Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-11-10
Madge snapped her irritation.

rF~F - . - - .
Madge snapped her irritation.
Emily, you're enough to vex
saint, and I'm not one. as you know
Here, it's ten minutes past CLOSING
time, the others all gone, and here
you work away as II you enjoyed it,
not that believe you really enjoy any
thing!" IN.
| Emily, who must have been nearly
thirty, rose deliberately, closed hel
desk, and reaching for her hat,
season or two out Of style, began
putting 1t on without even 2 pat a.
her unadorned, abundant dark hair.
Madge continued her plant. "You
act q hundred, Emily. II I didn''
adore you would give you up TO 60
your way! But. / won't be snubbed
as you manage to snub the Other
girls, though you're perfectly sweet
In manner. intend to pull you out OF
your hole and show the world what q
wonder you are!'
g"Cut out your hero worship, child
and 70 to supper with me. I'm
getting It in my rooms now
more COuNSulOuU -SsAu COSy
"And shuts you away from otnel
people more than ever" interrupted
the other. Glow you stand this dead
level you live on, don't see! You
never 90 anywhere, nor see anyDody;
II you have any friends, you shuu
them. You wouldn't ask me to supper
il you thought you could get rid OF me
some other way-would you?"
Emily flushed and laughed little.
l.1 do-like you, Madge, but I'm not
very friendly, I suppose. Won't you
come with me and see whether
mean my invitation :"
"I can't tonight-I'm going out
with Bobby Peters to supper, and
after that to the theater. And after
that-some months after-I'm going
| to marry Bobby! I'm awfully in love
with him, and I'm glad to say 50 to you
right out, even II you are not human
enough to care what love means! NO
| Pm not a bit afraid Of you-somebody
ought to tell you that you ought to be
ashamed Of the way you treat John
Trenton! know the whole story"
Emily stared. Nobody had ever
talked in this way ito her. but the
girl went on after they had reached
! the street.
"He's been eating his heart out fol
you for eight years, and now hes
Junior partner and has a home ano
everything, but you've crushed the
courage out Of him for so long thai
/ suppose he has even stopped ask
ing you to marry him. It woule
serve you exactly right II Sadie Nor
gan succeeds in getting him. thu
mink! She's trying, l assure you. DIG
YOU notice her get-up this morning.
Won't she make him lovely wife
She's about fourteen years younger
than he-just the right age to appea
to a man who's tired Of the dead leve
OF business and looking every day a
a woman he can't get. What have YOU
got against him? Well, here's where
turn of. Goodbye"
The little imp left the older woman
shocked and dazed. Was all TILT
true? Had 1t been eight years. Wa!
| she heartless? Had John asked he
to marry him for the last time. be
cause he really thought she did no
care? Was the ONCE becoming
habit? And was she selfish? Sh'
went home, got into neat house
dress and began to prepare her lone
ly supper.
AS she ate her meal with little ap
petite, she wondered what made he
depressed, uncomfortable, vaguel!
miserable.
She sat thinking, her tea cooling
Could it be possible that that LITTLE
goose of Sadie-why, Sadie woult
make him miserable-a hippan
mercenary, rosebud Of thing! Ant
then she knew that she was jealous
actually jealous! The wonder an
the hurt Of it swept across her heart
She remembered that almost yea
had passed since he had come to SCI
her. She had been lost in sort o
apathy, so used to his steady al
lection that she had ceased to know
when it probably had ceased.
| She tried to think just why it wa.
that she had not married him years
ago-oh, yes, at first it was that hi
old mother lived with him, and sh'
would not live with mother-in-law
She had seen other families mad,
miserable that way. And then he hat
taken to smoking, which she detested
and they had disagreed even on poll
tics-and especially on religion. Tha
/ is. she had found fault with his ideas
Dispiritedly enough she. washed hel
flew pretty blue dishes, and though