The Washington herald., 1916-06-04


She was very tired, very unhappy, ut
terly disillusioned. She grew careless
about her own appearance and that of
her home. And her hands had become
red and coarsened.
50 matters stood, one spring morning,
when long-delayed letter reached-the
cabin. 1t was addressed to Leila and was
from Nellie Collins, the girlhood chum
who had been her bridesmaid.
Forgetting that the breakfast dishes
had not been washed and that the morn
ing cleaning was still to be done, Leila
sat down to read the lengthy and ram
bling letter.
As she read, the gosslpy scrawl OF her
chum seemed to lift the tired woman out
Of her dull routine and to watt her back
to the fiuff-brained gayety of earlier days.
The recital of Nellie Collins daily amuse-
ments and fiirtations, the chat about peo-
pie they both knew, the latter's atmos-
phere OF light-hearted carelessness-all
! brought back vividly to Leila the pleas
ant past that lay so far behind her.
She read slowly and with morbid relish
the entire rambling epistle. Then, at last
she came to a scribbled postscript on a
separate half-sheet. The postscript ran:
'T hear your old sweetheart. Halsey
Brent, has cleaned up a million in a war
munition deal. Everything he touches
turns to gold"
The silly lines burned themselves into
Leila Carter's brain. In a rush they
brought back visions OF what might have
been hers, If she had not rejected this
richer sweetheart.
She looked DULY around the squalid
cabin, with its dust and its pile of un-
washed dishes and the heap OF soied
clothes that lay beside the untitled wash
tub. And her heart was sick within her
1T isn't fair" she muttered, half aloud
1T isn't fair
BroOdingly she sat there, the letter
clutched in her hands, her pretty face
dark with angry discomfort. She was
a drudge, an unpaid servant, the wife
OF despondent failure. And she might
so easily have married a man who could
have lavished on her all the countless lit
tie luxuries that she had never realized
she cared for, until she had had to give
them up!
It's all well enough In poetry. But in
real life, it's-it's horriblew'
Presently. with a sigh she got to her
feet and crossed the room to the shabby
dresser that stood in a corner. She
smiled cynically at the unkept image
the dresser mirror revealed to her
Then, thrusting the letter and the post
script sheet into a half open drawer, she
went back to her hateful task of dish
washing.
But today the routine of household la
Dor was ten-fold more irksome than ever
before. Ever between her and her work
arose visions evoked by Nellie Collins
letter. A dozen times Leila caught her
self quoting the postscript's words:
I hear your old sweetheart. Halsey
Brent, has cleaned up a million"
There had been another line or two
after the postscript's end. But Nellie
| had painstakingly crossed them out, ink
ing away every syllable to make the
obhterated words wholly unreadable.
This second postscript had read:
Your mother tells me she and your
father are starting from New York in
day or two to pay you a flying visit
I'm sending my love by them"
Nellie had beiatedly remembered at
this point that Mrs. Austin had told her
the visit was to be a surprise to Leila
Hence the careful erasure.
After an interminable time, the last Of
the cheap. thick dishes was washed and
dried. Lugging a boiler OF hot water
from the back OF the stove, Leila filled
the wooden washtub and proceeded to
toss carelessly into It the pile of soilcd
clothes.
The lifting OF. the heavy boiler was
acute pain to her tired back The swirl
Of stream from the tub set her to chok-
ing. She dreaded the labor of rubbing
the rough garments over the washboard's
corrugated plane. She had not even
bothered to soak the wash over night.
Always, this housekeeping routine was
rank drudgery to Leila. But, on this
particular Monday. with her mind full of
pictures evoked by Nellie's letter, she
found il unbearable. Fierce rebellion
sprang up in her heart. She hated her
work. She hated her squalid home. She
hated verything-everybody
'na OahF
Carter tramped in-the mud on his boots
blotching the none-too-clean floor.
Tt isn't time to get dinner ready"
said Leila, defantly, as she glanced at
the chimney-self clock. I'm"
Il know 1t isn't" he returned, life
lessly, as he threw his broad -brimmed
hat on peg and slumped into the near.
est chair. And we'll be lucky if we get
any more dinners at all"
What's the natter" she asked. sbarp-
ly; nettled by his weary hopelessness.
"A cave-in?"
Yes" with mirthless laugh. "a cave
in. A cave-in of all our silly hopes and
our FOOLS paradise dreams. We're broke,"
"Broke?'
Yes. dead broke. We've gone as far
as we can on the cash we've got. The
gold is there. I'd stake my life on that,
It's there! And with capital We could
get to it. 1t may lie only one days work
farther into the rock. Or it may be a
years work farther in. But it's beyond
US. Ny cash has given out I can't ask
for credit, for I've got none And 1
don't know how much longer it would
take to strike the pay-rock So I've got
to quit. I've just told the men so. To-
morrow's our last day. That winds up
the week. And I'll have just enough
cash to meet the pay roll.
And after that2" asked Leila, wip-
ing her wet hands on her apron and
turning away from the tub.
After that?" echoed Tom, miserably
After that I'll try to borrow cash to
get us East and hustle around for a
new Job at S35 a week"
Something in the overwrought girls
brain seemed to snap. Here, then, was
the end of the golden dreaml Instead
Of returning to New York as multi
millionaires in their own private car,
she and Tom would stink back without
a penny; and they must start life on a
petty salary in the city where she had
lived as a rich mans child
Sudden anger flarked up within her.
ct won't stand it," she RACED. 'I
won't stand it,"
Hush, dear!" he soothed her Don't
take it like that. We have each other
And"
"And nothing else!' she interrupted.
heSTTe herself with f,Irrv ssVo,,,,,a