Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1895-10-02

nerves to rags. And he had never
known how TO be soothing. He only
sat by the open window, in his shirt
sleeves, and smoked a cigar and looked
at the sea, until Mrs. Clint told him
that cigar smoke would kill the baby.
Then he went down stairs and looked
az the sea from the bow OF a beached
dory. His wife began to ask why she
couldn't go about with him as she used
70 do.
Two people can so anywhere.
Clint said, "but two people and baby
can 90 about nowhere.
And then she told him that she al
ways knew he was staying away be-
cause the baby bored him. Oh, 1t
had all been midsummer madness,
born of heat and mosquitoes and the
electricity of q Presidential election
year
Once she left the baby with
its nurse. and went up 10
town to hear a great speaker.
Clint had been obliged 20 leave
her. and she had waited for him until
four o'clock in the morning and then
when he came IN, his step was not
steady. He had been all night at a
banquet. She had never said word,
but she had lain with the sheet up to
her ewes and seen him bind an icy
towel about his head and sit down TO
write with a strong cigar IN his teeth.
After that she was silent, but she
was frightened. The next great
speech he did not send for her, but
she went up in the morning, deter
mined TO so with him that night, and
bring him back home with her IT she
could. She did not find him at the
office. and she went into a restaurant
TO lunch. feeling warm and out of
sorts. She was trying to be econOmi-
cal. these DAYS, saving money for hit
tie Wilbur. No one knew better than
She how precarious a livelihood Is
newspaper work.
And there, sitting opposite her,
farther down the room, was Clint,
cool aud Immediately fresh and gay,
lunching with Miss Richardson, who
did the snlppy articles upon the NOV
ing world for the Day Miss Rich
arison was drinking champagne.
Well. of course 1t was silly, but
Mrs. Clint walked out without
recognizing them, and went down
TO Long Islandand dismissed her nurse
and packed her belongings, and came
up To- town without leaving an adj
dress behind her. She had gone TO
Mr.. Dash. the editor of Tomorrow,
and NE hal taken her on, because she
was in trouble. and because he had
prophesiei "a brilliant future for her
In the old DAYS. But these prophets
generally leave ont of consideration
the fact that woman is after all, a
woman. The brilliant career had been
turned aside, and there seemed to be
some difficulty about getting 1t into
the right track again. Instead of
irving to make clever stories, Mrs.
Clint read aud smiled over and edited
and returned other peoples stories.
It was not long before Clint found
her. She refused to see him, and
then he wrote her letter, and said
that DE had opened an account in the
Jefferson Square Bank in her name,
and that be should deposit fifty dol
lars "a week there for her. HIS income
varied Sometimes that was about as
much MS be made. Mrs. Clint knew.
She never answered the letter, and he
let her alone.
She never touched a penny of the
money. but let il accumulate for vii
bur. There was nearly ten thousand
dollars I'm the bank, and although she
vowed she would never touch it, 1t WAS
pleasant 90 know that II was there in
case OF emergency for Wilbur. And
then. I'm the awful summer, the bank
failed and the money was gone. She
went down % see about it, and she
found that there had been nothing de
posted To her credit for several
weeks. An extra tightuess came about
her heart. She had been nursing her
obstiuacv for almost five years, but
never. never feeling alone. 1t always
seemed 90 her that Clint was only
WAITING Cor "a word. OF course she
would never speak 1t; 1t was his place
TO come back. No one ever spoke to
her of him. She had avoided all of
her old friends. They had been few,
and she had made no new ones. She
and her boy lived alone. When she
could let her nurse go, she had taken
this little apartment where Margaret
was ianitress. and would LOOK after the
boy now aud then. Next year he
would 60 to school
Think and plan as she might, these
last months hadmade terrible change
in Mrs. Clint. She pretended to her
self that 10 was because Wilbur S
money was lost. but deep IN her heart
she knew that it was the realization
that at last her husband had deserted
them. She called IL deserving them
now. She asked somebody casually,
one dav. what had become of Maude
Richardson. and was told that she had
gone abroad; and then she saw an al
fusion I'M the Day which told her that
Clint was AGAIN In Paris. 1t was after
this that Mr. Dash came I'M and made
his inquiry as to the growing cynlcism
OF story writer's.
Wilbur was looking longingly out of
the window. Spring was setting IN
early this year, and the sound of the
boys playing came clearly through the
air. He felt lonely and restless. He
looked an about him. Across the
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