Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1907-05-16
THE
DIFFERENCE
By NELLIE cRAvEY GILMORE.
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Copyright, by Daily Story Pub. Coz

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Copyright, by Daily Story Pub. Coz
The door opened briskly and Rich
ard Kennedy came into the room. He
wore heavy storm coat buttoned
from chin to knee, and with his broad.
black felt tossed back from a crisp
mass Of chestnut hair, his eyes spark
ling and his cheeks dashed with red
from the keen, frosty air, he looked
bigger and handsomer than ever.
He glanced at his wife and she an
swered with quick fash of her eyes.
He read loves language in them plain
ly enough, and coming up to where
she sat, he stopped to receive her tiny
flying kiss on his lips. Afterwards
he went out into the corridor to re-
move his coat and hat. When he
came back into the room he sat down
in the vacant chair close by her. She
looked so young and pretty as she sat
beside him, lost in the fascinating in
tricacies of a bit Of fancy work, he
bent and kissed her again.
Il heard a funny story at the club
tonight" he remarked after a pause,
reaching over and shredding a strand
of crimson floss from the skeins in her
lap and slipping it absently through
his fingers.
Funny" she questioned with a
laugh. Then by all means tell it to
me, for I've been trying to have the
blues the whole afternoon and 1 want
to be amused, awfully."
He laid his fingers over hers and
found them trembling a little.
You are nervous; you are not well,
sweetheart" he said, a swift note of
anxiety coming into his voice.
But she was quick to smile away his
apprehension, insisting with all a
womans curiosity, upon the story.
Kennedy was frowning a trifie when
she looked at him; a curious express
sion Of distaste had developed about
his lips. He spoke feelingly:
1T seems that Hartwell has left
home; in short, left his wife"
Not that lovely Alicia Davenport?
Why they were married only last
spring."
Mrs. Kennedy threw up her head
with little startled movement. The
news had come as a complete sur
prise, a shock.
Her husband nodded and after a sec
ond went on:
ITS only too true. The afternoon
paper contains an announcement OF
the bill"
The bill?"
The divorce"
Mrs. Kennedy stared past him at the
wall, her eyes shadowing strangely
the fancy work forgotten in her lap.
There must have been something
very sudden-very dreadful" She
broke off, seeking words.
The other took up her thoughts
quickly:
From what could glean," he said,
there appears to have been another
man in the case"
But they have seemed so entirely
devoted to one another Odd, there
should have been someone else and no
one suspected it before, isn't it?"
"Oh, / believe it was some rather
disgraceful affair that happened in the
b'eSN oAQ just hOW COAlnS "
But it's nothing to worry us. Suppose
we change the topic?"
Kennedy had spoken a bit petulant-
ly. for when he looked at his wife, she
was breathing quickly and an odd,
half-frightened look had crept into her
eyes.
But the woman's pale cheeks famed
into red and she pressed the subject
with hysterical insistence.
And of course the woman had to
bear the brunt of it all. / never knew
it to fail. How different it is with a
man! He cannot begin to count his
indiscretions upon his fingers. yet his
wife must come to him as spotless as
the dawn and as pure as the dew that
kisses It,"
Her husband laughed and flushed.
She was so naive, so exquisitely sen.
sitive to the rude edges Of human pas
sion. He bent suddenly and stroked
her hair with gentle fingers.
Come" he said in a little tone of
jesting depreciation, aren't you just
a trifie severe on us?" He noticed