New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-06-08
XII.


The Door That Was to Open.
What n 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 a doctor
ana a nurse at first, Of course, but
presently they'd go away and she'd
be left with a baby. Her own baby .
She could care for him with her own
hands, feed him-her joy reached an
ecstasy Mt this-from her own breast.
Tint 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 u few short months now. Mean
while, she not only must wait
she could well afford to.
That was why she could listen with
that untr0ubled smile of hers to the
terrible things that Rodney and
'hiINo ihuilioiIu anu buIIt LIKE ulu
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 Il playwright. He was n slim, cool,
smiling, highly sophisticated young
man, who renounced all privileges as
an interpreter of life in favor of Pc
manning an unbiased observer of Il.
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 to
the mOrdant mercileSS realities with
which Doctor Randolph and Jimmy
indie rent t. it all.
"JiIn's pretty weird when he gets
going" Eleanor Randolph said to Fred
erica, on the next day after they had
been dining at the A%ldriches', but that
Barry Lake has Il sort of surgical way
of discussing just anything, and his
wifr'S as bad.
We 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 pathology
ical freaks. And then Rodney came
out strong for economic independence,
only with his own queer angle on it,
Of course, He thought it would be a
line thing, but 1t wouldn't happen I'M
Ill the men insisted on it. When a
girl wasn't regarded as marriageabld
inless she had been trained to a trade
N Il profession. then things would be-
lin to happen. | think he meant it,
90
"Well, and all the while there sat
Rose, taking it all in with those big
yes of hers, smiling to herself now
md then; saying things, too, some
ines. that were pretty good, though
''p'hy bui Jimmy Sf'lhtu W uIltltT-
tand. always, just what she meant.
talked before, those two. But
he was no more embarrassed than
$ If we'd been talking embroidery :
tltches."
SO far as externals went, her life,
spring, was immensely simplified.
he social demands upon her, which ;
ad been so insistent all winter, /,
topped almost automatically. The 5
reception was the Junior League show |
1 Easter week. for which she put in {
ute Il lot of work. She was to have
anced in 1t. r
This Is an annual entertainment |
Y which Chicago sets great store. All
he smartest and best-lOoking of the
Dunger set take part in it. in cos r
ines that would do credit to a chorus t
resser. and as much Of Chicago as t
willing and able to pay five dollars a
seat for the privilege Is welcome n
come and look. DeliriOus weeks f
re spent in rehearsal. under n first I
ass professional director; audience b
nd performers have an equally good II
Inc, and Charity, as residuary lega- "
u. profits by thousands. Ct
Rose dropped in at a rehearsal one Il
~ at the end of a solid two hours a
committee work, found it unexpect-
lily amusing. and made a point, there a
ter, of attending when she could. Fl
er interest was heightened, if not h
actuated, by some things jim 81
y Wallace had been telling her late
about how such things were done n
the real stage. m
He had written a musical comedy W
ice, lived through the production of Ell
and had spent a hard-earned two
eeks' vacation trOuping with it on lie