Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1917-07-21

toward her carried out the tone Of the
letter she'd got from him in Chi
cago. 1t was stiff, formal severe. He
seldom praised her work, and never
ungrudgingly. His censure was rare,
too, to be sure, but this obviously was
because Rose almost never gave him
an excuse for it. Working for him in
this mood gave her the uneasy sensa
ton one experiences when walking
abroad under a sultry, overcast sky,
with mutterings and flashes in it. And
then one night the storm broke.
They had fingered in the theater
after the dismissal of rehearsal, to
talk over q change in one Of the num-
bers Rose had been working on. It re-
fused to come out satisfactorily. Rose
thought she saw way Of doing it that
would work better, and she had been
telling him about it. Eagerly, at first,
and with limpid directness which,
however, became clouded and troubled
when she felt he wasn't paying atten-
ton. 1t was difficulty with him she
had encountered before.
But tonight, after an angry turn
down the aisle and back, he suddenly
cried out: II don't know. don't
know what you've been talking about.
don't know, and don't care" And
then, confronting her, their faces not a
foot apart, for by now she had got to
her feet, his hands gripped together
and shaking, his teeth clenched, his
eyes glowing there in the half-light OF
| the auditorium almost like an ami
mails, he demanded: "Can you see
what's the matter with me? Haven't
you seen it YETI"
Of course she saw 1t now, plainly
enough. She sat down again, man
aging an air of deliberation about it.,
and gripped the back Of the orchestra
chair in front of her. He remained
standing ever her there in the aisle.
When the heightening tension of the
silence that followed this outburst had
grown absolutely uncomfortable, she
spoke. But the only thing she could
find to say was almost ludicrously in
adequate.
mo, I didn't see it until now. I'm
sorry"
"You didn't see it." he echoed. II
know you didn't. You've never seen
me at all, from the beginning, as any
thing but a machine. But why haven't
YOU? You're woman. If I ever saw
a woman in my life, you're one all the
way through. Why couldn't you see
that was man? 1t isn't because I've
got gray hair, nor because I'm fifty
years old. 1 don't believe you're like
that. But even back there In Chicago
the night we walked down the avenue
from that store-or the night we
had supper together after the show
:.
81 suppose ought to have seen," shf
said DULY. fought to have known thai
that was all there was to it. But
didn't"
swell, you see it now" ne said say
agely fairly, and strobe away up thu
aisle and then back to her. He sa
down in the seat in front of her ant
turned around. II want to see you
face" he said. There's something
!, I've got to know. Something you'v
: got to tell me. You said once, bacl
: there in Chicago, that there was onl,
: one person who really mattered to you
:. [ want to know who that person Is
: What he is. Whether he's still the on
: person who really matters. 1t he ism
= I'll take my chance"
. Remembering the scene afterWart
7 Rose was a little surprised that she
been able to answer him as she Ole
r without hesitation or stammer, an
:. with a straight gaze that held his I'll
r til she had finished.
T "The only person in the world" sh
, said, "who ever has mattered to me, @
r ever will matter, is my husband.
+ fell in love with him the day met hin
n I was In love with him when lei
% him. I'm in love with him now. Ever.
Y thing do that's any good Is just SOM
J. thing he might be proud Of If he kne
it. And every failure is just somethin
n I hope would make him understan
10 and not despise me for. It's month
since I've seen him, but there isn't
N day, there isn't an hour in day, whe
,e l don't think about him and-wal