The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1917-06-22


without attracting her husbands at
tention; and for two hours and half
she listened, with mingled feelings, to
his argument. There was no use pre-
tending that she could follow her hus-
bands reasoning. Listening TO II had
something the same effect upon her
as watching some enormous, COM
plicated. smooth-running mass Of ma
chinery. She was conscious Of the
power Of 1t, though ignorant Of what
made II 60. and Of what 1t was &C
complishing.
The three stolid figures behind the
high mahogany bench seemed to be
following 1t attentively, though they
irritated her bitterly, sometimes, by In
dulging In whispered conversations.
And, presently, he just stopped talk
ing and began stacking up his notes.
The oldest judge mumbled something,
everybody stood up, and the three stiff,
formidable figures filed out by a side
door. 1t was all over.
But nothing had happened!
Rose had expected to leave the
courtroom in the blissful knowledge
Cf Rodney's victory or the acceptance
Of his defeat. In her surprise over the
failure Of this climax to materialiZe,
she almost neglected to make her es-
cape before he discovered her there.
One practical advantage she had
gained out Of what was, on the whole,
ratherunsatisfactor afternoon. When
she had gone home and changed into
the rort of frock she thought he'd like
and c,J -e downstairs in answer to his
shouted Erecting from the lower hall.
she didn't rsy, as otherwise she would
have done, How did it come our
Roddy? Did cru win?"
In the light ~ her newly acquiced
knowledge sh. could see how question
Vt that sort would irritate him. IL
stead Of that, she said: "You dear old
boy, how dog-tired you must be. Vow
do you think 1t went7 Do you Thur
you impressed them? bet you d'dr
And, not having been rubbed tsss
wrong way by a foolish question. Re
held her off with both hands fo- .
moment, then Rugged her up and tod
her she was q trump. ~ he'd 4 sort
Of uneasy feeling" he confessed, "that
after last night-the way I thfsw you
out of my Office. fairly, I'd find you-
tragic. might nave knoTn I csuld
count on you. Is there anywhere
we have got to got Or can we just
stay homer
He didn't want to founder through
an emotional morass. And the as
sumption that she couldn't walk beside
him on the main path Of his life was
just and sensible. But 1t wasn't good
enough for Rose.
So the very next morning she strip
ped the cover Off the first Of the law
books she had bought, and really went
to work. She bit down, angrily, the
yawns that blinded her eyes with tears
she made desperate efforts to fog her
mind into graphing with the endless
succession of meaningless pages
spread out before her, to find a gerru
of meaning somewhere in 1t that would
bring the dead verbiage to life. She
was very secretive about it; developed
IN almost morbid fear that Rodney
would discover what she was doins
and laugh his big laugh at her. She
resisted innumerable questions she
wanted to PROFOUND to him, from
fear that they'd betray her secret.
She even forbore to ask him about
the case; 1t was The Case in her mine
the one she knew about.
She discovered In the newspaper,
one day, column summary Of court
decisions that had been handed down /;
and though The Case wasn't In 1t, she
kept, froY that day forward, careful
watch, discovered where the legal news
was printed, and never overlooked a
Paragraph. And at last she found
it-just the bare statement: "Judg-
ment affirmed" Rodney, she knew,
had represented the appellant. H
was beaten.
For a moment the thing had bruised
her like blow. And then, all at once
In the indrawing Of single breath,
she saw 1t differently. She saw she
couldn't help him out Of his intellec
tual quandaries-yet. But under the
encouragement and lassitude of de-
feat, couldn't she help him? She re-
membered how many times she had
gone to him for help like that, and.
most notably, during the three or four
I'days Of an acute illness of her moth
er's, when she had been brought face
to face with the monstrous, incredible
possibility Of losing her, how she had
chung to him, how his tenderness had
soothed and quieted her.
He had never come to her like that,
She knew now 1t was a thing she had
unconsciously longed for. And to-
night she'd have chance! There was
a mounting excitement in her, as the
hours pascal thrilling suspense.
For two hours that afternoon, she
listened for his latchkey, and when
at last she heard it, she stole down
the stairs. He didn't shout her name
from the hall, as he often did.
No didn,t baor hor cOminQ md she