“Who said you were, madam?”
“Well, you implied it, waiting for
me to get in the elevator before you,
as if I were older—and, as I said, I
don’t know that I am.”
“We are both old enough, madam,
to have common sense. 1 work here
and naturally give preference to
strangers.”
The elevator stopped to let in a
man who took his hat off.
“You may think I am because my
hair is gray, but I’ve been this way
ever since I was 18. It runs in our
family. My mother had a white lock
over her forehead the day she
was-^ —”
The elevator stopped to let in a man
who kept his hat on. ,
—“married, and that was before her
seventeenth birthday.”
The elevator stopped to let the first
gentleman out.
“So I may be younger than you
think.”
The every-day woman, who knows a
freak when she comes across one—
close—made no answer. The other
woman’s voice reached after her as
she was making for the entrance:
“I don’t know that I’m even near
as old as you are.”
And if the problem gave her pleas
ure, she was welcome.
** * *
/\ COLLEAGUE of the staff adds
this incident to the column:
An elderly lady accompanied by an
Airedale dog, near as old as she, can
be seen most any night, sitting on a
bench in the center of Lincoln Park.
The elderly lady blends in contrast
with the soft green tinge of the park
and surrounding trees, in a black,
tight-fitting dress that rustles at every
movement. The dog seems happy—in
fact he Is happy and a bit lazy, too.
