Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-30


wished to cry She cried because it was the
easiest and most satisfactory wayshe knew
of relieving the tenseness in her throat
She burrowed her face in the pillow and
cried hard, and then turned over on her
pig-tails and sobbed awhile. 1t did not
make any difference, here in the dark
whether the tears made lines down her face
or not-whcther or not they made her
eyes red, and, worst of all, her nose red
From sobbing, Miss Winthrop dwindled
to sniveling, and there she stopped She
was not the kind to SWIVEL very long
even by herself. She did not like the
sound of it. So she took her wadded hand
kerchef and damned it once into each eye
and jabbed once at each cheek, and then,
holding it tight in her clenched fist, made
up her mind to stop. For minute or
two an occasional sob broke through spas
medically; but finally even that ceased,
and she was able to stare at the ceiling
quite steadily. By that time she was
able to call herself little fool, which
was a very good beginning for rational
thinking.
THERE was considerable material upon
which to base a pretty fair argument
along this line. Admitting that Don
Pendleton was what she had been crying
about,-a purely hypothetical assump-
ton for the sake OF a beginning, she was
able to start with the premise that
woman was fool for crying about any
man. She had convinced herself Of this
some time ago.
Coming down to concrete facts, she
found herself supplied with even less COM
forting excuses. If she had been living of
late in a little fools paradise, why, she
had made it for herself. She could not
accuse him of having any other part in it
than that of merely being there. If she
went back month, or three months, or
almost a year, she saw herself either TAX
ing the initiative or, what was just as bad,
passively submitting. Her instinct at the
beginning was sound 1t had warned her
not to lunch with him; it had warned her
to ignore him out of Office hours; it had
reminded her that the only way in which
a woman in her position could get along
comfortably with men was to eliminate
| them absolutely from her life. 1t was a
theory she had tested and found sound;
and yet, in the face of this, she had run
COulleT W IL. HeTe was 10 use, tnen, IN
seeking any comfort in excuses. The best
she could do was to attempt some ra-
tional explanation.
This was easier. OF course, her motive
had been merely to help him in an i'm
personal sort of way. She had seen that
| he needed help, but she had not dreamed
the reason for it. She had no warning
| that he had been deserted by her who
should have helped him. She had no way
of knowing about this other. Surely that
ignorance was not her fault.
Here is where she jabbed her handker-
chief again into each eye and lay back on
her pig-tails long enough to get fresh
grip upon herself. Her skin grew hot,
then cold, then hot again. 1t really had
all been more the fault of this other than
Mr.. Pendleton's. She had no business to
go away and leave him for some one else
to care for. She had no business to leave
him, anyway. She ought to have married
him away back when he first went to
work to make fortune for her. Why
didn't she take the money it cost to 20 to
Europe and spend it on him? She had let
I