Meade County news., 1917-08-30
the year that put Der On the highroad

the year that put her ON the highroat
to success as q designer of costumes
for the theater was good life, broad
enlng, stimulating, seasoning. It rest
ed, to begin with, on foundation OF
adequate material comfort which the
unwonted physical privations of the six
months that preceded it made seem
like positive luxury.
For several months after she came to
New York to work for Galbralth she
found him martinez. She never once
caught that twinkling CLEAN of under
standing in his eye which had meant
so much to her during the rehearsals
of "The Girl Upstairs" His manner
toward her carried out the tone of the
letter she'd got from him in Chi
cago. 1t was stiff, 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
i'm excuse for 1t. Working for him IN
this mood gave her the uneasy sensa-
tion 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 rehearsal, to
talk over change in one of the num-
bers Rose had been working on. 1t re-
fused to come out satisfactorily. Rose
thought she saw way of doing it that
would work better, and she had been
telling him about 1t. Eagerly, at first.
and with q limpid directness which,
however, became clouded and troubled
when she felt he wasn't paying atten-
tlon. 1t was a difficulty with him she
had encountered before.
But tonight, after an angry turn
down the aisle and back, he suddenly
cried out: az don't know. / don't
know what you've been talking about.
l don't know, and 1 don't care" And
then, confronting her, their faces not
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-llght of
the auditorium almost like an ami
mails, he demanded: "Can you see
what's the matter with me? Haven't
you seen it YETI"
OF course she saw 1t now, plainly
enough. She sat down again, man
aging an air of dellberation about it,
and gripped the back Of the orchestra
chair in front of her. He remained
standing over her there in the aisle.
When the heightenlng tension of the
silence that followed this outburst had
grown absolutely uncomfortable, she
spoke. But the only thing she could
find to say was almost ludicrously in
adequate.
mo, I didn't see It until now. I'm
sorry"
"You didn't see It," he echoed. IT
know you didn't. You've never seen
me at all, from the beginning, as any
thing but a machine. But why haven't
you? You're q woman. If / ever saw
a woman in my life, you're one all the
way through. Why couldn't you see
that was man? 1t 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
:"
81 suppose ought to have seen," she
said duly. "Ought to have known that
that was all there was to it. But 1
didn't"
"Well, you see it now," he said saw
agely fairly, and strobe away up the
aisle and then back to her. He sat
down in the seat in front of her and
turned around. 81 want to see your
face" he said. "There's something
I've got to know. Something you've
got to tell me. You said once, back
there in Chicago, that there was only
one person who really mattered to you.
want to know who that person Is.
What he is. Whether he's still the one
person who really matters. If he isn't,
Ill take my chance"
Remembering the scene afterward,
Rose was a 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 I'M
til 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.
1 was in love with him when / 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
1t. And every failure is just something
hope l would make him understand
and not desplse me for. It's months
since I've seen him, but there isn't a
day, there isn't an hour in day, when
l don't think about him and-want
him. don't know whether I'll ever see
him again, but If don't, it won't make
any difference with that. That's why 1
didn't see what I might have seen about
you. 1t wasn't possible for me to see.
I'd never have seen 1t II you hadn't
told me in so many words, like this. Do
you see now?"
1. \