The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-08-30

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toward her carried out the tone OF ehe
letter she'd got from him In Chi.
cago. II was stiff formal. severe. He
seldom praised her work, and never
ungrudglngly. His censure was rare
too, to be sure but this obviously was
because Rose almost never gave lin
nm excuse for II. Working for him In
this mood gave her the uneasy sensa'
tion one experiences when walking
abroad under sultry, overcast sky
with mutterlngs 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 1t that
would work better, and she had been
telling him about II. Eagerly, at first,
and with llmpid directness which,
however, became clouded and troubled
when she felt he wasn't paying atten-
tlon. 1t was difficulty with him she
had encountered before.
But tonight, after an angry turn
down the aisle and back, he suddenly
cried out: 81 don't know. | don't
know what you've been talking about.
/ 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-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 It 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 helehtening 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 ludlcrously in
adequate.
mo, didn't see It until now. I'm
sorry"
"You didn't see IT," he echoed. 81
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 woman. II l ever saw
woman in my life, you're one all the
way through. Why couldn't you see
that was man? II isn't because I've
got gray hair, nor because I'm fifty
years old. 1 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 1t. But l
didn't"
"Well, you see II 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 ana
turned around. ~ want to see your
face" he said. "There's something
I've got to know. Something you've
got ~ tell me. You said once, back
there iL 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. II 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 a hesitation or stammer, and
with a straight gaze that held his I'M
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 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 II he knew
1t. And every failure is just something
| hope l would make him understand
and not despise Inc for. It's months
since I've seen him, but there isn't n
day, there isn't an hour in day, when
don't think about him and-want