Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1912-09-26
CHAPTER XXI.
The Empty Berth.

The one thing Mallory was begin
ming to learn about Marjorie was that
she would never take the point OF
view he expected, and never proceed
along the lines Of his logic.
She had grown furious at him for
what he could not help. She had told
him that she would marry him out OF
spite. She had commanded him to
pursue and apprehend the flying par
son. He failed and returned crest
fallen and wondering what new form
her rage would take. 9.
And, 10 and behold, when she saw
him so downcast and helpless, she
rushed to him with caresses, cuddied
his broad j, shoulders against her
breast, and smothered him. 1t was
the sincerity of his detection and the
complete helplessness he displayed
that won her woman's heart.
Mallory gazed at her with almost
more wonderment than delight. This
was another flashlight on her charac-
ter. Most courtships are conducted
under a rose-light in which wooer
and wooed wear their best clothes on
their best behavior; or In starlit,
moonlit, or gaslit twilight where ro-
nance softens angles and wraps
everything in velvet shadow. Then
the two get married and begin to
live together in the cold, gray day.
light of realism, with undignitied
necessities and narrowing situations
at every step, and disillusion begins
its deadly work.
This young couple was undergoing
all the Inconvenience and temper-ex.
posures OF marriage without it's
blessed compensations They prom.
ised to be well acquainted before they
were wed. II they still wanted each
other after this ordeal, they We're pref
ty well assured that their marriage
would not be failure.
Mallory rejoiced to see that the
hurricane of Marjorie's jealousy had
only whipped up the surface OF her
soul. The great depths were still
calm and unmoved, and her love for
him was in and of the depths.
Soon after leaving ogden, the train
entered upon the great bridge across
the Great Salt Lake The other pas
sengers were staring at the enormous
engineering masterpiece and the con-
ductor was pointing out that, in or
der to save forty miles and the cross
Ing of two mountain chains, the rail-
road had devoted four years of labor
and millions OF dollars to stretching a
thirty-mile bridge across this inland
ocean.
But Marjorie and Mallory never no
ticed 1t. They were absorbed in ex-
ploring each others souls, and they
had safely bridged the Great Salt
Lake which the first big bitter jeal-
ousy spreads across every matrimo-
NAL route.
They were undisturbed In their voy.
age, for all the other passengers had
their noses fiattened against the win
dow panes OF the other cars-all ex.
cept one couple, gazing each at each
through time1wrinkled eyelids touched
with the magic of tardy honeymoon.
For all that Anne and Ira knew,
the Great Salt Lake was moon.
swept lagoon. and the arid mountains
of Nevada which the train went seal.
Ing, were the very hillsides OF Ar.
ctGia.
But the other passengers soon came
trooping back into the observation
room. Ira had told them nothing OF
Mallory's confession. In the first
place, he was man who had learned
to keep a secret, and in the second
place, he had forgotten that such per
sons as Mallory or his Marjorie exist
ed. All the world was summed up in
the fearsomely happy little spinstel
who had moved up into his section
the section which had begun its ca
Ieer draped in satin ribbons unwit
tingly prophetic.
Th- or. ..e..-g.:n Of EiaIlaTy an: