Polly in New York. Roy Lillian Elizabeth

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      The cashier hurried over when he saw the four new customers about to go, and said, “The artist would like very much to meet his successors to the Studio.”

      At the same moment, a grey-haired gentleman bowed and smiled, and the group waited expectantly. Anne and Polly smiled also.

      “You are the kind friend who advised us, yesterday, when we had to leave the car,” Anne said, pleasantly.

      “Yes, but I never dreamed I was directing you right to my front door,” rejoined the artist.

      “Well, Mr. Fabian, as long as you’ve met before, I’ll go about my business,” and the cashier hurried away, leaving the five people in the adjoining room.

      Anne proceeded to introduce her friends and then added: “It was providential that we went through that street. Now we have a home to our liking.”

      “I am delighted that my successors will appreciate the place, but I am still seeking for quarters. Had I choked my anger and swallowed my pride, when the owner refused to keep his word about the stable-doors, I would still be enjoying my cozy Studio.”

      Mr. Fabian then told the ladies how he had taken the stable in its raw state and turned it into the lovely dwelling it now was. He had paid for all the hardwood floors, for the partitions on the ground-floor, and for the kitchen plumbing.

      “Why, it must have cost you a small fortune,” ventured Anne. “And now it seems too bad that you can’t enjoy it.”

      “But I did enjoy it, my dear young lady – for five years. And I only paid sixty dollars a month, during that time, too. When the owner raised me, this year, to ninety I rebelled, because I had spent so much money on beautifying the rooms. I thought he would really relent and say I could have it for about seventy-five a month. I was mistaken.”

      “We’re paying a hundred and fifty a month and make all repairs, ourselves,” Anne ventured.

      “He took advantage of the unusual conditions. But you have a better bargain, even so, than if you had rented a seven-room apartment, uptown, for two or three thousand a year.”

      By this time they were standing on the corner once more, and Mr. Fabian seemed ready to leave them. Then Polly remembered that the cashier had said the bed and high-boy she just bought had come from the Studio.

      “Oh, Mr. Fabian, excuse me for speaking of it, but did you really own the four-poster I got at the sale just now?”

      “Yes, my dear. It was in the room my little daughter occupied when she was home. She is now in Paris taking an art course.” The girls were deeply interested in this intimate information. “That box-spring with the mattress on the bed was made to order of the best material I could buy. You’ll find the silk-floss in that mattress is so soft you’ll never care to get up, once you rest upon it.”

      “But I didn’t know the spring and mattress went with the bed,” Polly said, amazed.

      “Oh, yes. That is the way they generally sell other folks’ goods. But I wish to say, that Nancy only used the bed a few weeks, as she had a splendid opportunity to enter a class in a friend’s school in Paris, so we started her across without delay. My wife went, too, to look after her; that is one reason I refused to pay the increased rent; I thought it was too much for one lone man to pay.”

      “It almost makes me feel as if we ought to take you in to live with us,” said Mrs. Stewart, sympathetically. “If there only was one extra bedroom, now, we could make you a member of our family just as well as not.”

      “But we haven’t that extra room!” laughed Anne, wondering what this stranger would think of her mother’s free western hospitality.

      What he thought was soon expressed. “I certainly appreciate such unusual kindness and I see it is genuine. So I will dare to do this: I shall love to drop in, now and then, and see how you all are doing. Perhaps I can be of some assistance to you, in various ways.”

      “I know you can!” declared Eleanor, eagerly. “Polly and I are taking up art and interior decorating and we need lots of ideas from grown-ups who have had experience. You can advise us that way.”

      “Begin your regular home visits a week from Sunday, Mr. Fabian. We will be settled then and ready to welcome you to our house,” added Anne.

      Then they parted and Mr. Fabian went downtown, while the four companions walked northwards to the hotel. As they walked, Anne said: “It certainly was queer how that gentleman sent us past his own home and we saw it. Now, he turns out to be just the kind of a friend Polly and Eleanor will need to advise them about art school.”

      “Anne, what shall we do with the rest of the afternoon? We still have two hours before dinner-time,” said Eleanor, glancing at her wristwatch.

      “We can go over to the nearest shop and get Polly an everyday hat. I can’t bear to see this lovely one hacked out at auction rooms. She needs complete outfits of underwear, too, but we may be too late at the shops, for that.”

      “Anne, I saw in the paper this morning, when you were looking for apartments, that a fine Fifth avenue shop is having a sale of early fall models. Let’s go up and get Polly’s hat there,” advised Eleanor, eagerly.

      Anne laughed. “You are willing to get one for yourself, too, eh?”

      So both girls were supplied with chic hats before they returned to the hotel. There they found an invitation from the Latimers to come, informally, and dine with them that night. Dr. and Mrs. Evans would try to come in later.

      “It’s now five-thirty. Can we get dressed and make it, in time?” asked Eleanor, anxiously.

      “Oh, yes; we haven’t far to go, you know. A taxi will take us there in ten minutes,” replied Anne.

      All was hurry and bustle, then, and when the two girls emerged from their rooms dressed in their new gowns, Anne felt that they did her credit. She could not but remark at the great improvement that clothes, well-fitting and of fine material, made in Polly’s appearance. Now the girl looked positively beautiful.

      A pleasant evening ensued, Jim and Ken insisting upon the right to escort the ladies home after everyone had said good-night.

      “You know, girls, Ken and I are going to Yale next week?” said Jim, as they started down Broadway.

      “So your father said, to-night. We will miss you, Jim,” returned Anne.

      “But we’ll be home every chance we get – Thanksgiving, Christmas and other times,” Kenneth said, hopefully.

      “Nolla and I will be awfully busy in school, and in trying to get started in the art classes,” added Polly.

      “I hope you have the stable settled before we leave the city. We want to give you-all a house-warming,” said Kenneth.

      “That will be great! Let’s have it, anyway, even if everything is not in apple-pie order in the house,” exclaimed Polly.

      So before they parted, that night, it was all arranged that the house-warming should take place the next Tuesday evening. The boys were leaving for college on Thursday, and the last few days before starting in the new school, would be busy ones for the girls.

      “All right, we’ll tell the СКАЧАТЬ