Middletown transcript., 1917-03-31
CHAPTER xxVl-Continued.

St1<AT En- N\vI@ConclnuS0.
10
When you 60 away" she said at
last, Il want you to- remember this.
I'm going to do my best, K. You have
taught me all know. All my life I'll
have to overlook things; 1 know that.
But, in his way, Palmer cares for me.
He will always come back, and perhaps
sometime"
Her voice traiied of. Far ahead of
her she saw the years stretching out,
marked, not by days and months, but
by Palmer's wanderings away, his re-
morseful returns.
DO little more than forgetting"
K. said. ''Try to care for him, Chris
tine. You did once. And that's your
strongest weapon. It's always a wom-
ans strongest weapon. Ard it wins in
the end"
Il shall try, H." she answered
Obediently.
But he turned away from the look
in her eyes.
Harriet was abroad. She had sent
cards from Paris to her trade" 1t
was an innovation. The two or three
people on the Street who received her
engraved announcement that she was
there, buying new chic models for the
autumn and Winter-afternoon frocks,
evening gowns, reception dresses, and
wraps, from Poiret, Martial ct Armand,
and Others" left the envelopes casual
ly on the parlOr table, as if communion
tions from Paris were quite to be eX-
pected.
, So K. lunched alone, and ate little.
Sidney came home at half-past two
came delicately flushed, as if she had
hurried, and with a tremulous smile
that caught Katie's eyes at once.
"Bless the child" she said. 'There's
no need to ask how he is today. You're
all one SMILE"
The smile set just a trifle.
katie, someone has written my
name out on the street, in chalk. It's
with Doctor Wilson's, and it looks so
silly. Please go out and sweep it off. )"
"rm about crazy with their old chalk.
I'll do it after while"
"Please do it now. don't want any
one to see it. Isis Mr.. X. upstairs p
But when she learned that X. was
upstairs, oddly enough, she did not go
up at once. She stood in the lower
hall and listened. Yes, he was there.
She could hear him moving about. Her
lipc fo6 81; ;uh hn iCfnn06
Christine, looking in from her bal
cony, saw her there, and, seeing some
thing in her face that she had never
suspected, put her hand to her throat.
SIDNEY"
"Oh-hello, Chris"
"Won't you come and sit with me?"
II haven't much time-that is, want
to speak to K"
"You can see him when he comes
down."
Sidney came slowly through the par
lor. 1t occurred to her, all at once,
that Christine must see lot of K,
especially now. No doubt he was in
and out of the house often. And how
pretty Christine was! She was un-
happy, too. All that seemed to be nee
essary to win KS attention was to be
unhappy enough. Well, surely, in that
case
"How is MAXI"
"Still better"
Sidney sat down on the edge of the
railing; but she was careful, Christine
saw, to face the staircase. There was
silence on the balcony. Christine
sewed Sidney sat and swung her feet
idly.
Doctor Ed says Max wants you to
give up your training and marry him
now."
"Tm not going to marry him at all,
Chris"
Upstairs, KS door slammed. 1t was
one Of his failings that he always
slammed doors. Harriet used to be
quite disagreeable about it.
Sidney slid from the railing.
"There he is now"
Perhaps, in all her frivolous, selfish
life. Christine had never had bigger
moment than the one that followed.