A SATURDAY NIGHT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 426, 8 February 1909, Page 3

A SATURDAY NIGHT.

IN MANNERS, STREET. Many a curious gaze followed tho two girls as they sauntered along Manners Street m the glare of tho electric lights, making slow progress, beoause the Saturday night crowd never knows just where it pvants to go, and, caught in th& crowd, the girls followed its uncertain movements. They were an ill-matched pair, one tall, fair and buxom, dressed in a showy ? much-belaced muslin, and a gaudy, expeusno,hat, her bright eyes boldly challenging admiration. Tho other was white, and shy, and dowdy. The few touches of finery sbo displayed, the'bright ribbons pinned across her plain black blouse, the red rose fixed' in her black hat looked oddly out of place and ineffective in comparison with her companion's smart attue. v One could hardly understand tho companionship between the'two girls, but guessed that they might be maids employed in the same house. , ' It was i]oy for' Ivy to bo in that crowd. She loved the brightness of the scene, the dazzling lilac of tho arc lamps, the i yellow flares from tho verandah roofs, the crimson shafts from a shop window; the roar and gleam as cars sailed slowly past; thei noise, and shilling movement, the chatter of the people round her, the admiring stare of the men whose ejes were caught by her showy dress and bold beauty; \ all these things made up for her a rich delight \ From the beginning of the week Ivy, like most of her friends, looked forward to her Saturday night m town, her share in the (Weekly parade alone Wellington's boulevard. " Wednesday was ner visiting day. It was .then that she went to see her friends, her married sister in Kilbirnie, or the other tirls she knew, who had marned ( and settled own. It was then she did her shopping or went.for little jalints, but Saturday night was saved for the streets, and it was then Bhe met her "gentleman friends" and exchanged the news of the week It was not always her gentleman frionds of long standing that "she met, for on these occasions she, made many now acquaintances, people ~ "just happened across" by way of casual ~ introduction. Of course, it was nice to be introduced formally, but, after all, if a fellow saw you in the street and thought you were just the jolly sort oi girl he Mould like to know, it was rather rough on him if you were to resent his coming up and speaking to you.- Some girls made a tuss about that sort of thing, but not all of t"hem, and Ivj and her friends had had many a jolly time through these street „ corner acquaintanceships. Qf course, sometimes it ended* badly. A girl" did occasionally drink the cup of regret, but them she ought to know how to look out for herself. That was what Ivy' always'said, and she said it with such a i toss of her head that no one could doubt that she would look after herself. In the, circumstances, it was good of her to take little, shy Lena out with her, for a white, quiet girl like that was rather a drag on her. Men didn't like a girl who could not talk and laugh and chatter with them, and Lena had no 'looks to boast of. Still Ivy was sorry for her, she seemed ,such a lonely little thing. Lena was' that rarest of things, an. immigrant girl who had gone into service m Wellington. She nad come a few weeks ago from a quiet little English village, where she 1 had been servant to an old lady, and' Wellington terrified her. A thousand times she wondered why she had come so "far fiom home; what, madness could have tempted her to leave the quiet village and her few friends there to come across the world with a cousin she hardly knew. Sometimes she cried hcr- . self sick with longing for the old home faces', i for her mother, and sisters, for her friends, lr even sometimes for Roger, the friendly baker boy, whose daily call at her old mistress's home had been among the events of her quiet life. Just what she had looked forward to seeing in New Zealand she could hardly have told, but it was certainly not this, and 1 as she sauntered through Manners Street with Ivy, knowing that this ugly parade was the best Wellington had to offer her, her sourcned out in passionate longing for the cool dark of hor village, its long, blue twilight, and the heavy evening fragrance bhe loathed tho pitiless glare or the lights, her heart sickened at the impudent staring faces of the street-corner loungers. When their glance of admiration at Ivy changed to one of contempt at her, she liked it better than when an occasional glance told her that she, too, had,her good, points. Up and down the street they strolled, 1 stopping i here and there whde Ivy chatted with a friend, bevcral times they drifted apart, Ivy with a man who talked eagerly to her, Lena walking sadly with a bored companion. At a corner, by some mischance, Lena ~ was separated from her careless escort, and lZT 13 T' 16 ™, t* b ? seen. THe girl stood lonely and frightened, conscious of the glances cast in her direction, every now and then accosted by some lounger, not knowing whero to turn. She could not go homo, ht cause the family were out for the evening, fntw A h6rS6lf ' ! he conld onl y ™* Patiently at her corne. hoping Ivy would return ior her, and wishing o\ery moment that she were safe at home m her little native village. Across the road a mission band blared in the light of flaming torches She wou d go and stand in tho crowd, where sho would be loss conspicuous, even though bv so doing she ran the risk of missing Ivy Timidly she made her way across" the Btreet and stood among a group of men and , ,Svomon, and as she stood there her arm was grasped roughly, eagerly She turned in alarm, and there close beside her,was tho honest countrified face of the baker boy from her village. "Roger, Roger'" sho said, half laughing, half crying,, and for the next few minutes she could not have told whother she were standing beneath 3 glaring electric light or m the soft, twilight of her village home, but her loneliness was forgotten. All was ivell with her.