Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-12-04


the rugged head, no less than in the
gallant little bow with which he rose
to greet the girl coming toward them.
Shirley" said her mother. the
majors brutal and he shan't have his
mint-julep."
What has he been doing?" asked,the
other, her brows wrinkling in a de-
lightful way she had.
"He has reminded me that I'm grow
ing old
Shirley looked at the major skepti-
cally, for his chivalry was undoubted.
During a long career in law and legs-
lature 1t had been said Of him that he
could neither speak on the tariff ques-
ton nor defend man for murder,
without first paying tribute to the
women Of the south, sab"
Nothing Of the sort" he rumhled.
Mrs. Dandridge's face softened to
usefulness. shirley. am II" she
asked, with quizzical, almost droll
uneasiness. 'Why, I've got every
emotion I've ever had. read all the
new French novels. and I'm even
thinking Of going in for the militant
suffragette movement"
The girl had tossed her hat and
crop on the table and seated herself
by her mothers chair. Now reaching
down, she drew one of the fragile blue
veined hands up against her cheek,
her bronze hair, it's heavy coil
loosened, dropping over one shoulder
like sunlit seaweed What was it he
said, dearest?"
He thinks | ought to wear a
worsted shawl and arctics." Her
mother thrust out one little thin-slip-
pered foot. with its slender ankle
cleaning through it's open-work stock
ing like mother-of-pearl. Imagine!
In May. And he knows I'm vain of my
feet! Major, if you had ever had
wife. you would have learned wisdom.
But you mean we'll, and I'll take back
what I said about the julep. You mix
it, Shirley. Yours is even better than
Ranston's.'
"She makes me one every day.
Monty" she continued, as Shirley
went into the house. And when she
isn't looking, I pour it into the bush
there. See those huge, maudlin-look-
ing roses? That's the shameless re-
suit. It's new species. I'm going to
name it Tipsium Giganticum." ~.
Major Bristow laughed as he bit the
end off a cigar. "All the same" he
said in his big rumbling voice, "you
need 'em, reckon. You need more
than mint juleps, too. You leave the
whisky to me and the doctor, and you
take Shirley and pull out for Italy.
Why not? A year there would do you
heap Of good"
She shook her head. mo, Monty.
It isn't what you think. It's-here."
She lifted her hand and touched her
heart. "It's been so for long time.
But it may-it can't go on forever,
you see. Nothing can"
The major had leaned forward in
his chair. "Judith!" he said, and his
hand twitched, lit isn't true!" and
then, "1ow do you know
She smiled at him. "You remem-
Der when that big surgeon from
Vienna came to see the doctor last
year? Well. the doctor brought him
to me- I'd known it before in way,
but it had gone farther than I thought.
No one man can tell just how long
it may be. 1t may be years, Of course,
but I'm not taking any sea trips,
Monty"
He cleared his throat and his voice
was husky when he spoke. Shirley
doesn't knoW?"
"Certainly not. She mustn't" And
then, in sudden sharpness: you shan't
tell her, Monty. You wouldn't dare,
mo, indeed" he assured her
ouicL1v "Of course not"
"It's Just among us three, Doctor
Southall and you and me. We three
have had our secrets before, Ell,
Monty?" d.
Eyes. Judith, we have"
She bent toward him, her hands
tightening on the cane. After all,
it's true Today I am getting old. |
may look only fifty, but I feel sixty
and I'll admit to seventy-five. It
Joy that keeps us young, and I didn't
get my fair share Of that. Monty. For
lust one little week my heart had 1t
all-all-and then-well then it was
finished It was finished long before
I married Tom cambridge. It isn't
that I'm empty-headed. It's that I've
been an empty-hearted woman Monty
as empty and dusty and desolate as
the old house over yonder on the
ridge"
II know, Judith, I know"
you've been empty in a way, too,
she said. But It's been different
way. You were never in love-really
in love. mean. Certainly not with
me, Monty, though you tried to make
me think so once upon time, before
Sassoon came along and-Beauty
Valiant"
The major blinked, suddenly start
led. It was out, the one name neither
had spoken to the other for thirty
years. He looked at her little
guilty; but her eyes had turned
away. They we're gazing between the
catalpas to where, far Off on gentle
rise. the stained gable Of roof thrust
up dark and gaunt above its nest OF
foliage. "Everything changed then.
she continued dreamily, "everything.
The majors fingers strayed across
his waistcoat, fumbling uncertainty
for his eyeglasses. For an instant
he. too, was back in the long-ago past,
when he and Valiant had been COM
rades. What long panorama unfold
ed at the name: the times when they
had been boys fy-fshing in the Rapi-
dan and fox-hunting about Pilot-knob