New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-06-01
CHAPTER x.
A Birthday.

A Birthday.
Rodney heard young Craig, VIII
irviIrd up law for han, saying Gooc
night TO the Steno9raph"r. III" Walt"'
tiii he heard them 90, then went ont
nnI disconnected his own desk t"lr-
phone. which the office boy, ON g"in-
hunc, always left plugged through
went back to his inner office again. and
>iiul tn" door after him,
IIicr" was more than enough press
nag ~nrk ON his desk to I'LL the cl"al
hour that remained to him b"for" ne
had 10 etnrt for home. But he didn't
mean to do it. H." didn't mean 10 du
anything except to drink down thirStily
The Sixty minutes of plr" sulitul" that
vert. before him. That hour had be-
romr 4 habit with him lately, like
he smiled 1T ti" c0miHriSOn-lik" tax
ing Il drug. lie WAS furtiv" about 1t.
too. He never corrected Roses as
sumption tIIat the thing which kept
itim bate at the office 50 much of the
tiun" nowadays WAS Il press OF work.
II was not that She had fuded for
him -brcom" less The poignant, vivid,
irrcSistihlc thing he had first fallen in
love with. Rather the contrary, Sh"
hadn't seemed quite well, lntrly, nor
altogether happy, and he had not
been able to find out why. He had
attributed ii at first to the shock oc-
rnsioncd by her motl,rr'S Illness and
her departure with pnrtia to Falifor-
mia but this explanation seemed not
10 cover the ground. She was all right,
She always said. He couldn't force
confidence from her, of course. But her
pate face and eyes wide with II trou-
bic ia them he could not fathom,
stirred something deeper in him than
the former glow and glory had ever
reached.
And there was II new thing that
griIIped him in Il positively terrifying
way II realization of his import ince
10 her. He had discovered II day-a
fortnight or SO ago. in the course OF
II rummnge after some article he had
lttNtsii'l, u hNhp vi i"" '''e
weren't his. He had guessed the eX-
@pianation Of them, but had snid moth
Ing to Rose about it-hud found it
r%uriously impossible to say anything.
IL only she had taken up something
Of her own, 1t seemed rs essentially
a law of her being to attempt to alb
$nrb herself in him, AS it was n law
of his to resist that absorption Of him
sell in her.
f:ul resistance was difficult. The
tendency was, after his perfectly
solid. recognizable duties had been
civen their place in the cubic content
Of his day. that Rose should fill up the
rest. And yet there was a man In
ing. successful advocate, nor Roses
iiuShnnd-a man who's" existence Rose
Il du't seem to suspect. WAS there.
tiicn. in her no wOman that CORE
-pondcd to himD That man had to
fight now for n chance to breathe.
lie got II pipe out of "A 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? :.
Then, with Il grunt of relief and amuse-
ncut. lie got it. 1t was his birthday.
Another milestone.
A year ago! That was the day it
had all begun. How did he compare
The man who sat there now-yith the
who had unhesitatingly jumped
,ff the car to follow Il new adventure
.hp man who had turned up water
at Frederica's dinner and made
hay of her plan to marry him off to
Hcrmione Woodruff
lie was increasing his practice now,
making money, getting cautious-pru-
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 it were gone. He
was in harness, drawing u cart; fol-
Il bundle of hay.
The building was pretty well de-
serted by now. and against the silence
he heard the buZzer in his telephone
proclaiming insistently
That someone was trying to get him
IN the phone. He thought at first he /
wouldn't answer. He didn't want to
talk to anybody. But no one can re-
,ist the mechanical bell ringers they
use in exchanges nowadays-the even
spaced ring and wait, ring and wait.
10 manifestly incapable of discourage
nent. At the end of fOrty-iive sec
,nds. he snatched open his door,
punched the jack into its socket,
,augilt up the head piece, and bel
owed Hello" into the dangling
.ransmitter.
And five minutes later he was call
ng Rose Oh the wire. Rose, listen
o thisI Barry Lake and his wife are
acre. He just called up. They got In