Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb-Jul 1911)

80 THE MOTION PICTURE STORY MAGAZINE. father? Besides, the thought of leaving him, I am sure, would kill her right off. But I must be going, or I shall be late at the library." Euth stuck the last pin into her hat, and with a hasty kiss bade her mother goodbye, and started for her daily work. By the time she reached the library building, her cheeks were glowing with exercise in the crisp morning air, and a young man of aristocratic appearance turned and watched her admiringly as she tripped up the steps leading to the building until her form disappeared within the swinging doors. It was Eichard Lee. He started to follow her, and then evidently changed his mind, and walked down the street with a smile on his face. "What a pretty little thing she is," he murmured under his breath. After exchanging greetings with the head librarian in her usual cheery way, Euth settled down to her work. It was a busy morning, for persons were coming and going all the time, and Euth had little time to think of her spotted gown, tho once, her eyes rested longingly on a squirrel-skin coat worn by one of the library patrons. "Just the thing for a day like this," she murmured to herself as she checked the lady's book. Later in the day, the same young man whose glance had followed the young assistant librarian so admiringly in the morning, entered the library, and approaching the railing, behind which Euth was standing, saluted her respectfully. "Good afternoon, Miss Gilman," he said. "Oh, how do you do, Mr. Lee? Have you come after that new book? I don't believe it has been returned yet." "That's all right. I thought I would stop in and see." There were not many people present just at that time, and Euth was free for the moment, so he lingered and talked with her. "Seen the < Giddy Girls' yet?" he asked. "I hear it's great." "I see lots of them," she replied crisply. "I suppose you do, but I should think that kind would not be likely to frequent a library," he laughed. "Oh, they come in for the latest thing in light fiction as a rule." "I'll get seats for tonight, if you like." "I am on duty tonight," she replied. She flushed a little. "Well, then, tomorrow night." "Better not, for I can't promise." "See here, why is it that you will never go anywhere with me? Other girls do.' "Then you'd better ask them," and she turned from him to wait upon a lady who had just entered and was then standing at the railing.. Eichard Lee scowled and passed on into the reading room. He was not accustomed to be treated so indifferently, for he was a young man of independent means and of greater expectations, and it was just because she knew this that made Euth mistrustful of his attentions. He went from one table to another, dipped into a paper here and a magazine there, and then turned back toward the delivery room, when he suddenly paused, for he saw a young man leaning with his elbow on the railing and smiling down into Euth's face. "What's that fool Harry Thorne doing here?" he muttered angrily. Harry Thorne was just the opposite of Eichard Lee, smooth faced, with twinkling blue eyes, and big and broad, "just the kind of a young fellow a young girl could lean on," was Euth's mental criticism; but the young girl had been brought up in the school of adversity and was wise for one of her years. She did not expect that just because a young man stopped to chat with a girl and asked her to go to shows that he was offering himself for a life partnership. She could not help responding to his bright hearty manner, and to unbend a little from her proud aloofness when he leaned a little closer and gazed at her with a wistful expression on his frank, fine face.