Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1917-04-26

lying wakefully in her bed, while the
clock on the mantel tolled hour after
hour into the night. Palmer did not
come home at all. He sent a note from
the Office in the morning:
hope you are not worried, darling.
The car broke down near the Country
club last night and there was nothing to
do but to spend the night there. / would
have sent you word, but did not want to
rouse you. What de- you say to the the
alter tonight and supper afterward?
Christine was learning. She tele-
phoned the Country club that morning,
and found that Palmer had not been
there. But, although she knew now
that he was deceiving her, as he al
ways had deceived her, as probably he
always would, she hesitated to con-
front him with what she knew. She
shrank, as many a woman has shrunk
before, from confronting him with his
lie.
| But the second time it happened she
was reused. 1t was almost Christmas
then, and Sidney was well on the way
to recovery, thinner and very white.
but going slowly up and down the stair
case on KS arm, and sitting with
Harriet and X. at the dinner table.
She was begging to be back on duty
for Christmas, and X. felt that he
would have to give her up soon.
AT three o'clock one morning Sidney
reused from a light sleep to hear a
rapping on her door.
''Is that you, Aunt Harriet? she
called.
Its Christine. May I come in?"
Sidney unlocked her door. Christine
slipped into the room. She carried a
candle, and before she spoke she looked
at Sidney's watch on the bedside table.
81 hoped my clock was wrong" she
said. II am sorry to waken you, Sid
ney, but don't know what to do"
Are you ill?'
mo. Palmer has not come home"
''What time is it?"
'After three O'clock"
Sidney had lighted the gas and was
throwing on her dressing gown.
''When he went out did he say"
''He said nothing. We had been
quarreling. Sidney, am going home
in the morning"
you don't mean that, do your"
Don't look as if | mean it? How
much of this sort of thing is woman
suppose to endure?"
Perhaps he has been delayed. These
things always seem terrible in the
middle of the night, but by morning"
Christine whirled on her.
This isn't the first time. You re-
member the letter got on my wedding
day?'
"Yes."
"He's gone back to her."
"Christine Oh, I'm sure you're
wrong. He's devoted to you. Oh, l
don't believe itv'
Believe it or not" said Christine
doggedly, that's exactly what has hap
pened. l got something out of that
little rat of Rosenfeld boy, and the
rest l know because know Palmer.
He's out with her tonight
The hospital had taught Sidney one
thing: that it took many people to
make a world, and that out of these
some were inevitably vicious. But vice
had remained for her a clear abstrac-
ton. There were such people, and be-
cause one was in the world for service
one cared for them. Even the Saviour
had been kind to the woman of the
streets.
But here abruptly Sidney found the
great injustice of the world-that be-
cause of this vice the good suffer more
than the wicked. Her young spirit
rose in hot rebellion.
SIT isn't fair !" she cried. "It makes
me bate all the men in the world.
Palmer cares for you, and yet he can
do thing like thisp'
Christine was pacing nervously up
and down the room. Mere companion
ship had soothed her. She was now,
on the surface at least, less excited
than Sidney.
'"They are not all like Palmer, thank
heaven" she said. "There are decent
men. My father is one, and your K,
here in the house, is another"
At four o'clock in the morning
Palmer Howe came home. Christine
met him in the lower hall. He was
rather pale, but entirely sober. She
confronted him in her straight white
gown and waited for him to speak.
Il am sorry to be so late, Chris" he
said. 1.-THE fact is, am all in, was
driving the car out Seven Mile run.
We blew out a tire and the thing
turned over"
Christine noticed that his right arm
vas hanging inert by his side.
CHAPTER XIII.