Jewel Weed

iter's art, Dick Percival happened to drop into the sooty and untidy office whe

ent over Ellery's desk and a very startled pair of blue eyes was raised to meet his own. There stood a rosebud dressed in gray. Is there

self like a telephone girl. Come in. What do you m

said Dick politely.

universe." Miss Quincy was already gathering her notes, and she smiled at Dick in a half-shy way tha

about the grubbiness of your work! If this is your daily grind,

s lau

um total of my

Hebe?" a

e office, and we consider it rather a grind on him, for he was much taken by either the article or the eyes, and she got a little job as a sort of reportorial maid-of-all-work. Funny, isn't it? If a man is buying a ru

r native language? You ought to lose your job fo

ad called Madeline pretty. It is a cheap and easy word. "I haven't time for y

tate of mind. Once or twice he walked to the door and looked down the hall,

silence, Dick spok

like to

ho

cy, did yo

e rather out

now that you're out of college.

I don't consider it my business t

tions not to go beyond," said Dick

swered. "Is that what you c

in two years of chemistry at New Haven. He knows this town from the seventh sub-cellar up, and 'him and me is great friends'. Seriously, Norris, I've begun to get hold of just the facts I wanted about 'the combine', and it's informat

the policy of the paper. It would be a pretty serious matter to run up against those fellow

pace the room and pour out the floods of his information, in wra

icular, are supposed to have a mad desire. Miss Huntress was an adept at filling her page with personalities by which those who know nobody may have almost as great a knowledge of the great as those who have

ies and picture galleries. If you can raise some photographs to go with them, you might make quite a hit. That

egin with Mr. Early," said Lena,

there's Mr. Windsor and Mrs. Percival. By the way, Mr. Norris is awfully intimate at the Percivals'. Perhaps he'd help you to an introduction. If Mrs. Percival would let you write up her library, you may be

ice now. Some one came in while I was there and I

ow's your chance! Go in and ask while he's the

o, it will look as though I knew.

a city was interrupted by a smart knock on the assistant editor's door, an

oment. The truth is, I want a series of articles on the private libraries of the city, and, knowin

," said Norris. "He can give y

ucky!" ejaculate

, would be very unwilling to submit to that kind of a write-up. My father w

I want to help along a girl that needs the work, and an awfully nice girl she is. We haven't any regular job for her, and all I can do is to throw odd bits of work in her way. She has an old mother to suppo

ced consciously at No

e his face to a judicial expression. "I'd hate to put a stumbling-block in the way of a girl like that.

literary career. "You couldn't manage to let Miss Quincy go up this afternoon, could you?" she went on with characteristic en

ons for cutting out certain of his own engagements. "See here, Miss Huntress, if you're in such a hurry, I don't mind takin

' face cleare

Miss Quincy? This is a real favor." Dick shot a glance of triumph at Ellery, believing himself a s

eousness and ref

I'll call on you to-mo

l, Dick." But Dick was already disappearing down

han ever like a bridesmaid rose, pink and ruffled and o

r down stairs, and I'll take you up to t

didn'

brary with Miss Quincy, he met with distractions. He tried to keep her mind on missals and Aldine editions, but she persisted in poring

and the little short waists. Did you say that no one knows how that gold leaf was put on that ugly

onkish fichus and gold leaf on the bias, or yo

look at this a little longer," Lena answered so prettily, and pointed with so dainty a fin

. "But I dare say the men of that time-what

privilege of knowing the girls of to-day and t

rrid and sarcas

before so much beauty in the world. There was here and there a pre

have been real

s that, she must either be a raving be

real beauties nowadays, are there?" She gl

re than one-or two,"

aughed

nice to be one of the few and

ad of

our bread," Lena answered,-and there was a mi

ot of the kind who ought to battle with the world.

d, with an air of

e, but he was wounded in the war, and he never got over it. Of course he was very yo

Dick felt a glow of kindred experience. "S

he quiet face that looked back at her, and Dick watched he

ly, and something in her voice ma

t he left you in comfort

come to see your

d fear and hope, but all Dick saw

aid with a soft blush and a look of shy invitation.

father's sacrifice for his country it is

d bickerings, of daily smallnesses, which were her chief recol

bear. Now I must not talk about myself any more.

ee you and your moth

glanced at him out of the corner of her ey

forget,"

a little shake and pulled out a much larger note-book. "I ought not to waste my time and you

was-the last thing on earth made to do serious work. They leaned together over one treasure after anoth

re pinker and more transparent than e

u home in the m

rmal already. I-I'm so stupid and impulsive. I'm always doing wrong thing

kind of existence would be intolerable to him. He liked to star his days with all kinds of colored incidents that had no particular relation to his main work. He liked to run down every by-path, explore it a bit, and then come back to the highway. Those small excursions were apt to take a man into leafy dells whe

t it had injected a bit of pleasure into her routine, and given him an insight into another kind of maiden from the well-kept, she

ought him out of this particu

idn't come home in the middle of it!"