Middletown transcript., 1917-05-26
CHAPTER XII.

The Door That Was to Open.
What a silly little idiot she'd been
not. to have seen the thing for her
self! She'd been, all the while, beat
ing her head against blind walls when
there was a door there waiting to
open of itself when the time came.
Motherhood! There'd be doctor
and a nurse at first, Of course, but
presently they'd go away and she'd
be left with baby. Her own baby |!
She could care for him with her own
hands, feed him-her JOY reached an
ecstasy at this-from her own breast.
That life which Rodney led apart
from her, the life into which she had
tried with such ludicrous unsuccess
to effect an entrance, was nothing to
this new life which was to open before
her in few short months now. Mean
while, she not only must wait
she could well afford to.
That was why she could listen with
that untroubled smile of hers to the
terrible things that Rodney and
James Randolph and Barry Lake and
Jane got into the way of hurting
across her dinner table, and to the
more mildly expressed but equally
alkaline cynicisms Of Jimmy Wallace.
Jimmy was dramatic critic on one
Of the evening papers as well as a bit
of q playwright. He was slim, cool
smiling, highly sophisticated young
man, who renounced all privileges as
an interpreter of life in favor Of re-
naming an unbiased observer Of It,
He never bothered to speculate about
what you ought to do-he waited tO
see what you did.
Well, in the light of the miraculous
transformation that lay before her
Rose could listen undaunted to the
tough philosophizings her husband and
Barry Lake delighted in as well as tc
the mordant merciless realities with
which Doctor Randolph and Jimmy
Wallace confirmed them. She wasn'1
Indifferent to it oil.
|
going," Eleanor Randolph said to Fred
erica, on the next day after they had
been dining at the Aldriches', 'but thai
Barry Lake has a sort of surgical way
of discussing just anything, and his
wife's as bad.
eve never got off women all the
evening. Barry Lake had their his
tory down from the early Egyptians
and Jim got off a string of patholog
ical freaks. And then Rodney came
out strong for economic independence
only with his own queer angle on it
of course. He thought 1t would be {
fine thing, but it wouldn't happen un
til the men insisted on it. When 6
girl wasn't regarded as marriageablt
unless she had been trained to a trade
or a profession, then things would be
gin to happen. I think he meant it
too.
"Well, and all the while there sa
Rose, taking it all in with those biz
eyes Of hers, smiling to herself nov
and then; saying things, too, some
times, that were pretty good, though
nobody but Jimmy seemed to under
stand, always, just what she meant
They've talked before, those two. Blu
she was no more embarrassed thar
as if we'd been talking embroider,
stitches"
So far as externals went, her life
that spring, was immensely simplified
The social demands upon her, whicl
had been so insistent all winter
stopped almost automatically. TIL,
exception was the Junior League SHOW
in Easter week, for which she put il
quite lot of work. She was to hav,
danced in it.
This is an annual entertainment
by which Chicago sets great store. AL
the smartest and best-looking of tn
younger set take part in 1t, In cos
tunes that would do credit to a choru.
dresser, and as much Of Chicago q!
is willing and able to pay five dollar!
seat for the privilege is welcom,
to come and look. Delirious week!
are spent in rehearsal, under first
class professional director; audience
and performers have an equally goot
time, and Charity, as residuary lega
tee. profits by thousands.
Rose dropped in at a rehearsal ont
day at the end Of solid two hour!
of committee work, found it unexpect
edly amusing, and made point, there
after of attending when she could
Her interest was heightened, if no
wholly actuated, by some things Jim
my Wallace had been telling her late
ly about how such things were don'
on the real stage.
He had written a musical coined!
,nce, lived through the production O.
t, and had spent a hard-earned TIVE