Middletown transcript., 1917-02-24
CHAPTER xlX-Continued.
-15-


"You are not child any longer Sid
ney. You have learned a great deal
in this last year. One of the things
YOU know is that almost every man
has small affairs, many of them some
times. before he finds the woman he
wants to marry. When he finds her,
the others are all off-there's nothing
to them. It's the real thing then, in
stead of the sham
palmer was very much in love with
Christine, and yet"
palmer is cad"
81 don't want you to think I'm MAX
ing terms. I'm not. But if this thing
went on, and l found out afterward
that you-that there was anyone else,
it would kill me-"
"Then you care, after all ~
There was something bOyish in his
triumph, in the very gesture with
which he held out his arms, like child
who has escaped whipping. lie
stood up and, catching her hands, drew
her to her feet. "You love me, dear"
I'm afraid l do Max
'Then I'm yours, and only yours, if
you want me-" he said, and took her in
his arms.
He was riotously happy, must hold
her off for the joy of drawing her to
liim again, must pull off her gloves
and kiss her soft bare palms.
Il love you, love you" he cried, and
bent down to bury his face in the
warm hollow of her neck.
Sidney glowed under his caress-was
rather startled at his passion, little
\ ashamed.
sTeIl me you love me little bit.
Say it,
Il 81 love you," said Sidney, and flushed
n scarlet.
II But even in his arms, with the warm
u sunlight on his radiant face, with his
lips to her ear, whispering the divine
& absurdities of passion, in the back Of
Sd her obstinate little head was the
# thought that while she had given him
'# her first embrace, he had held other
# women in his arms. 1t made her pas
"a sive, prevented her complete surren-
# der.
ia She broke the news of her engage
# ment to X. herself the evening of the
same day. The little house was quiet
'# when she got out of the car at the
MI door. Harriet was asleep on the couch
~ at the foot of her bed, and Christine's
III rooms were empty. She went upstairs
M to the room that had been her moth
l# er's, and took off her hat. She wanted
|M to be alone, to realize what had hap
# pened to her. A year ago her half
# promise to Joe had gratified her sense
A# of romance. She was loved, and she
& lad thrilled to it.
3 But this was different. Marriage,
lS% that had been but vision then, loomed
8 large, almost menacing. She had
KE learned the law of compensation: that
EA for every joy one pays in suffering.
# Women who married went down into
# the valley of death for their children.
MI One must love and be loved very ten
81 derly to pay for that. The scale must
M balance.
III Harriet was stirring, across the hall
# Sidney could hear her moving about
81 with fiat, inelastic steps.
81 That was the alternative. One mar
III ried, happily or not as the case might
al be, and took the risk. Or one stayed
single, like Harriet, growing little
MI hard, exchanging slimness for lean
# ness and austerfty of figure, fiat-chest,
81 ed, thin-voiced. All at once it seemed
~ very terrible to her. She felt as If she
III had been caught in an inexOrable hand
that had closed about her.
% Harriet found her little later, face
E down on her mothers bed crying as If
81 her feart would break. She scOlded
her rOundly.
"You've been overwOrking," she said
"You've been getting thinner. Your
measurements for that suit showed it
have never approved of this hospital
training, and after last January"
She could hardly credit her senses
when Sidney, still swollen with weep
ing. told her Of her engagement.
"But don't understand. If you care
for him and he has asked you to marry
him, why OF earth are you crying your
eyes out?"
81 do care. don't know why I cried
It Just came over me, all at once, that
+ It was just foolishness. 1 an
very happy, Aunt Harriet"
Harriet thought she understood. The
girl needed her mother, and she, Har
riet, was hard, middle-aged woman
and a poor substitute. She patted Sid
ney's moist hnad.
81 guess understand" she said. "Il
attend to your wedding things, Sidney
Wen show this street that even Chris
tine Lorenz can be outdone." And, as
an afterthought: 81 hope Max Will
son will settle down now. He's been
none too steady
It was late when X. got home. Sid
ney was sitting on the low step, wait
ing for him. With a long breath
of content, X. folded up his long length
on the step below her.
"Well, dear ministering angel" he
said, show goes the, world?"
'sThings have been happening, K"
He sat erect and looked at her. II
os n rnoment before he smoke. He