Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-07-10
CHAPTER K.
A Birthday.

A Birthday.
Rodney heard young Craig, who
deviled up law for him, saying good
night to the stenographer. He waited
till he heard them go, then went out
and disconnected his own desk tele-
phone, which the office boy, on going
home, always left plugged through;
went back to his inner Office again, and
shut the door after him.
There was more than enough press
ing work on his desk to fill the clear
hour that remained to him before he
had to start for home. But he didn't
mean to do it. He didn't mean to do
anything except to drink down thirstily
the sixty minutes of pure solitude that
were before him. That hour had be-
come habit with him lately, like
he smiled at the comparison-like TAX
ing a drug. He was furtive about 1t,
too. He never corrected Roses as
sumption that the thing which kept
MIN late at the Office so much OF the
time nowadays was a press Of work.
1t was not that she had faded for
him-become less the poignant, vivid,
Irresistible thing he had first fallen in
love with. Rather the contrary. She
hadn't seemed quite well, lately, nor
altogether happy, and he had not
been able to find out why. He had
attributed it at first to the shock oc-
casioned by her mothers illness and
her departure with Portia to Califor-
mia; but this explanation seemed not
TO cover the ground. She was all right,
she always said. He couldn't force
confidence from her, of course. But her
pale face and eyes wide with a trou-
BILE In them he could not fathom,
stirred something deeper in him than
the former glow and glory had ewes
reached.
And there was a new thing that
gripped him in a positively terrifying
way--a realization of his importance
to her He had discovered one day-a
fortnight or so ago, in the course of
a rummage after some article he had
mislaid, a heap of law books that
weren't his. He had guessed the ex-
PLANTATION of them, but had said moth
ing to Rose about it-had found 1t
curiously impossible TO say anything.
If only she had taken up something
of her own! 1t seemed as essentially
O law of her being to attempt to alb
sorb herself in him, as it was law
of his to resist that absorption of him
self In her.
But resistance was difficult. The
tendency was, after his perfectly
solid, recognizable duties had been
given their place in the cubic content
of his day, that Rose should fill UP the
rest. And yet there was a man in
him who was neither the hard-work-
ing, successful advocate, nor Roses
husband--a man whose existence Rose
didn't seem to suspect. CWas there,
then, in her no woman that CORE
sponded to him?) That man had to
fight now for a chance to breathe.
He got a pipe out of Il drawer in
his desk, loaded and lighted it,
stretched his arms, and sat down in
his desk chair. The thing exactly in
front of his eyes was his desk calendar.
There was something familiar about
the date-Some Subconscious aSSocia-
ton that couldn't quite rise TO the sur
face. Was there something he had TO
do today, that he'd forgotten? 9.
Then, with a grunt of relief and amuse-
ment, he got ii. 1t was his birthday
Another milestone.
NiaX Aaxy 1
had all begun. How did he compare
tie man who sat there now-with the
man who had unhesitatingly jumped
off the car to follow a new adventure
the man who had turned up water
logged at FredericaS dinner and made
hay of her plan to marry him of to
Hermione Woodruff
He was increasing his practice now,
making money, getting cautious-pru-
dent; he didn't bolt the track any
more. And the quality of his work
was good; he couldn't quarrel with
that. Only. the old, big free dreams
that had glorified ii were gone. He
was in harness, drawing cart; fol-
lowing a bundle of hay.
The building was pretty well de-
serted by now, and against the silence
ne heard the buzzer in his telephone
switchboard proclaiming mistakenly
that someone was trying to get him
on the phone. He thought at first nc
wouldn't answer, He didn't want 70
talk to anybody. But no one can re-
sist the mechanical bell ringers they
use in exchanges nowadays-the even
spaced ring and wait, ring and wait,
so manifeStly incapable Of discourage
ment. At the eud of forty-ive sec
onds. he Snatchsd open his door,
punched the Jack into its socket,
caught up the head piece, and bel
lowed 'HelloI" into the dangling
tranSmitter.
And five minutes later he was call
ing Rose on the wire. Rose, listen
to thisl Barry Lake and his wife are
here. He just called up. They got in
from New York at five o'clock, and
I've asked them out to dinneT.-Barry
Lake aud Jane! What's the matterf
Can't you hear me? Why,
they're about the best friends I've
got. The magazine writer, you know,
and his wife. And they're coming out
TO dinner-coming right out. told
them not TO dress I'll come straight
home myself-get there before they
do, l guess. All right! Good
byr'
But he sat there fTowning in a puz-
zled sort of way for hale minute.
Roses voice had certainly sounded
queer. He was sure she hadn't