The Street of the City Read Online Free PDF Page A

give me more time to make arrangements.”
    “Thank you, no. My evenings are all occupied!”
    “Say, now, that’s too bad. You really ought to take a day off now and then. Your health won’t stand that kind of life. A little fun now and then is what you need. Tell me where you live and I’ll call for you. You wouldn’t know what you’re missing till you try it. Come on, you try me out once and see if you don’t have the time of your life. Where do you live? I’ll call for you about seven-thirty or eight. How’s that?”
    “Definitely, no!” said Frannie, turning sharply toward her desk.
    And then the pale-eyed boy stepped up on the other side.
    “What did I tell you, Spike? A dame like this one wouldn’t be seen with a guy like yerself. She’s my girl, I told you. You lay off her, Spike Emberly. She’s going places with me. We have a previous engagement, haven’t we, lovely?”
    Frannie gave a frightened glance around and saw that the head of the department was just entering the room at the far end, so she settled down quietly into her chair and ignored the two, her cheeks growing white with annoyance. So this very morning when she was so sure that all the young men in the plant were perfect gentlemen, here had come these two to disprove it. Well she certainly would have to make them understand that she wanted nothing to do with them. Utter strangers! How upset her mother would have been if she had overheard what they said. Not, of course, that there was anything actually wrong about it, except that free-and-easy, intimate way that seemed to be the vogue these days among young people. Perhaps she was growing prudish, but she certainly didn’t like the way they had talked. Like picking her up on the street.
    But the young men had cast an eye toward the doorway, too, and noted the manager coming in their direction.
    “Well, good-bye, dolling,” said the one called Spike. “Here comes the big boss. I better get on with my job,” and he vanished out the opposite door. But the other lingered, his eyes on her face, his voice lowered to confidential tones.
    “Just in case you’re interested,” he said, “my name is Kit Creeber, and I’m meeting you down on the ice at closing time. So long baby, till t’night!” then he made the tour of the room, stopping to speak to three other girls on the way, as if he had messages from someone in the office for them.
    Frannie was engrossed in polishing her typewriter and seemed not to be aware of his presence, but she was exceedingly annoyed and no movement of his escaped her notice. Now what was she going to do tonight? How could she get away without meeting him? But meet him she certainly would not do, no matter if she had to go out the front way and take a taxi home to avoid it. Of course, that would cost a lot, and she didn’t know the vicinity well enough to find a bus going home.
    Perhaps some of the other girls could tell her at noon. She looked despairingly around at them. There wasn’t one that she felt friendly with yet. Perhaps that was her fault. Her mother had always told her that she was far too shy. She must overcome this and make friends, of course, but how she hated the idea of those two fellows who had approached her this morning. Was she just silly? Perhaps she ought to have laughed them off, but somehow she just couldn’t. The boys at her old home had never treated her that way. They were polite. But there! She must forget this and plunge her mind into her work. Perhaps at noontime she could ask a few questions about how to get home by bus, just casually, of course. She wouldn’t let anybody know that those boys had been fresh with her. Perhaps they wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with what they did anyway.
    Then the buzzer on her desk sounded and she picked up her pencil and pad and made her way to the inner office for dictation, and the two impudent young men passed out of her thoughts for the time.
    The man for whom she was taking