The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1917-03-16

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 note from
the Office in the morning:
1 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 do 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 hcsitated 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 *. felt that he
would have to give her up soon.
At three o'clock one morning Sidney
reused from a light sleep to hear
rapping on her door.
SIS that you, Aunt Harriet?" she
called.
'It's Christine. May 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.
IT hoped my clock was wrong" she
said. II am sorry to walen you, Sid
ney, but don't know what to do"
"Are you ill?"
"No. 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 you?"
Don't I 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,
don't believe it'll"
believe it or not" said Christine
doggedly, "that's exactly what has hap
pened. I got something out of that
little rat of a 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 world, and that out of these
some were inevitably vicious. But vice
had remained for her Il 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.
"It isn't fair" she cried. ''It makes
me hate all the men in the world.
Palmer cares for you, and yet he can
do thing like this!"
Christine was pacing nervously up
and down the room. Mere companion
ship had soothed her. She was now,
on tine 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.
II am sorry to be 50 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
was hanging inert by his side.