The Glenwood post., 1916-03-18
AGNEW CHAMBERLAIN
opyRIdzV BY TIE cz1y7z7gy ca.

he gets out he SMOKES All over. He Is
too fat I hope you will come back very
soon. GLEN.
That evening Glen was thrown into
a transport by receiving her first tele-
gram. 1t read, You must not play
steamboat again, it is dangerous
Alan" She tucked 1t in her bosom
and rushed over to the Firs to show 1t
to Gerry.
Gerry and Alix were spending the
summer at the Firs, where Mrs. Lam
sing, Gerry's widowed mother, was
still nominally the hostess. They had
been married two years, but people
still spoke Of Alix as Gerry's bride,
and in SO doing stamped her with her
own SEAL To strangers they carried
the air Of couple about to be mar
ned at the rational close of long en-
gagement. No children or thought of
children had come to turn the channel
Of life for Alix. On Gerry marriage
sat as an added habit. It was begin
ming to look as though he and Alix
drifted together not because they were
carried by the same currents but be-
cause they were tied.
Where duller minds would have
dubbed Gerry the Ok, Alan had named
him the Rock, and Alan was right.
Gerry had dignity beyond mere bulk.
He had all the powers of resistance,
none of articulation. Where pin
heaval to move Gerry. An upheayal
was on the way, but Gerry did not
know 1t. 1t was yet afar of.
To the Lansings marriage had al
ways been one of the regular func-
tions of regulated life-part Of the
general scheme of things. Gerry was
slowly realizing that his marriage with
Alix was far from mere function, had
little to do with regular life and was
foreign to what he had always consid-
cred the general scheme of things
Alix had developed, quite naturally,
into social butterfly. Gerry did not
picture her as chain lightning playing
on rock, as Alan would have done,
but he did, in vague way, feel that
bits of his impassive self were being
chipped away.
Red Hill bored Allx and she showed
it. The first summer after the mar
riage they had spent abroad. Now
Alix' thoughts and talk turned con-
stantly toward Europe. She even sug-
gested flying trip for the fall. but
Gerry refused to be dragged so far
from golf and his club. He stuck dog
gedly to Red Hill till the leaves began
to turn, and then consented to move
back to town.
On their last night at the Firs Mrs.
Lansing. who was complacently Aunt
Jane to Waynes aud Eltons, enter
tanned Red Hill as a whole to dinner.
With the arrival Of dessert, to Alix'
surprise, Nance said. Port all around,
please. Aunt Jane"
Lansings, Waynes and Eltons were
heavy drinkers in town, but 1t was
tradition, as Alix knew, that on Red
Hill they dropped it-all but the old
captain. 1t was as though, amid the
scenes of their childhood, they be-
came children and just as a French
man of the old school will not light
cigarette in the presence Of his father,
so they would not take a drink for
drinks sake on Red Hill.
So Alix looked on interestedly as the
old butler set glasses and started the
port. When 1t had gone the round
Nance stood up. and with her hands
on the tables edge. leaned toward
them all. For Wayne, she was very
fair. AS they looked at her the color
swept over her bare neck. Its wave
reached her temples and seemed to
stir the clustering tendrils of her hair.
Her eyes were grave and bright with
moisture. Her lips were tremulous.
1--WE drink to Alan," she said, to-day
IL Alan's birthday"
She sat down. They all raised their
glasses. Little Glen had no wine.
She put thin hand on Gerry's arm.
please, Gerry, please!'
Gerry held down his glass. Clematis
dipped in the tip Of her little finger.
and as they an drank. gravely carried
the drop Of wine to her lips