The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1918-01-31
CHAPTER x.
A Birthday,

NohltS H'uIu young NTulG, WHO
tieviled up law for him, saying good
night to the stenographer. He waited
till he heard them go, then ven out
md disconnected his own desk tele-
phone, which the Office boy, on going
home, always left plugged through !;
went back to his inner office again, and
shut the door after him.
There was more than enough press.
ing work on his desk to I'LL the clear
hour that remained to him before he
had to start for home. But he didn't
mean to do t.. He didn't mean to do
anything except to drink down thirstily
the sixty minutes Of pure solitude that
were before him. That hour had be-
come n habit with him lately, like
ne smiled ut the comparison-like TAX
ing "A drug. He was furtive about It,
too. He never corrected Roses as.
sumption that the thing which kept
him late at the office so much of the
time nowadays was a press of work.
1t was not that she had faded for
h~im-bccome less the poignant, vivid,
irresistible thing he had first fallen In
love with. Rather the contrary. She
hadn't seemed quite well, lately, nor
altogether happy, and he had not
been able to find out why. He had
attributed II at first to the shock oc-
casloncd by her mothers illness and
her departure with Portia to Cnllfor-
mia hut this explanation seemed not
to V the ground. She was all right,
she always said. He couldn't force
confidence from her, Of course. But her
pale face and eyes wide with II trou-
bile In them he could not futhom,
stirred something deeper In him than
the former glow and glory had ever
reached.
And there was n new thing that
gripped him In n positively terrifying
wny-a realization of his importance
to her. He had discovered n day-a
fortnight or so ago. In the course Of
a rummuge after some article he had
miSlaid, Il heap of law books that
weren't his. He had guessed the ex
PLANTATION of them, but had said moth
ing to Rose about it-had found II
r~uriouSly impossible to say anything.
II only she had taken up something
Of her own! II seemed as essentially
II law of her being to attempt to ab-
Sorb herself in him, as 1t was II law
If his to resist that absorption of him
self in her.
But resistance was difficult. The
tendency was, after his perfectly
Z.Iil uncomfortable IntiaS had hnnU
given their place In the cubic content
Of his day. that Rose should MI up the
rest. And yet there was Il man In
him who was neither the hard-wOrk.
ing. successful advocate, nor Roses
huSbnnd-a man whose existence Rose
didn't seem to suspect. (Wns there,
then, in her no woman that CORE
spondcd to himO That man had 20
fight now for Il chance TO breathe.
He gOt n pipe out Of n drawer In
his desk, loaded and lighted IT.
stretched his arms, and sat down In
his desk chair. The thing exactly In
front of his eyes was his desk calendar
There was something familiar about
the dntc-some "subcOnscious ussocia'
ton that couldn't quite rise 10 the sur
face. Was there something he had "a
do today, that he'd forgotten? .
Then, with n grunt Of relief and amuse'
mcnt, he got It. II was his birthday
Another milestone.
A year ago! That ~ the day II
had all begun. How did he compare
the man. who sat there now-wlth the
man who had unhcsitntingly jumped
on the ear to follow u new udycn urc-
the man who had turned w water
logged at Frcderlca'S dinner and made
hay Of her plan to marry him of to
Hcrmi0nc Woodruff!
lie was increasing his practice now.
making money, getting eautious-pru'
dent h" didn't holt the track any
more. Aud the quality of his work
was good; he couldn't quarrel with
that. Only, the old, big free dreams
that had glorliied IL were gone. lie
was In harness, drawing II cart; fol-
lowing II bundle of hay.
The building was pretty well de
serted by now, and against III" silence
H. heard the huZzcr in his telephone
switchboard proclIlming tnslstently
that someone was trying to get him
=H t1.N l-,.. 4 h.I nj frat ha