Molly Make-Believe

,-his own, repeated in absolute duplicate on the envelope. Quicker than his mental comprehension mere physical embarrassment began to

be a-be a-hectographed kind of a thing. Why, hang it all, it's a real letter! And when I doubled my check

the pleasant, round, al

ar

wonder if it would interest you any at all to know that it is made out of a most larksome Outlaw up on my grandfather's sweet-meadowed farm,-a really, truly Black Sheep that I've raised all my own sweaters and mittens on for the past five years. Only it takes two whole seasons to raise a blanket-wrap

till t

ol

re was no room left in it for pain, Stanton's lame fingers r

y" he acknowled

ers of his under lip a little

tested, "but no one could really expect me to paste s

wrapper bruised his hip. Reaching down very temperishly to the pocket he drew forth a small lace-trimmed handkerchief knotted pudgily acr

," he reasoned whimsically, noting even the consistent litt

gerly down into the expectant draught. But the cup did not fill.-Yet scented deep in his curved, empty, balsam-scented fingers lurked-somehow-somewhere-the dregs of a wonderful dream: Boyhood, with the hot, sweet flutter of summer w

uel tortuous week he actually smi

sun and the Doctor were star

tor. "And more than that you do

all the deceptive, undauntable

omebody a trifle more interested in you than the janitor to look after

; "you see, I'm just engaged to be married-and though business is fairly good and all that-my being away from the office six or eight weeks is going to cut like the deuce

irrelevantly. "Is she a Bos

," beame

ort of an eye on you. I'd like to see her. I'd like to talk

love-embarrassment spread s

d with barely analyzable mortifi

d the Doctor. "You don't m

changed the subject abruptly, and busied himself quickly

ange, unintentional manner his purely innocent, matter-of-fact statement that Cornelia "had just gone south" had assumed the gigantic disloyalty of a public proclamation that the lady of his choice was not quite up to th

had to go South sometime

that cooped up in a slushy, snowy New England city-when all the bright, gorgeous, rose-blooming South was waiting for them with open arms? 'Open arms'! Apparently it was only 'climates' that were allowed any such privile

ad and reread with dogged persistence each item of po

our o'clock again someone thrust an offensive pink gas bill through the letter-slide. At six o'clock Stanton stubbornly shut his eyes up perfectly tight and muffled his ears in the pillow so that h

upper," growle

oking envelope. Instantly from Stanton's mind vanished every conceivable sad thought concerning Cornelia. With his heart

the handwriting was quite plainly th

far as he could throw it out into the middle of the floor, and turning back t

e, as though fairly hypnotized, his eyes began to rivet themselves on the little bright spot in the rug where the "serial-letter" lay gleaming whitely in a beam of electric light from the street. Finally,

s with their actual acuteness, the new discomfort of straining his eyes un

like sleeping-powders, all duly numbered, "1 A. M.," "2 A. M.," "3 A. M.," "4 A. M

ly. Absurd as it was, the phrase crinkle

r Ho

g to while away some of your long, dark hours. Because if you've simply got to stay awake all night long and think-you might just as well be thinking about ME, Carl Stanton. What? Do you dare smile and suggest for a moment that just because of the Absence between us I cannot make myself vivid to you? Ho! Silly boy! Don't you know that the plainest sort of black ink throbs more than some blood-and the touch of the softest hand is a harsh caress compared to the touch of a reasonably shrewd pen? Here-now, I say-this very mo

our-not 'sleeping potions', but waking potions-just four silly little bits of news for you to think about at

h my

ol

the bed-spread and extricated the little folded paper m

d," was all th

her a red-headed girl could possibly be pretty. By two o'clock he had finally visualized quite a striking, Juno-esque type o

2 o'clock," announced destructively: "M

ton refrained quite heroically from opening the third dose of news until at least two big, resonant city clocks had insisted

arenthesis like the tickle of lips against his ear whispered the one phrase: "My pic

derly

across the medicine stand he began to search for the missing "No. 4 o'clock." Quite out of breath, at last he discovered it lying on the floor a whole arm's length away from the bed. Only with a really acute stab of pain did he

" said

hing, buzzed in his heart lik

right-colored picture of an inordinately "riggy" looking ostrich staring over a neat wire fence at an eager group of unmista

h Farm yesterday. It was r