Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1918 — Terry’s Burglar [ARTICLE]

Terry’s Burglar

By JANS OSBORN

(Copyricht. 1918, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

When Terry Brewster took a fourroom apartment in the Harrington Arms apartment house she described herself, as a “business woman,” by which she meant to indicate that she used her apartment for little more than a comfortable roosting place, 4 place to eat breakfast and to keep her clothes. She did not take the trouble to indicate to the real estate agent that she. was not a business woman in the sense that she earned her own daily bread. Her business was that of drinking in as much of city life in one short year as she could —going to as many concerts and theaters, attending as many exhibitions and as ' many “shows” of various sorts, lunching at as many “interesting places,” and In general seeing, as many of the sights of the city as she conveniently could without knowing many persons in the city or wishing to know more. She seldom went about in the evening. She felt somehow that her security in living alone at her age for Terry, though adequate to the task of taking care of herself in almost any circumstances, was only twenty-four—de-pended in a measure on her not being seen out after dark. The evenings in her little apartment she spent either in mending and “pottering” over the clothes that she wore In the day time or in reading accounts of things that were to be seen or books of description of the great city. Terry’s life in the small southern town where she was brought up had been decidedly circumscribed. She had gradually slipped into the position.- of being housewife for her older brother in the old homestead, and the only reason she was excused from those duties now was because of her brother’s year’s volunteer work in Washington. Terry kept no maid but, like the other business women in the apartment, she was “taken care of* by Mrs. Gray, who had the key to the apartments in her care and with lightninglike rapidity tidied them and washed the breakfast dishes and made them ready for the return of their tenants. Terry had met Mrs. Gray the day she negotiated with her for her services, and she needed no further guarantee of her perfect honesty than her small, pale face. She knew, too, that she could dust the dainties of her bric-a-brac and wash the filmiest of laces that she left for that purpose in her apartment when she went out in the morning because it was quite clear to anyone who saw Mrs. Gray that she was a woman who, had circumstances been different from what they actually were, might have been wearing the dainty laces and treading the most delicate of Oriental rugs herself. Surely Terry trusted her that is until the day that she came home unexpectedly at noon in order to get some matinee tickets that she had forgotten to take with her in the morning. On that day she chanced to be looking up toward the windows of her own rooms, when she saw there in her own bedroom, not the figure of Mrs. Gray, but the figure of a man. Terry was not terrified at the idea of having a burglar in her house, but she did not relish the idea of entering that apartment when she might encounter him. Her first thought was to report the incident to the nearest policeman, and it was with this Idea in mind that she turned about and started around the block in search of such a dignitary. She thought better of her idea and decided to go alone to her apartment—but by the time she reached home the burglar was gone. The apartment had apparently been visited by Mrs. Gray earlier in the day, for it was immaculate and there was a fresh scent of Boap and water about and the floor looked as if the oil had just been wiped up from It.

Terry made a thorough search of her possessions, she counted her silver spoons and knives and forks and she counted the butter spreaders, but apparently nothing was taken, nor did she miss anything as time went on. She looked under her bed and lounge and itv each of the closets, but no one did she find. A strange burglar, Indeed, that would take nothing with him. Then came the day when she actually ran into the strange young man when she was coming unexpectedly to change her hat because what gave promise of being a rainy day had turned out to’ be fair. She let herself in with her latch key and there really was no way for him to escape save out the front door. Being at bay the young man looked as if nothing at all extraordinary had happened and his excuse was believable enough. *T came in to examine the radiators,” he said. “That —that’s my specialty,” and then going to get his hat and a couple of books that lay with it from a chair in the living room he made a hasty exit. In the apartment that day there was the same very fresh smell of soap and water and it seemed to Terry that the young man’s hands had looked water soaked when she encountered him. And she examined the silver and counted the spoons and knives and butter spreaders. Nothing was missing. _ One day she crept in stealthily and encountered the yoting man on his hands and knees scrubbing Jhe kitchen floor. \ •T thought you were a business Iranian,” fie confronted her, standing

up with dripping hands and revealing a ticking apron tied about his manly young form. “You see, I thought all these people were business people. 1 didn’t know they kept dropping in un* expectedly.” "Where is Mrs. Gray?” said Terry, trying to appear very calm, although she had a dreadful feeling that this strange young man had spirited Mrs. Gray away and was hiding his guilt by continuing her work. “Well, I’m as much Mrs. Gray as any one is,” he said. “What difference is it to you?” Then apologetically: “Pardon me, please, I didn’t mean that —but you see, I’ve been doing this for quite a while and I have never been caught before. I Just couldn’t see her do it anymore. We didn’t want any on'e to know much about us.” “I think when I find a strange man in my apartment two days and see him in the window another I have a right to know all .about It,” said Terry, with some asperity. And then somehow they went into the little living room and, seated there in one of Terry’s comfortable chairs, he told her all about it. “You see, my father died just when I was finishing high school. He left hardly anything—he’d lost it all In a Wall street panic just before he died. Mother and he had set their hearts on having me be a lawyer and I had, too. Of course, I wanted to quit school and go to work for her, but she wouldn’t let me. She wanted to see me through college and law course. You know how it used to be with women of her generation they just weren’t taught any money-making trade and the only thing she could do that would bring in enough money was to take care of apartments like this. She could attend to the house at home first and then come over here and do these apartments. Weil, she did that and I worked after school. I couldn’t endure to see her do this, but I was bent on finishing law school, because I knew that then Pd be able to give her the things she deserved. This winter it was top much for me to see her doing this work, yet this sort of work brought in more than I could possibly earn at stray tutoring or any of the usual things students do. So I just did her work for her whenever I had a few hours off at law school. That way I bring in enough to keep us both going. I don’t mind your finding'out that I do the scrubbing, but she’d be heartbroken. It is a funny pride she has — she wouldn’t mind doing it herself, but she couldn’t endure to have me do it.”

Terry came over to the young man. He rose beside her, and she laid two small hands on his arms. “I think you are the most splendid young man I have ever met, and your mother, I know, is very proud of it ni never tell anyone your secret, and I know some day you will win for your mother all the things she deserves.” The next day Terry purposely arranged to be home when the young man Bob Gray—came. *Tve got something to ask you,” she told him. “I’m dreadfully lonely here, and I don’t like the idea of living alone, anyway. I want you to let me have your mother here with me—to be a sort of mother to me. She can potter around the apartment if she wants to, just the way my own mother might, and what that will be worth to me, of course, she will have, and that will be as much as you need to get from the apartment tending.” Of course, Bob Gray remonstrated, at first, but before a week had passed Mrs. Gray was installed as Terry’s “adopted mother,” and a real mother could have been no more congenial. Bob had but a few months more to spend at the law school, and the very day of his graduation he told Terry that he loved her and begged her to marry him. “I couldn’t do this,” he said, “if it weren’t for what has happened. I couldn’t ever hope to be your husband if I weren’t sure that I would succeed. I am sure, just as every man must be sure when he knows that the profession he has chosen is the right choice. And today I received word from the firm of Hewes & Tuttle that they would take me In as soon as I pass my bar examinations next week at a salary to start of two thousand. I was fortunate enough to have the help and friendship of one of our best professprs and the' appointment came through him. lam still unworthy of yop, Terry, but with something in the way of prospects I have nerve enough to ask you.” Terry took his outstretched hand in both of hers and held it reassuringly. “Bob, Tm surer of your success than you are yourself. I knew you’d succeed when I saw the way you scrubbed the floors and kept at that drudgery to save your mother.”