New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-07-20

HIS Eyes Olont once seek her ace.
voice lacking a little of the ridiculous
stiffness Of his words, not much. as
there some place where we can talk Il
little more-privately than here?
shan't keep you long"
there's a room here somewhere"
she said.
The room she led him to was an ap-
propriately preposterous setting for
the altogether preposterOus talk that
ensued between them. 1t had a mosaic
floor with a red plush carpet on it, two
s~tained-glass windows in yellow and
green, thanking an oak mantel which
framed an enormous expanse of mot
tied purple tile. with a dimlnutive gas
log in the middle. A glassy-lOOking
oak table occupied most of the room,
and the chairs that were crowded in
around 1t were upholstered In highly
polished coffee-cOlored horse-hide, with
very ornate nails.
"It's dreadfully hot in here" Rose
said. You'd better take off your coat"
She squeezed in between the table and
one of the chairs and seated herself.
Rodney threw down his wet hat, his
newspaper, and then his r%aincOat, on
the table, and slid into a chair Oppo-
site her.
Il want to tell you first" Rodney
said, and his manner was that of a
%schoolboy reciting to his teacher an
apology which has been rehearsed at
home under the sanction of paternal
authority-"I want to tell you how
deeply sorry I am for . . :"
He had his newspaper in his hands
again and was twisting it up. His eyes
didn't once seek her face. But they
because her own were fixed on his
hands and the newspaper they crum-
pied.
He didn't presume to ask her for
%giveness, he told her. He couldn't ex-
pect that at least not at present. He
went on lamely, in broken sentences,
repeating what he'd said already in
still more inadequate words. He was
unable to stop talking until she should
say something, it hardly mattered
what. And she was unable to say any
thing.
The %formality of his phrases got
sitter and finally CONCEALED into a
blank silence.
Finally she said, with a gasp: II
have something to ask you tb-forgive
for. That's for leaving you to find
Out-where l was, the way you did.
You see, l thought at first that no one
would know me, made up and all. And
when 1 found out I would be recog-
nizable, it was too late to stop-Or at
least 1t seemed so. Besides, l thought |
you knew. 1 saw Jimmy Wallace out
there the opening night, and saw he
recognized me-, and-I thought he'd
tell you. And then l kept seeing other
people out in front after that, people
we knew, who'd come to see for them
and l thought, Of course, you
knew. And-I suppose I was a cow
ard waited for you to come. l
wasn't, as you thought, trying to hurt
you. But l can e how it must have
like that"
He said quickly: you're not to
blame at all. l remember how you Of
fered to tell me what you intended to
do before you went away, and that l
wouldn't let YOU"
Silence frOze down upon them
again.
Il can't forgive myself" he said at
asst. s." want to take back the things
said that night-abOut being dis
,raced and all. I was angry over not
known when the other people
lid. 1t wasn't your being on the stage.
We're not as bigoted as that.
"Tve come to ask a favor of you,
and that is that you'll let me
let us all-help you. I can't-bear
you live like this, knocking
about like this, where all sorts of
.hings car happen to you. And going
lnder an assumed name. I've no
light to ask a favor, I know, but 1 do.
ask you to take your own name again