The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-07-13

| 'N' ShSAAs hhh ANNNANN 49,
Randolph street end of the avenue, GnC
a policeman, like Moses .cleaving the
Red sea, had opened way through
the tide of motors for throng Of pc
destrians.
"Come across here" said Galbraith
taking her by the arm and stemming
this current with her. "We've got to
have a minute Of shelter to finish this
up in," and he led her into the north
lobby of the public library. The stale
baked air Of the place almost made
them gasp. But, anyway, 1t was quiet
and altogether deserted. They could
hear themselves think in there, he said
and led the way to marble bench
alongside the staircase.
Rose unplnned her veil and, to his
surprise, because Of course she was
going In minute, put 1t into her ulster
pocket. But, curiously enough, the
sight Of her face only intensified an
impression that had been strong upon
him during the last part of their walk
the impression that she was a long
way off. 1t wasn't the familiar con-
templative brown study, either There
was an active eager excitement about
1t that made 1t more beautiful than
he had ever seen 1t before. But it
was as If she were looking at some
thing he couldn't see-listening to
words he couldn't hear.
WELL" he said little impatiently,
are you going to do it?"
And at that the glow of her was
turned fairly upon him. "Yes," she
said, I'm going to do it, / suppose l
mustn't thank YOU" she went on, "be-
cause you say 1t isn't anything you're
doing for me. But it is-a great thing
for me-greater-than l could tell you.
And l won't fail. You needn't be
afraid"
He counted out hundred and twen-
ty dollars, which he handed over to
her. She folded it and put it away in
her wristbag. The glow of her hadn't
faded, but once more it was turned on
something-or sOmeOne-else. 1t wasn't
until he rose little abruptly from the
marble bench that she reused herself
with shake Of the head, arose too,
and once more faced him.
You're right about our having to
hurry" she said, and before he could
find the first of the words he wanted,
she had given him that curt farewell
nod which from the first had stirred
and warmed him, and turned away
toward the door.
And she had never seen what was
fairly shining in his face.
She couldn't, of course, have missed
a thing as plain as that but for COM
plete preoccupation of thought and
feeling that would have left her OBJ
livious to almost anything that could
happen to her.
The flaming vortex of thoughts,
hopes, desires which envelOped her
was so intense as almost to evoke a
sense Of the physical presence of the
subject of them-of that big, powerful
minded, clean-souled husband of hers,
who loved her so rapturously, and who
had driven her away from him because
that rapture was the only thing he
would share with her.
Since she had left his house and
begun this new life of hers, she had,
as best she could, been fighting him
out Of her thoughts altogether. She
had shrunk from anything that car
ried association of him with it. That |
all thoughts and memories Of him
must necessarily be painful, she had |
taken for granted.
But with this sudden lighting up Of
hope, she flung the closed door wide
and called her husband back into her
thoughts. This hard thing that she
was going to do-this thing that meant
sleepless nights, and feverishly active
days-was an expression simply of
her love for him-a sacrificial offering
to be laid before the shrine of him
n her heart.
Yet, the fact that Roses heart was
racing and her nerves were tingling
with a newly welcomed sense of her
overs spiritual presence, did not pre-
vent her flying along west on Ran
lolph street and south again on the
vest side Of State, with very clear
Y visuallzed purpose. Half an hour
ater she hailed passing cab and de-
'osited in it one dressmaking form, a
luge bundle of paper cambric-in
lack, white and washed-Out blue, and
Ter own weary but still excited and
Xultant self.
1t was after eight o'clock when she
cached her room. Rehearsal was at
'ight-thirty and she had had nothing
o eat since noon. But she stole the
ime, nevertheless, to tear the wrap
Dings off her "form" and gaze on It's
nakednesS for two or three ,
minutes with contemplative eye. |
then, reluctantly-it was the first {
ime she had left that room with re- !
turned out the light and I
urried off to the little lunch room I
hat lay on the way to the dance hall. |
It was during that first rehearsal,
Which she so narrowly missed being \
ate for, that she got the general
chemes for both sets of costumes. ,
he began studying the girls for their |
ldividual pecuIiarities of style. Each t
ne of the costumes she made was go- {
lg to be for a particular girl.
At last when a shout from Gal +
raith aroused her to the fact that
he had missed an entrance cue alto a
ether, in her entranced absorption in I
lese visions of hers, and had caused i
lat objectionable thing, stage wait, I