Meade County news., 1917-06-14

the night: she was going to study law
study it with all her might
The other step was to go and hear
Rodney's argument in court that day.
She was successful in slipping into the
rear of the courtroom-up on the
eighth floor of the Federal building
without attracting her husbands at
tention; and for two hours and half
she listened, with mingled feelings, to
his argument. There was no use pre-
tending that she could follow her hus-
bands reasoning. Listening to it had
something the same effect upon her
as watching some enormous, COM
plicated, smooth-running mass of ma
chinery. She was conscious of the
power of It, though ignorant of what
made it go, and of what it was ac-
complishing.
The three stolid figures behind the
high mahogany bench seemed to be
following it attentively, though they
irritated her bitterly, sometimes, by In
dulging in whispered conversations.
And, presently, he just stopped talk
ing and began stacking up his notes.
The oldest judge mumbled something,
everybody stood up, and the three stiff,
formidable figures filed out by side
door. 1t was all over.
But nothing had happened!
Rose had expected to leave the
courtroom in the blissful knowledge
of Rodney's victory or the acceptance
of his defeat. In her surprise over the
failure of this climax to materlalize,
she almost neglected to make her es-
cape before he discovered her there.
One practical advantage she had
gained out of what was, on the whole,
ratherunsatisfactory afternoon. When
she had gone home and changed into
the sort of frock she thought he'd like
and come downstairs in answer to his
shouted greeting from the lower hall,
she didn't say, as otherwise she would
have done, "How did 1t come out
Roddy? Did you win?"
In the light Of her newly acquired
knowledge she could see how question
of that sort would irritate him. In
stead of that, she said: "You dear old
boy, how dog-tired you must bel How
do you think 1t went? Do you think
you impressed them? / bet you didw
And, not having been rubbed the
wrong way by a foolish question, he
held her off with both hands for q
moment, then Rugged her up and told
her she was a trump. 81 had sort
of uneasy feeling" he confessed, "that
after last night-the way l threw you
out of my Office, fairly, I'd find you
tragic. might have known could
count on you. Is there anywhere
we have got to go2 Or can we just
stay homer
He didn't want 10 founder through
an emotional PoFnss. And the as.
, sumption that she couldn't walk beside
him on the main path Of his life waA
just and sensible. But 1t wasn't good
enough for Rose.
So the very next morning she strip.
ped the cover off the first of the law
books she had bought, and really went
to work. She bit down, angrily the
yawns that blinded her eyes with tears;
she made desperate efforts to fog her
mind into graphing with the endless
succession of meaningless pages
spread out before her, to find a germ
Of meaning somewhere in 1t that would
bring the dead verblage to life. Shg
was very secretIve about 1t; developed
an almost morbid fear that Rodney
would discover what she was doing
and laugh his big laugh at her. She
resisted innumerable questions she
wanted to PROFOUND to him, from q
fear that they'd betray her secret.
She even forbore to ask him about
the case; it was The Case in her mind
the one she knew about
She discovered In the newspaper,
one day, column summary Of court
decisions that had been handed down
and though The Case wasn't in 1t, she
kept, from that day forward, a careful
watch, discovered where the legal news
was pllhlCut anu nCNCL ONCLlOOhCu
paragraph. And at last she found
it-just the bare statement: "Judg-
ment affirmed" Rodney, she knew,
had represented the appellant. He
was beaten.
For moment the thing had bruised
her like blow. And then, all at once
In the indrawlng Of q Single breath,
she saw it differently. She saw she
couldn't help him out Of his intellec.
tual quandarles-yet. But under the
dlscouragement and lassltude Of de
feat, couldn't she help him? She re-
membered how many times she had
gone to him for help like that, and,
most notably, during the three or foul
days Of an acute illness Of her moth.
er's, when she had been brought facs
to face with the monstrous, incredible
possibility Of losing her, how she had
clung to him, how his tenderness had
soothed and quleted her.
He had never come to her like that.
She knew now it was thing she had
unconsclously longed for. And to-
night she'd have chancel There was
a mounting excitement In her, as the
hours naSsed-a thrilling sIlsnenSa