Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1916-01-05

don't try to un-
pack tonight. Just take out what you
need and get to bed-dont stay up for
me. Here I'll not want this" taking a
steamer cap from his bullying over
coat pocket.
wait, dear; do wear your muffler.
It's much colder here, and you're not
used to it yet
But Warren, scorning the muff1er,
buttoned his coat with a vigorous,
Gold? This is fine-not that Internal
dampness we got in London"
AnXiously Helen followed him to the
hall door, and stood there until with a
final nod he disappeared into the ele-
vatOr. Then she turned back to the
dusty, dismantled apartment with
feeling Of utter depression.
How strange and unfamiliar every
thing looked! AS she switched on the
lights and went from room to ROOM
Helen almost wished herself back on
the steamer. Even their stateroom
seemed now more familiar than this.
And their London apartment she pic
tured with an almost homesick throb
After the excitement of travelling,
there is always a "let down" in getting
| home. And now, instead of a feeling
of relief at having left war-menaced
| country, Helen had a lurking longing
to be back there.
How she dreaded the unpacking!
Every article would bring a rush of
memories of those weeks in London
| that now seemed so wonderful
! Never had her home life appeared SO
humdrum, so DULY uneventful. She
shrank from taking up it's daily routine.
Yet with the feeling that such thoughts
were disloyal, she tried to crush them
out
She had turned on the heat and the
sizzling of the radiators emphasized
the loneliness of the place. Everything
was covered with dust She gazed
about helplessly-where should she be-
gin?
When she had changed her travel
! ing suit for an old kimOno, Helen went
out to look for a dust cloth. AS she
swung open the kitchen door there
was a sound of dripping water, start
| lingly loud in the stiffness.
Stumbling against a sharp corner of
the table, she CROPPED in the dark for
the light. One Of the faucets in the
pantry sink was leaking! No, it was
not turned off! Had it been dripping
/ all these weeks?
Nora was too careless. They should
never have left her to close the apart
ment, but Warren had insisted that it
would be all right
How had she left the refrigerator?
A strong, musty od0r greeted Helen as
she opened it. Far back were a cou-
pie of shriveled tomatoes. In a greasy
brown paper was a piece Of bacon
green with mold. And her last warn.
ing to Nora had been to leave nothing
in the icebox!
There we're no clean busters. Nora
had left them all in the bottom of the
broom closet, black as floor cloths.
Not having the heart to Investigate
further, Helen turned off the kitchen
light. In the hall closet rag bag, she
found one of Warren's old undershirts
which she took for buster.
Even the toilet things on her dresser
Nora had not put away, and the air had
furnished the silver and rusted the
pins in the cushion.
The first thing tomorrow she would
call up that Danish employment
agency. She would never take Nora
back, of that she was now grimly de-
termined.
The snow blew in from the outside
sill as she raised the window to shake
out the dust cloth. 1t was piercingly
cold.> The wind was growing stronger
1t ratified the window panes with dis
NAL whine. Oh, why had Warren gone
down to the Office on such a night
How desolate it must be in that great
deserted building with only the nigh
Waterman on guard.
She pictured him unlocking his darl
office with the silent covered typewrit
ers, the closed desks and safe. He ha(
taken her there once at night, and sht
had never forgotten that impression O.
deathlike stiffness, of tense suspended
activity. - 80
Her nerves already taut, she startled
violently as the phone shrilled out. I
was Warren! He was calling her vi
just to break the awful loneliness o
that office. She flew into the from
room, falling over an open suitcase II
. her eagerness.
''Hello!" joyfully.
Number, please" snapped central.
''Why-you called mel