The Washington herald., 1914-12-27

could feel IT growing, like fog from
The next day, as night came on. Il
seemed to me could not possibly 90
back INTO those rooms. There must he
some outlet TO emotions. If speech 1,
impossible, violence lies not so yerv far
oenino-wIth any one of us was
AFRAID OF myself. simply STAYED away
until late that night. Gave No not;c. !.
merely stayed / had not done such =
thing in years.
when L came back, she had anna
emily aroused the whole pIace II,
eIerk al the desk, with a curious 0I.ncs
told me my wife had been anx;o,s g.
me. l found her almost In bvstsr;cs II =.
tne hands of her confidante The bo,,,H -
keeper. We worked over her an -,
before she quieted. @" Hour
Inc sippery servant beckoned m,
INTO the hall as she went INK
Excuse the liberty. sir sL. -.
pGt l would advise you not to do so
aS& slr, l fear she might say things
VIII ml,cn would make trouble for yor@
5ia lor others, sir. That's ali. sir
Suon my speaking, sir. | am very
sLdd that l could have been of assist,
ancei 1t was fortunate, indeed, that 7
vas mere to be with her, sir"
l gave the creature a bill, and wen,
2SeN. 1. "hat she said was perfectly true
put' IN enect, it was notice served or
IRSe-agalnst me future attempts at escane
MY anger had disappeared-wilted
saw tne thing perfectly. What I mus,
nave was silence at any price: and
nluSt pay her price. Heaven knew what
she might do or say if she were once
launched into one of her hysterical fts
l surrendered abjectly. She saw j,
in my eyes. The next morning the fxed
smile had come back to her face.
1t was about week ago, I think
when hrst came to you. Yes, that was
tne time l had gone over and over the
thing. The more / looked at il the
clearer IT was. There was no escape for
me-elther temporary or permanent II
was simply question of endurance he
tween us. And knew must have on.
thing-sleep. | hoped you might give
1t to me.
Now don't say that nv wife worked
OUT all this thing in advance. 1t came
TO her, piece by piece, as the situation
developed And finally she completed
IT. She didn't do so, l think, until thai
time, a week ago, when first saw YOU.
You helped me. l had some sleen
then And you have no idea what Il
meant to me. But then, as when | had
started to sleep before, / saw the reac-
tlon upon my wife was escapinp
from her. She began to sit thinking,
with that little scowl between her ewes,
her mouth straight as a knife blade.
And it was then the thing took final
form in her mind. l am quite sure of
that-as certain as if she had told me.
It's this:
! am to be kept awake-in that bed
chamber That's all. Its simple. isn't
IS! But effective. What! lust one more
private hell operated by a woman.
AT hrst her method was rather crude.
Simply sleeplessness on her part. Nv
prowling around by night, she said, had
brought her to point where she could
not sleep. She was up and down con-
tlnually. But she added several refine
ments very soon.
She insists, for one thing. upon a
light IN the room-a dim light, which
burns all night. She herself has now
taken the colors of the other woman
rose and gold-for her kimonos and
house gowns. Only by night, of course:
never by day. They are the property of
the other woman, the colors OF a dark
tall woman. They are absolutely fan
tastic upon the white blond complexion
of my wife. But every night is the
same-the sight of those draperies
trailed across the floor, passing through
the open door of the Iving-room, in
that reclining chair, the lower edge of
it just showing through my door. Bad
enough. But even then not quite sui
fcient could catch snatches of sleep,
until that last invention three nights ago
that Schumann thing. upon
the piano.
came home that night. She was
playing It, drumming It, trailing it aim
lesSly across the keys. And now. when
she gets up suddenly at night, puts on
her drapeneS of rose and gold, that last
refinement, that same air, comes very
softly from the other room-"Whv,
why, why l"-interminable. plaintive,
broken: the insane persistence OF
Schumann, rising and falling and
never ending, over and over-that NOR
bid quality which drove him to death.
Sleep? A dead man would rise and
shrek from his gravel
You see? What's the use? What can
you do? | can't sleep when I'm there.
You can't get me away for a day. to
say nothing of 4 month, without an out
burst. And that is inconceivable.
csn't do it-I won't. One thing | will
not do is to smirch that other womanl
Do you think you could help me-
You know you can't. What's medicine.
all the doctors in the world. against a
with a grievance? She's simply
got me, that's all, strapped tight to the
bottom of that woman'S private hell OF
lers-that immemorial hell built Up and
ocked in by the offended wife for the
husband. | am not the only
one, of course. l knowl
But, by God, something must happen
pretty soon. must have sleep.
thought, at first. in a matter of endur-
lnce | would outlast a woman-that
trail. soft. trivial thing, the woman l
married. But | didn't realize. It's too
Easy for her. It's a farce, screaming
farce. The trouble is, you see. she
sleeps daytimes and methodi-
ally. Every night she comes fresh to
ny punishment.
You sea farce, howling farce
Tor her. Godl
He stopped, passed his hand over his
ACE. oh, she'll break mel he said,
md waited again. several seconds more.
What's the usey
rs,,,,IS;or Of feeling came over hin,