The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-11-17

but I didn't think few moments
would pake any difference"
With an air Of naughty aloofness,
somewhat difficult to assume in bed,
Carrie turned to the wall. while Helen,
with quiet resignation, tosS chair by
| the bed.
| A few moments later swift steps
crossed the porch below, and the nurse
came running up.
'Tm so sorry to be late" laying off
the long coat that covered her white
uniform, ''but I walked farther than
I thought"
you'll have to change my night
gown before the doctor comes" began
Carrie complainingly. "And want my
hair brushed, and"
"You won't mind If rush off" broke
in Helen. ~ think I can still make
that train"
"rd cut across the commons" sug-
, gested the nurse. "It's nearer"
Throwing on her things, with a hur-
ried goodby, Helen ran down the stairs
and out into the quiet dusk Of the
suburban streets.
The unpaved crossings were still
4 muddy from last nights rain. She had
forgotten her rubbers but, regardless
, Of her thin shoes, she plunged reck-
/. lessly ahead through the soft, marshy
e ground Of vacant lot.
d A distant whistle heralded the ap-
= preaching train. Another block and
she saw 1t was too late. Already the
It engine, with changing bell, was slowing
It ND. Though she ran on with painting,
hopeless speed, she was still half
IS block away when the train drew out.
q, An hours wait In that dingy, cheer
u less station! She did not even con-
'e slider going back to Carries. In the
fiyspecked window Of a drug and
v candy store hung the familiar blue
It telephone sign. She would have to
phone Dora that she could not ger
home for dinner.
The freckle-faced youth behind the
tn counter directed her to the telephone
of In the back. "Local calls, five cents
New York city calls, twenty-five CENTS
!" read the card above the instrument.
Helen had not thought that Warner
is would be home SO early, and her hear
lis bounded at his deep-voiced Hello"
"Oh. I'VE missed the six-fifteen, ant
ad Tho rext "a seventeen. CARR
Tie let the nurse of and had to stay.
You 20 ahead and have your dinner
en Dear, I wonder If you coul
s. meet me? Would you mind?
me No. I won't take taxi-it was do
'ou lar and half last time. can tax
the subway"
ALL LAYING the quarter on the counte
she ,.44s la, r.~rror,i6od natent med
Az cines, soaps and chewing gum, Hele
crossed the street to the station, wher
'tu- the yellow lights now cleaned faintl
'le through the dusty windows.
SO Warren had not expressed the Sigh
"s0 est concern over her long dinnerle'
. ~ wait. Even her "Im sorry you hay
to eat alone" had brought only car
less "Oh. that's all right" instead
~ the sympathetic response for Whit
eA' she had angled. And he had refuse
,.,, pointblank to meet her.
49,. The ill-smelling waiting room wi
- its rusty stove, tobacco-stained sp
ICONS and "eczemaed" walls was n
conducive to cheerfulness. The hie
ga Pickering lights were too dim to rel
p,t BY and she spent an interminable no
80 brooding over Warren's indifferen
80 ;, and his sisters utter selfishness.
80 Ten minutes late, the snortingly Ii
'eA' patient train stopped only long enou
for the conductor to swing her
49, the high step.
otar 1t had begun to mist, cold, wiz
blown drizzle. Inside the soiled r
,,or plush car Helen gazed out the W
or- blurred window in lonely, morbid
,a lection. The dinner hour past vii
,t+,a out food and her da,Hp feet were phi.
$50 ical discomforts that contributed
rosb her mental dependency.
,,rso It was raining hard when they fina
o,,+ plunged into the tunnels of the Ora
Central station. Forlornly she ma
o,d her way up the long platform throu
CON the gates and toward the subway {
her trance.
ava. "Hello, Ktten!'' A tall, overcoat
figure doomed beside her.
yes "Oh-oh," she caught his arm, /
resh heart leaping with dizzy joy.
: 90 "No," Warren steered her past
subway steps, "we'll take a taxi o'
he'd to Jacks and square off to an ex
orr sirloin."
"Oh, no-no. Dora's saved sor
nner thing for me. I don't want much"
the swell, doI' They We're outside NJ
hort and he was reckoning for cab.
,ited "Why, dear, didn't you have "
ven dinnerT'
have wasn't hungry then-had
six lunch. Didn't feel like eating all
anyway"
. me In the shadow of the cab, He
nestled against his damp coat sw
until to the thrilled heights that are
II be reached from the very depths.
$ no "Hold up there: somebodyll
Won't you"
aT don't care IL they do" with &