Six months before, the private library where she had worked for 30 years had been forced by the depression to reduce its staff.
She had been given a very fine recommendation, but no one.was interested in it No one. And her meagre. savings were going fast. She was 52. She was lonely. And she was afraid. thi man.
"What, do you want?" she asked ust tae to me," he whispered, mora at his face with a handkerchief.
"She tried to draw back still farther.
"Oh, talk!" he cried. "Im not trying to pick you up. I swear it!"
Miss Melville's head snapped up in quick indignation. "At my age?" she asked witheringly. "Don't be absurd!"
Someone passed, running, and the "young man glanced nervously over his shoulder. "Say some more. Talk about the weather. Anything.
"I prefer to talk about you. What are yoü running from, young man? You'll have to explain yourself." She sounded like an irritated schoolteacher, and looked like one. Her nose was a beak, high and arched, her eyes behind her glasses questioning and severe, He was breathing more naturally, {ana some of the terror was fading "from his eyes. "It's nothing really," he explained, "just an awful accident. I was running away from somebody.
was over on Sixth-avenue waiting for a friend. Ta bumped into him t a movie. I hadn't seen him since we were a! college, and we were going to celebrate, "You went to college?" Miss Melville looked interested.
"Yes. I graduated two years ago."
"where?"
"Harvard."
"Indeed!" She smiled. "That's very interesting." TU.
The smile seemed to hive the young man courage. He settled his Panama hat more comfortably on his head, and smiled in return. Really, thought Miss Melville, he was quite handsome,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.