City Girl Read Free Page B

news, though he listened with a caring and sympathetic ear.
    Having unloaded all this, Crystal began to feel just the least bit better. The initial shock was beginning to wear off.
    "I would be glad to make you a loan…" he started at last, but Crystal cut him off with a firm shake of her head. She did have some pride left.
    "No. Thanks, but I could not possibly take any money from you. You have done so much for me already, and there is no way of telling when I might be able to pay it back." Her fingers toyed with the soggy piece of blue plaid cloth, while her mind took a moment to wallow in self-pity.
    "Then perhaps—just perhaps—I can arrange something else," he was saying, and Crystal looked up hopefully.
    The old sparkle danced behind his eyeglasses. Pudgy fingers tweaked a pudgy chin. The wheels had started to roll in that quicksilver brain, and Crystal's heart began to spin right along. An idea had been born there, and she could almost see it flowering into full blossom.
    "Yes. Yes. I do recall something being mentioned just today. Something that just might work out." He leaned forward earnestly, elbows knocking against black marble, eyes growing larger with each passing second. "How would you feel about working on a ranch?" he asked excitedly. "Teaching, I mean. And…yes, I'm almost sure of it—Spanish would be required. You can speak Spanish, can't you?" He waved away her reply. "Yes, of course you can." He leaned back, fully satisfied with himself, while Crystal waited with bated breath swelling her lungs.
    "What do you say? You interested?"
    "Interested! Why… yes! Definitely! I mean, where? For whom?"
    He wagged a stalling finger. "Now, now, now. This is not definite, you understand, but maybe, just maybe…" He came rolling to his feet then, anxious to get to work on yet another problem which needed his special brand of attention. He helped Crystal out of her chair and Steered her toward the door. "I'll call you," he promised, "just as soon as I can. Tonight, maybe. Now, don't you worry. We will work this out together."
    His hand reached for the brass doorknob. Crystal placed hers over it lightly. Large eyes met large eyes. Quite impulsively Crystal planted a kiss right in the middle of that naked baby-pink forehead. He blushed a violent crimson, then hustled her quickly out the door with a final admonition not to worry and a promise to call soon.
    Crystal's knees almost gave way as the elevator started its descent, and her spirits went down again right along with it. All the way home on the bus, she kept telling herself that everything would be all right, that somehow Mr. Groman would be able to help her. But things were looking mighty dim by the time she trudged that last block home and fitted her worn key into the lock.
    The door swung open easily beneath her hand, and Crystal entered the empty house with an overwhelming wave of nostalgia. Everything here seemed to cry out to be preserved, yet she knew that it would be impossible. If things were as bad as Mr. Groman had said—and she did not doubt for a minute that they were— everything would have to go.
    With a heavy heart Crystal dropped her purse on a small three-legged table beside the door and wandered through this precious house, until finally her feet led her to Aunt Judith's bedroom. It looked just the same as it always had. Not a thing was out of place. The chenille bedspread was tucked neatly over the pillows in a smooth line. Boxes of half-used powders and treasured little whatnots stood in a neat row along the top of the dresser. Square smocked pillows in pastel shades lay in the seat of Aunt Judith's rocking chair, exactly as they had always lain. The chintz curtains parted over the single window, where a collection of houseplants basked in the early-afternoon sun.
    "A woman alone in this world has to be tough, strong, hard," she heard Aunt Judith saying again. "She has to adjust, make do, fight for everything she gets. You'll find out one