Tombstone epitaph., 1917-12-09

the year tnnt put her on the highrOau to success ns . designer of costumes for the theater was good life. broad ening. stimulating. seasoning. It rest ed. to begin with. on . foundation of adequate material comfort which the unwontcd physical privations of the six months that preceded 1t made seem like positive luxury.
 For several months after she came to New York to work for GalbrHith she found him . martinet. She never once caught that twinkling gleam of under standing in his eye which had meant so much to her during the rehearsals of "'rhc Girl Upstairs" His manner toward her carried out the tone of the letter shed got from him in Chi cago. It was stlff. formal. severe. He seldom praised her work. and never ungrudgingly. His censure was rare. too. to be sure. but this obviously was because Rose almost never gave him m excuse for 1t. Working for him in this mood gave her the uneasy sensa- ton one experiences when walking abroad under a sultry, overcast sky. with mutterings and flashes in 1t. And then one night the storm broke. They had fingered in the theater after the dismissal of a rehearsal. to talk over a change in one of the num- bers Rose had been working on. It re- fused to come out satisfactorily. Rose thought she saw way of doing 1t that would work better. and she had been telling him about 1t. Eagerly. at first. and with a limpid directness which. however. became clouded and troubled when she felt he wasn't paying atten- ton. It was a difficulty with him she had encountered before.
 But tonight. after an angry turn down the aisle and back, he suddenly cried out: "I don't know. don't know what you've been talking about. l don't know. and don't care" And then, confronting her. their faces not a foot apart. for by now she had got to her feet his hands gripped together and shaking. his teeth clenched. his eyes glowing there in the half-light of | the auditorium almost like an ani- malls, he demanded: ''Can you see what's the matter with me? Haven't you seen 1t yet?"
 Of course she saw 1t now. plainly enough. She sat down again. man. aging an air of deliberation about it. and sripped the back of the orchestra chair in front of her. He remained standing over her there in the aisle. When the heightening tension of the silence that followed this outburst had grown absolutely uncomfortable. she | spoke. But the only thing she could i find to say was almost ludicrously in- adequate.
 No. I didn't see 1t until now. I'm sorry
 You didn't see it." he echoed. "I know you didn't. You've never seen me at all, from the beginning. as any | thing but machine. But why haven't YOU? You're a woman. If l ever saw q woman in my life. you're one all the way through. Why couldn't you see | that was q man? IL isn't because I've | got gray hair. nor because I'm fifty years old. don't believe you're like | that. But even back there in Chicago. ! the night we walked down the avenue | from that store-or the night we { had supper together after the show | .i suppose I ought 10 have seen," she | said dully fought to have known that that was all there was to 1t. But I | didn't"
 "Well, you see it now." he said sav- agely fairly. and strode away up the aisle and then back to her. He sat ' down in the seat in front of her and | turned around. T want to see your face" he said. There's something | I've got 10 know. Something you've got ;o tell me. You said once, back tkere in Chicago. that there was only one person who really mattered 10 you. I want to know who that person Is. ] What he is. Whether he's still the one person who really matters. If he isn't, I'll take my chance"
 Remembering the scene afterward. Rose was little surprised that she'd been able to answer him as she did,
 without hesitation or stammer. and
 with a straight gaze that held his un-
 Ill she had finished.
 ''The only person in the world" she
 said, "who ever has mattered to me, or
 ever will matter, is my husband. l fell in love with him the day met him.
 was Tn love with him when l left
 him. I'm in love with him now. Every
 thing do that's any good Is just some
 thing he might be proud of if he knew
 it. And every failure is just something
 I hope I would make him understand
 and not despise me for. It's months
 since I've seen him, but there isn't a
 day, there Isn't an hour in a day, when
 I don't think about him and-want
 him. l don't know whether I'll ever see
 him again, but if don't, 1t won't make any difference with that. That's why l
 didn't see what might have seen about
 you. It wasn't possible for me to see.
 I'd never have seen it if you hadn't
 told me in so many words, like this. Do
 you see nOw?
 He turned away from her with a nod.
 and put his hands up to his face. She
 waited a moment to see whether he
 had anything else to say. for the habit
 of waiting for his dismissal was too
 strong to be broken even for a situa-