The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1904-07-15
The Thing That Did Not Happen
by MARGARET HELEN WESTON.


May, almost the moment of her arrival.
Johns wife shrugged her shoulders,
with little half impatient. half con-
temptuous gesture.
Really, don't know. see so little of
him. He is SO absorbed in his business;
that he goes to the office early and stay :
late. And at meals he is buried behind Il
newspaper As soon as he finishes the
meal and the paper he goes off to his den,
! and that is the last of him until midnigh
or later" she answered.
That does not sound like very lively
or healthy routine for him. Is he we'll
and Jolly, like he used to be: To think
that have not seen him for years" and
! there was a wistful little note of sisterlv
! love and anxiety in her voice.
| He was her only brother; and she and
! John had been very much to each other
in their motherless childhood. In spite
of the fact that he was two years older
| than she, she had fallen into n tender little
way of "mothering' him, when she was
still little girl, and had kept it up until
he married and she went away to school.
Jolly" The wife laughed, and in the
sound there was little of mirth, but 4
certain hardness which struck on the
+ sisters ear harshly. "He hasn't time to
be pleasant. let alone jolly, any more.
! He takes no more interest in his home
or me-than in boarding house and its
mistress
Something was terribly wrong i'll the
/ household, May saw: but nothing more
was said then. When John came home,
and she saw the hungry light leap into
his eyes-the blue eyes which had grown
keen and hard and cold-and saw too,
the halt snecr on his wife's face, as she
stood back and saw him take his sister
in his arms-that sister knew that the
fault was not wholly his.
Welcome, little mother, he whispered
in her ear, so low that the wife could not
hear.
"He is starving for love. She does not
| love him, she does not love him-I knew
she did not when she married him. But
now that am here-whle | am here, at
least-she has got to be good to him or
will see to it" she thought jealousy.
See to it she did before many days had
gone; and it was we'll she did or the thing
that did not happen might have been.
John did not go to his den at all that
evening; for May played for him and
sang for him, the old songs she knew he
liked; and talked to him-gay banter
such as he had loved in those past years
at home.
For many evenings after that lie was
with them. Home quite often carly from
the office, he found time to go out with
them now and then, when May pleaded
that she had SO little time to stay with
them that he must give her all of his
company possible.
The end of her visit was drawing near.
| There was n wistful look in Johns eyes
WHEN she spoke of sailing next wccl, with
a party offriends whom she had arranged
to accompany to Europe
Then there came ancvcninS when John
excused himself early and went t" his
den, with plea of business matters to
see to.
"He wants to get back to the old
routine little before you go, SO it viii
not he quite SO abrupt a change" said
his wife, as he disappeared.
May said nothing, but her tender heart
contracted with pain. Was it to he the
same dull, lonesome life for her brother,
after she had gone as it had been before
she came? She wondered. IF John had
only married one who cared for him, in
stead of for the fine house and luXuries
he would give her." she thought sadly.
John did not come down again that
evening. But on her way to her room
his sister stopped at the door of his den.
1t was very still within, aud after mo-
ments hesitation she opened the door
softly, and stepped inside.
He was sitting at the writing table, his
back toward her, and his head bent upon
his arms. She tip toed softly forward,
thinking him asleep, and meaning to
waken him with caress, as she had
often done in the old days. But the lace
of her dress brushed his hair as she bent
over him, and he started up with a low
nervous cry. And then she saw that he
hadn't been asleep-and something i'll the
white, haggard face he turned to her for
an instant, before he dropped his head
again upon the table, told her more than
words could.
Her arms were about him i'll an instant,
in the old loving way, her face close to
his.
Its trouble-business trouble: Tell
me. Big Boy" she whispered.
And raising his head after a moment,
he told the storv-told her in Il voice that
quivered with the torment of his soul, oil
how black ruin hung over him-had
hung over him for weeks past-how ht
had been fighting it single-handed fol
| months really-and how it was killing
him because there was no one to whom