The Ordway new era., 1914-05-22


then. in sudden sharpness: you
shan't tell her. Monty. You wouldn't
dare!"
mo. indeed" he assured her quick
ly. ''Of course not"
Its Just among us three. Doctor
Southall and you and me. We three
have had our secrets before. eh. Mon
tyr"
Yes, Judith. we have"
She bent toward him. her hands
tightening on the cane. After all.
it's true. Today am getting old.
may look only fifty. but l feel sixty
and I'll admit to seventy-five. It's
10y that keeps us young. and didn't
get my fair share of that, Monty.
For Just one little week my heart had
1t all-all-and then-well. then 1t
was finished. 1t was 1nished long be-
fore I married Tom cambridge. 1t
isn't that I'm empty.headed. It's that
I've been an empty-hearted woman,
Monty-as empty and dusty and desc
late as the old house over yonder on
the RIDGE"
II know. Judith. I know"
You've been empty in 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 Va
liant"
The major blinked. suddenly
startled, It was out, the one name
neither had spoken to the other for
thirty years! He looked at her lit
tie suiltily; but her eyes had turned
away. 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
comrades. It had been curious
three sided affair-he. and Valiant and
Sassoon, Sassoon with his dissipated
fiair and ungovernable temper and
strange fits Of recklessness: clean.
high-idealed, straight-away Valiant;
and he-a Bristow. neither better nor
worse than the rest OF his name. he
remembered that mad strained season
when he had grimly recognised his
own cause a. hopeless, and with burn
Ing eyes had watched Sassoonf and
Valiant racing abreast. He remem-
bered that glittering prodigal dance
when he had come upon Valiant and
Judith standing in the shrubbery, the
candle-light from some ooen door en-
goldenipg their faces: hers smiling.
little nippant perhaps. and conscious
of her spell; his grave and earnest
yet wistful.
"You promise. JohnF'
II give my sacrea word. What
ever the provocation. will not lin
my hand against him. Never. never!"
Then the same voice. vibrant. appeal
ing. judith! It isn't because-be-
cause-you care for him?"
He had plunged away in the dark
ness before her answer came. What
had 1t mattered then to him what she
had replied! And that very night had
befallen the fatal quarrel!
The major started. How that name
had blown away the dust! That's
long time ago. Judith"
Thirty years ago tomorrow they
fought" she said softly, valiant and
Sassoon. Every woman has her one
anniversary. suppose. and tomor-
rows mine. Do you know what !
do, every fourteenth of May. Montyf
l keep my room and spend the day
always the same way. There's little
book I read. And there's an old hair
cloth trunk that I've had since was
a girl. Down in the bottom Of 1t are
some-things, that take out and set
round the room and there
is a handful Of old letters I go over
from first to last They're almost
worn out now, but could repeat them
all with my eyes shut. Then there's
tiny old straw basket with a yellow
wisp in 1t that once was a bunch Of
cape jessamines. I wore them to that
last ball-the night before It hap
pened The fourteenth of May used to
be sad. but now. do you know. l look
forward to It! always have lot OF
jessamines that particula. day-I1l
have Shirley get me some tomorrow
and In the evening. when go down
stairs, the house is full Of the scent
Of them. All summer long it's roses,
but on the fourteenth Of May 1t has
to be jessamines. Shirley must think
me whimsical old woman. but In
sist on being humored."
He smiled. a little bleakly. and
cleared his throat.
isn't 1t strange for me to be talk
ing this way now!" she said present
ly. Another proof that I'm getting
old. But the date brings It very close:
II seems, somehow, closer than ever
this year.-Monty, weren't you tre-
mendously surprised when I married
Tom Dandridse?'
II certainly was"
I'll tell you secret. was. too.
suppose did It because Of q sneak
ing feeling that some people were feel.
ing sorry for me. which I never could
stand. Well. he was q man any one
might honor. I've always thought
woman ought to have two husbands:
one to love and cherish, and the other