parents died a little while after. And I never seemed

own boot-straps?" querie

eeve. "Lee said he believed I could look like that-the way he made me look in the picture, you know-if only s

hibit A with Exhibit B, and

nounced with fi

d Darcy in a long-d

l, in any case. Darcy," said Miss Greene incis

would! I'll love y

you'll probably hate me poiso

something?" protested the girl incredulously.

re going to begin our little magic process r

" falter

ure. Act a

lay figure

It's dumb. Don't talk.

al Darcy found herself perched upon a high-backed seat while the actress expertly daubed her face with make-up from a box kept for purposes of experimentation. Next the subject's hair was arranged, and her figure draped in the flowing lines of some shimmering

think of yourself?" que

a bad joke,"

ut on the fire-escape just as you are,

n-not c-c

onditioned lay figures never do. S

figure to the desired posture. Finally she wheeled into position, sev

Look i

nd with the toning down of distance, the harsh, turgid spots and lines of the make-up h

rsely. "Could you eve

N

"I might have k

ays of depreciated currency?" inquired Glori

u can't do

nly can't

y did yo

t, perhaps som

ho

ou

M

in the whole big, round world," declared the act

I do it? What do I need?

ri

that

nning. But if you think it's an easy one

till and be stuck full of red-hot pins and needles, if it would make me look like that

well," said Gloria. "Allowing that, let's make a start. Of all your

d presently. "I want to have beautiful

backwards out of a mail-order catalogue. But that's beside the question. Clothes cost money.

w r

big, round, hard, beautifu

it's grand. But i

illy little wall-paper designs." Darcy directed a resentful look at t

did you

d Aunt Sarah w

te you two tho

g for a long time yet; so she wrote and said that she preferred giving it and getting thanked

Are you going to

ow

the bank. And forg

sperate hands toward t

ve up t

ould be that. It's o

e. You said it was

s;

going to take t

h two thousand big, round, hard, beautif

ared Darcy with imp

ermined to be a

a

r. "If you weren't, I'd disown you a

re going t

t let's take an inventor

n. Gloria ticked off the point

t. Third, your hair is nice. But it might as well be stuffing a pillow for all the good you get of it. Fourth, you've got eyes that'd be dangerous if the whites weren't yellow. If

being a dummy

ger is coming. You're going to h

y ob

y commented the actress. "Look

y lo

it?" demanded

t as

hink likely

an't h

se! You

s. Like a flash, Gloria transfixed the offending mou

le critic. "Your mouth is fishy. Your eyes are bleary. Your skin is muddy. You walk like

her emotions. "I suppose the Lord gave m

r. The Lord gave you a

t help

hat you've done to your figure. I shouldn't be surprised," she added as the doorbell rang, "if that were the police now, come to hale

stocky man with very cheerful, bright brown eyes, reassuringly deferential manners, and a curious effect of carrying his sturdy frame as if it weighed not

ed a rehearsal?"

Gloria. "Th

Mr. Harmon magnanimously. "I'll

We'd finished," murm

"to help him choose an anniversary present for his sister. It

upon her new purpose, addressed her co

wh

e Darc

ely-"I do

ia s

hopelessness?" in

you don't seem to

Considering that I haven't set them on you for nearly a month, you can't expec

't a casua

, then? A co

y and heart-wreck

armon with such fervor

thing in her, Tom?" s

's strictures, was a person not devoid of discernment. "She seemed rather a mess to me. What's the idea, Gloria? Anything I can hel