The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-31

silly, but he wouldn't object. You
see, we've known Mr.. Judson for e
long time-he's such "a nice old
bachelor-and-we1l, had tea with
him yesterday, and you know now
cold it was. He said 1 ought to have
heavier coat, and I said l didn't
have one, so he slipped out his check
book and when no one was looking
wrote this out.t He tucked it into my
purse when he handed me into the
taxi. He always sends me home in
a taxi, of course"
back?''
How ridiculous. It's to buy
coat with. / can get a rather nice
sealskin for that. II isn't as If he
had q wife, or as il anyone would
misunderstood. And Bob-tho Il
haven't told him about the coat
told me he didn't in the least mind
my having tea with Mr.. Judson. He
said he didn't in the least mind hav-
ing him do nice things for me. He
knows as well as do that a girl can't
poke at home all the time. Husbands
nowadays are SO much broader than
they used to be. Your Jack would be
just the same If he lost his money.
Do you imagine that you'd pine away
just because he couldn't afford to take
you about, or that you'd always walk
just because he couldn't pay your
taxi fares? Another friend of Bob's
sends me matinee tickets occasionally.
Bob knows it, of course"
'It must be very interesting" ad-
mitted Julie, rising and putting on
her gloves. LAS long as Bob really
knows that it's perfectly all right. Do
let me know about the fur coat. Do
you really think I'd do that if Jack
were poor?"
sine, after having taken Geraldine to
her small apartment, Julie pondered
over her friends confession. She was
quite sure that Geraldine was right
Geraldine always was-and proba bly,
she, too, would go to tea with other
men If Jack could no longer afford to
give her a good time" She wasn't so
sure about the fur coat. Perhaps she
could have enough coats on hand
when the crash came so that that
wouldn't be necessary. Then she
thought of the quiet dinner that she
and Jack were to spend together. and
the quiet evening afterward, and the
many, many quiet evenings that would
follow. 1t seemed, as she thought of
1t, that maybe Geraldine's misfortune
was not so crushing, after all. For
| with it came freedom and gaiety. Her
| own Jack did not take her about, tho
he could well afford it. If he couldn't
afford it, he would let other men take
her to places-Geraldine had assured
her Of that-and then she and Geral-
dine would meet each other at hotels
with benevolent, kindly disposed peo-
pie like Mr.. Judson. and there they
would dance to their hearts content.
For several weeks Julie could not
get theidea of this possibility of free
dom and enjoyment from her mind,
and before long she began actually to
feel envy of Geraldine, instead of the
-
heard of her loss of fortune. At least
| il Jack should lose his fortune there
| would be an end of the deadly routine.
He would have to work nights, like
Bob, and there would be a chance for
diversion and amusement. To jules
youthful mind, the picture was allur-
| ing, and sometimes in her dreams of
the possibility of such enjoyment, Jack
| would catch her gazing off into space
and she would come back with a guilty
little laugh.
Then one day Jack telephoned, with
tired, 1oyless note in his voice, that
he would have to work that night,
For several nights in succession he
| had to work, and Julie saw him only
| at breakfast, when he was too deep
| in the stock quotations to be interested
in her girlish prattle. Here were the
symptoms Of the financial reverses
| that Julie had been thinking about
And after Jacks moodiness had con-
| tinued for three or four weeks, and he
| had confessed that the cause of his
preoccupation was financial worry
and had actually got her to sign over
to him the house he had given her
Julie knew that the time had come
her pluck. 1t was actually her duty
to Jack, Geraldine had convinced her
not to NOPE at home. There was moth
ing SO gloomy to a husband on the
brink of financial failure, Geraldine
had told her, as wife as worried and
| detected as himself.
When Julie had planned a bit be-
fore, it seemed quite easy-making tea
dates with her husbands friends and
| discovering old bachelors willing tc
make out checks for sealskin coats
But apparently Jacks friends were
different from Bob's, and tho Julie
assumed her most debonnaire manner
when she met Jacks associates, there
were no tea dates. And when, at hel
own suggestion, she Joined Geraldine
and Bob for little dinner party Al
which a few men friends of Bob.
were also present, she had no better
success. and her dinner companion
talked necessarily of Jack. A1tho she
knew it was not intentional, she fell
that she had been reproved by hin
for ever having thought of seeking
any other mans society. Still Julie
wanted to be modern, and she wanted
to be like Geraldine. her idol But the
effort told upon her, and altho she
wore her prettiest clothes and was al
all times animated in her mood, the
dark circles under her blue eye.
widened and the tiny wrinkles thai
always showed on her fair forehead
when she had lost little weight, be.
i came more and more apparent.
1t was one night at dinner when she
had not seen Jack, excepting at break
fast, for more than two weeks.
The beginning of the end came
when she told Jack that she thought
it was only fair to her that he should
tell her all" She had, tho she die
not tell him, gone over her entire
possessions and had made a list OF
those she could sell and had made al
mental plans to move out of the house
at short notice. Jack answered by
saying that he was sure she had beer