Photoplay (Jan - Jun 1922)

He emerged from the waiting room and moved hesitatingly toward the alarmingly frank young lady THE future was very promising for Albert Henry Robinson. Albert Henry was a nice, reliable young man. He had appeared in Woodland six years before to assume the duties of telegraph operator and today held forth proudly as station agent. And while the position of station agent at Woodland was not the most important job in the world, he was yet the biggest frog in a tiny puddle. But the station-agency was not the thing which assured Albert Henry's future. Rather it was his magnificent reliability. Quite a personable young man, he carried a worthwhile head on not unbroad shoulders. He taught a Sunday School class, attended church regularly and never missed a Wednesday night prayer meeting. True, had Albert Henry been given to analysis of self, he might have made the startling discovery that this punctiliousness was directly attributable to the boredom of existence in Woodland. But Albert Henry didn't analyze, and the citizenry of the little town cheerfully accepted results rather than bother itself about motivation. During his six years at Woodland, Albert Henry had been preyed upon by no vices. He did not drink, play cards or indulge in any other form of wickedness. And his salary became increasingly worthwhile. So it "was, because there was nothing else to do with his money — Albert Henry Robinson saved a goodly portion of his monthly income with the result that he now had on deposit in the Woodland Farmer's Bank a sum in excess of four thousand dollars. And he was engaged Wise and Otherwise This is the story of Albert Henry — who suddenly ceased to be reliable. And of a chorus girl who knocked a paragon off a pedestal By OCTAVUS ROY COHEN Illustrated by R. Van Buren to marry the daughter of the president of that rural Gibraltar of finance. Albert Henry's fiancee was the single unwelcome fly in the ointment of passive, unquestioning contentment. It wasn't that she fell short of being a nice girl. Certainly no one could say that of Phyllis. And Albert Henry didn't know that his instinctive aversion to matrimonial contemplation was due perhaps to the fact that she was too nice. Phyllis was distinctly of the type born to be a good wife and mother. She was ample in height and figure, neutral of complexion, several years too late in style and teetotally lacking a sense of humor — which explains howAlbert Henry happened to become engaged to her. That event had occurred nearly a year before on the occasion of a moonlight hayride. The party picnicked in The Grove and Albert Henry found himself strolling through an avenue of maples and spreading oaks with Phyllis Garrison. The night was marvelous: a sensuous, compelling blackness, pierced by the silver of bright moonlight. And Albert Henry was a virile and lonely young man. Phyllis was a full-blooded young woman who indicated very clearly that Albert Henry was personally pleasing to her. They seated themselves upon the trunk of a fallen oak and, quite unexpectedly to Albert Henry, he found his arms about Phyllis and his lips on hers. That was all. But, returning to the picnic grove. ' Phyllis announced to her parents that she and Albert Henry were engaged. This was news to Albert Henry, but he never thought of registering a protest. He was a nice, reliable young man. And for a month or so he passively enjoyed the uniqueness of his position as an engaged man. Phyllis's father approved. The future was very promising for Albert Henry and he was taken into the bosom of the Garrison family. As for Phyllis, she was a vague disappointment to the reliable young man. She was indifferently quiescent and maddeningly practical. Within her there was none of the fire with which he understood engaged young women were imbued. Once across the threshold of novelty, her lips became almost clammy against his, and. without knowing that he was doing so — he struggled against the inevitability of marriage to her. Which explains why their engagement already had lasted almost a calendar year. It never occurred to him to break off the engagement He was entirely too steady-going and reliable for any such proce 23