PIG IRON SHORT STORIES _BY . DUDREA . PARKER_ [MRS. SUMNER PARKER] [Illustration] Printed in the U. S. A. at Baltimore, THE NORMAN, REMINGTON COMPANY, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-one. _Copyright, 1921_ The Norman, Remington Company _All rights reserved_ TO MY MOTHER TABLE OF CONTENTS Page An Ephemeral Love, 11 The White Petal, 69 The Reporter, 89 AN EPHEMERAL LOVE Betty listlessly extended her hand to Walter; he bade her good-bye and strolled slowly homeward. That he was worried was evidenced by the nervous energy with which he smoked one cigarette after another until a box was consumed before he reached the door of his home, which stood on the hill leading to the railroad and bordering the fashionable district of Baltimore. Was it Betty’s interest in or love for another man that caused her apparent indifference, or was it his poverty that caused her to hold herself aloof from him? He knew full well that he had no luxuries to offer, yet the thought of her slipping from him forever made him desperate. Walter was not visionary--he could not afford to be so; on the contrary, he was ultra-conservative, a quality not his by inheritance, but by compulsion. Since his father’s death he had paid off some bills, supported his mother, saved a few thousand dollars, and managed to extend his business somewhat. Yet, as I say, luxuries were far from his reach--but tonight he craved them as never before. He condemned himself and attributed his poverty to his bovine stupidity. He was thirty and had a well-established lumber business, by means of which he believed another man could have attained wealth and position by this time. These and similar thoughts passed through his mind--they come to all of us at times when our personal affairs loom so large upon our horizons--as he sat in his bedroom rocking on a straight-back chair. He was debating a big idea--a resolution to embark upon a business venture that had presented itself to him a short while before. It was not a speculation, but an original idea that involved risk, yet offered in return great wealth if it proved successful. After an hour or more of deliberation he started to retire, entirely convinced that the proposition was feasible, and that tomorrow he would act upon his decision.