Grand Forks herald., 1917-01-25

%&s;::s
(copyrixht, 1919. Robbs.Aierrill Col
CHAPTER XVII.
Rodney Gets q Clear View Of Himself.
1t was Rose herself who began this
correspondence with Rodney, within
q month Of her arrival in New York.
And Rodney, when he finished read
Ing her letter. tore it to pieces and
flung it into the fire. in transport
OF disappointment and anger. The
sight Of her writing on the envelope
had brought his heart into his mouth,
OF course. And when his shaking fin-
gers had got it open and he saw that
it indeed contained q letter from
her, beginning Dear Rodney" and
signed "Rose," the wild surge OF
hope that swept over him actually
turned him giddy. SO that it was two
or three minutes before he could
read it.
But the thing ran like another in
stallment Of the talk they had had in
Dubuque: She knew he had been
distressed over the shabbiness Of her
surroundings. knocking about with
that road company. and she was
afraid that in spite Of the assurance
she had then given him. he was still
worried about her. She was cure
he'd be glad to know that she'd quit
the stage for good. az an active per-
former upon it. at least; that she
was earning an excellent salary, $50
a week. doing a highly congenial
work which had good prospects Of
QdVQ nrAroanf In ~ Sha hol
comfortable little apartment (she
gave him the address of IT, and was
living In a way that-she had writ
ten-'even Harriet" but scratched
this out-"Frederica, for example.
would consider entirely respectable"
And she hoped he and the babies
were we'll.
It was not until hours afterward,
wnen the letter was an indistinguish-
able fluff Of white ash in the fire.
place. that it occurred to him that it
had no satirical intent whatever and
that the purpose of it had been, quite
simply. what it had pretended to- be:
namely, to reassure him and put an
end to his anxieties.
AS he had read it. in the reyulsion
from that literally sickening hope Of
his. 1t had seemed about the most
mordant piece of irony that had ever
been launched against him. The as
sumption Of it had seemed to be that
he was the most pitiable snoh in the
world; that all he'd cared for had
been that she'd disgraced him. He'd
be glad to know that she was once
more Respectable"
Well-this was the question which.
as said. he did not ask himself un-
til hours later--wasn't she justified
in believing that? Certainly that
night, In her little room on North
enough for thinking 30. But later,
in Dubuque?-Well, hadn't he quot
ed Harriet to her? Hadn't he offer
ed to help her as a favor to himself.
because he couldn't apdure it that
anything to her III heir two en-
counters but an uncontrolled animal
lust and a perfectly contemplate
vanity?
He bitterly regretted having de-
stroyed the ietter. But the tone of It,
he was sure, except for that we'll
merited jibe about Harriet, which had
been erased, was kindly Yet he had
acted. once more. like spoiled child
about it.
Could he write and thank her? In
Dubuque she had asked him not to
come back. Did that prohibition cover
writing? He decided to venture.
1t was due only to luck that he
hadn't DESTROYED her address with the
letter. But she had duplicated 1t on
the flap Of the envelop. and the en-
velop was not thrown in the fire.
He spent hours composing reply.
And the thing he finally sent of, once
It was committed to the post, seemed
quite the worst of all his efforts. His
impulse was to send another on the
heels Of it. But he waited q week.
then wrote again. And this time, the
stiffneV of self-consciousness was not
quite SO paralyzing. He managed to
give her a little real information
about the condition of the twins and
the household.
He experienced very vague. faint
satisfaction. two days later, over the
reflection that this letter was in her
hands. and he came presently to the
audacious resolution that until she
forbade him. he would go on writing
to her every week.
these letters with stiff little notes.
strictly limited to a bulletin Of her
own activities and a grateful ac-
acknowledgement of the latest one he
had sent her. Invariably, every
Tuesday morning, one of these notes
arrived. And this state of things
continued, unchanged. for months.
He experienced a bewildering mix
ture Of emotions over these letters
Of hers. They drove him. sometimes,
into outbursts Of petulant rage. Often
the knowledge that one Of them was
to be expected in the morning de-
livered him up. against all the resist
ance he could make, to Hood OF tor
menting memories Of her. And across
the mood the letter would find him
in. its cool little comm onplace would
sting like the cut Of a whip.
The mere facts her letters recount
ed aroused contradictory emotions in
and assurance, and almost from
week to week they marked advance
ment. The first effect Of this was
always to make his heart sink: to
make her seem farther away from
him; to make the possibility Of any
future need Of him that would give
him his opportunity seem more and
more remote. The other feeling,
whose glow he was never conscious
and irrational that he could hardly
call it by name-was pride. What
in Gods name had he to be proud
OF? Was she a possession OF hts
But the glow persisted IN spite or
these questions.
If Rodney had done an unthinkable
thing: IL he had kept copies Of his
letters to Rose. along with her an
swers. in a chronological file. he
would have made the discovery that
the stiffness Of those letters had
gradually worn away and that they
were now q good deal more than
mere pro forma bulletins. There had
crept into them, so subtly and so
gently that between one OF them and
the next no striking difference was