Evening star., 1908-01-26
BEING FORTY

HER thirty ninth birthday was sew
IL eral months gone by before Mrs
Henry Thompson came face to face
with the appalling fact that in less
than year she would be old. old
woman. True, she had realized in
way what. in the inevitable sequence of
numbers the next birthday must be
but it wholly n.an a bstract. casual
way. as when one gances at the i
calendar and observes Sapiently, "a q
week from yesterday will be Saturday "a
the twenty fifth" The vision of i'm -
pending calamity had not been vivid ~
lasting -NIEIy
Henry made the trouble. Like all 0E4A/
stupid men, he intended it for COM Va
pllment Looking across the breakfast
table at the plump and smiling woman ~
who poured his coffee he remarked m.
Fair tat and forty. by Jove! Has it 6s@%
occurred to you. Sis. that we re mea nder ~
ing along into comforta BILE middle -
life l think you'll look well in lace ~
cap after some few years You grow ~
old gracefully"
AS he blundered along with attention
divided between the morning and
the object of his afectionate discourse
he failed to observe the qulvering lip
and filling eyes. When a period of
unusual silence the ia >!e caused -
him again to look up from his paper one Dur
the place by the coffee empty. Deeper
and-yes there could be doubling
the unmistak akable sounds that came
from the next Anne crying not in he
usual subdued fashion it veritable tumul
of woe
With a bound he was at her side Anne. dear
What is it? What has happened? Are you i'll
Did you burn yourself on the coffee urn? What /
the matter!
He tried the hitherto effectual remedy for Ann
had always been like a child,-he was accustomed
to laugh with her about tin wanting to have he
small troubles kissed away.
She struggled silently out of his attempted EN-
brace and buried her face deeper in the pillow gvn
no reply to his questions and endearments but con
tlnued SObS
Henry stood puzzled. 1t was SO unlike Anne
Anne the jolly the light hearted the good genius
the house. Sis dear. is there anything l Cal
dor" Then with an inspiration Is it anything
have done, anything l can hep?"
No. mol You can't help it, Nobody can help it
It's something beyond help 1t is just awful! VIII
won't you go away and let me alone?"
That inexorable She yielded a reluctant kiss
and her husband. his breakfast uneaten seized ha
and coat to join other hurrying commuters in tn
daily race for the train haunted by the vision o
Anne's pretty face stained and disordered by thos
unaccountable tears
The memory continued to trouble him until dur
ing luncheon. a possible solution occurred Prob
ably Anne had misunderstood his alluson to her ag
and it's attributes Oh, hang it all! of course it
that unhappy fat and forty" that did it, an,
amends must be made. But how to do it delicatel
and yet SO she would understa nd that the ques
ton.
Il have it" Thompson shouted iubilantly
moment later. which focused a hundred pairs 0
amused eyes on himself as he sprang from his chair
with napkin dangling from his collar. Leaving
dollar to cover thrt -fve-cent check he rushed tt
the florists where he ordered with ma sculine faulty
just forty roses sent out by the first express
There, he sighed, 1 guess that will fix it, ant
fastened back to the office to mngle business witt
anticpatons of. forgiveness and loving receptio,
at his home coming.
Bounding up the terrace three steps at time tha
evening with joyous signal whistle he was met in
side the darkened hall by melancholy apparition
the ghost of his jolly Anne, long faced quivering
and it seemed "a him thinner bV half he