Poems (Grossman)/A Serial Story, or "The Rejected Lover!"
A SERTAL STORY, or "THE REJECTED LOVER"
Reprinted from Horace Mann Record, November, 1916
HELEN looked eagerly at all the paper stands on her way home from school, to see if the latest B——— magazine was out. She did so want to finish that story, and a month certainly seemed a long time to wait. Ah, there it was! She was a trifle disappointed in the cover this month, but then what did that matter? Just think of all the thrills that picture was hiding from view! Helen hurriedly drew, out of a small leather purse, the last precious quarter of that week's allowance, and without any outward sign of reluctance, handed it to the man and hurried away with the magazine rolled up tightly, tucked under one arm.
She ran home half the way, rushed up the stairs and stood breathless for a second on the threshold of her room, all the while unbuttoning her coat, which she threw together with her hat upon the bed. Then she slammed her books on the desk and, having acquired a box of chocolates from some secluded place, sat down in a rocking chair, and opening the magazine, partook of the monthly treat.
She ran her finger down the table of contents. There it was! It seemed to stand out to Helen in letters of gold, "The Rejected Lover," page eighteen. That magazine would roll up so! And the pages seemed to stick just on purpose! Now she had it—page eighteen! "The Rejected Lover."
Yes, the heroine was just where she had left her last month, "sobbing disconsolately for the vanquished hero. Enter villain." Helen read on and on enthralled. Her eyes skimmed across the page with such rapidity that even her English teacher would have stared in astonishment. "She made several vain attempts to free herself from the grasp of the villain, when ———" continued on page twenty-six.
Helen uttered a sigh and tried in vain to find her way through Colgate's Ribbon Dental Cream, Ford Automobiles, Crex Rugs and Campbell's Soups. The pages were so sharp that she cut herself several times. Victrolas seemed to have no end, and it was impossible to even eat your way through Sunshine Biscuits and Jello. Finally she saw page twenty-six. Oh, dear, it was stuck to twenty-seven! Well, now she had it—continued from page eighteen, "The hero, then, at the crucial moment, threw open the door and rushed on the villain———"
Helen read on excitedly. Her cheeks burned and her eyes were bright. "Enter third party." Helen's expression changed, and tears rolled down her cheeks as the heroine scorned her beloved hero and gave her love to the other man, whom Helen had no use for as he wasn't tall, and didn't have dark, curly hair and blue eyes like her idol. Well—there was no accounting for the taste of heroines—but how could they be so stupid, she mused. Then she read on. "The rejected hero turned to go, when all of a sudden"—continued in next month's issue.
PARIS GARTERS
WRIGLEY'S SPEARMINT GUM
Helen closed the magazine with a long-drawn sigh, and wiped away the tears shed for a tall, rejected lover with curly, black hair and blue eyes.