fine, I'll wait for you in front of Will Call."

"I'll see you at 10:30 then," Dot answered rapidly and turned away from the girl abruptly, going back to work. She held her control rigidly until the girl's footsteps died away in the hall. The figures blurred and Dot

Work

realized the noise in her ears was the sound of her own heart. Oh you little fool, she told herself angrily, stop this foolish reaction, she's just a very pretty littlo girl, just a kid. She can't possibly know why she stares at you. She's probably only 21 or 22 and you're old enough to avoid her for that reason if for no other. was impossible, at least figure work, so Dot took a stack of invoices out of one of the baskets on the file cases and methodically alphabetized them. She realized suddenly that she didn't even know the girl's name and that fact some how lessened the tension and she laughed to herself and worked all the faster. Now that she had let her defenses down her mind kept swinging back to her first year in Denver .

She had Eft a small Iowa town to get away from the fact that she didn't fit in any longer. Being 25, unmarried and not intending to remedy the situation had raised too many unanswerable questions among her friends and family. A city and anonymity seemed the solution to all her problems and for the first few months it had been wonderful, in a lonely way. When her shyness wore off she had taken in a few of the local sights and met Marty. Marty had really taken the dust off Dot, and most of her skin too. Well, at least sho had given Dot the polish ne cessary to get ahead and hold a difficult job. The damage she had done to Dot's heart was at least partially compensated for by her having helped Dot find her real personality.

Marty's shadows had ceased to haunt Dot in recent months and the presence of the girl from Will Call frightened her more than a little. I can't go through anything with anyone e ver she told herself.

At 10:25 she got up leisurely from her desk, combed her hair and started slowly down the hall toward Will Call, the girl's eyes watched her all the length of the hall. The closer Dot came, the more her face gave her fear away.