Frank Owen

“ He smiled, not a little bald, artificial, conventional thing, but a smile which made known to Marcia Loring his true feelings, as plainly as words could have done.
"I'm not selling lots," he said, deliberately, "nor canvassing patent medicines. The fact is, I've lost my way and have been walking around helplessly for hours in search of the road."
"That's odd," she murmured.
"What is?" he asked.
"Simply that that is the one favor which I cannot grant. In truth, I know no more in what direction the road lies than do you." ”

“ She had many names, but none suited her so perfectly as that of "The Undecided Woman."
Often the reputation of a pretty woman hangs upon the silence of her druggist. So great is this truth that it has almost become axiomatic. Had the auditor for "The Park and Tompkins' Drug Co." cared to take the trouble, he might possibly have created a scandal about Marcia Loring, for her yearly bill for cosmestics and lotions easily eclipsed the cost of a Baby Grand piano. It has often been said that any woman can be charming who "fixes up." ”

“ A moment later she had left him and started merrily down the road. As he stood gazing after her, Gordon murmured wistfully, "I didn't intend to find the road so soon." And then his face broke into a whimsical smile. "That was the sweetest lie I ever told," he said, and commenced whistling an old English ballad. He seemed as light-hearted as a boy of twelve. ”

“ Marcia Loring was an enchantress, though unlike any that the world has ever known. She bore no resemblance to Ielen of Troy, Cleopatra, Ariadne, The Sirens or Diana. She was entirely original; not a common goddess made in some wornout mould. She was just Marcia Loring, T.U.W.—"The Undecided Woman." ”

“ That night they slept on the very border of the great forest. In the morning they lifted the curtain of verdure and disappeared into the mysterious realms beyond. From that day to this nothing has been heard from them." Gordon paused for a moment, then he said: "I was the boy who entered college, the explorer was my friend."
"And you think he is lost?" she asked anxiously.
"I fear so," he replied. "The jungle is full of dangers—fevers, wild animals, poisonous snakes, deadly insects and hideous hunger-craved savages. But of course there is always hope. ”

“ Then the two commenced to tinker, argue, hammer and suggest, much to the amusement of Marcia Loring, who smiled down upon them good-naturedly from her throne in the car. Finally Gordon climbed back to his seat again and the chauffeur set off up the road in the direction from which they had cone.
"He's gone to get a—," explained Gordon. (Dashes do not denote profanity. They stand for the missing part of the automobile, the name of which I have forgotten.)
Time drags like a wheeless wagon to a man stalled alone in a motor-car way off somewhere in the wilderness ”

“ The Undecided Woman
By Frank Owen
It is a crime for some women to use cosmestics. It is a crime for others not to. A certain cynic has declared that old houses need new paint. But of course I do not agree with this statement. ”