The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1919-05-01
CHAPTER Vii--contInued.


The windstorm the previous week
had made a s~ickening devastation OF
her iabors. The morning glories alone
were scatheless. A pink oleander
dropped many broken branches from
which miracles of perfect flowers were
unfolding. The. prettiest blossom to
Hardin was the gardener herself. She
was vivid from eager toll. Hardin
looked at her approbatively. He liked
her khaki suit, simple as a uniform,
with Cts flowing black tie and leather
belt. She looked more like herself to-
day. She had bieached out, In Tucson.
She had been letting herself get too
tanned, running around without hats.
Sunburn paled the value OF those
splendid eyes Of hers. He could always
tease her by llkening then, to topazes.
His eyes ran over the pink and pur-
pie lines of cord-trained vines which
made floral screens for her tent. Free
of the strings overhead, they rioted
over the ramada. the second roof. of
living boughs. He acknowledged their
beauty. They gave grace to bare ne
cessity: they denied the painting.
thirsty desert just beyond.
He remembered his own ramada.
Gerty had hated II, had complained of
u so bitterly when she came home
from New York that he had had II
pulled down and replaced by a v roof
of pine boards, glaring and ugly. Gerry
was satisfied. for II was clean; she no
honger felt that she lived In a squaw
house. Let the Indians have ramadas ;
there was no earthly reason she should.
He had urged that the desert dwellers
had valuable hints to give them. But
what was a remada to him. or anything
elsef Hardin turned to leave.
She did not want him to go so 20
She pointed out a new vine to him.
She had brought Il from Tucson:
~kudzu." they called It: q Japanese
vine. And there was another broken
rose, quite beyond the help Of stripped
hsndkerchiefs and mesQuIt splints.
! He followed her around the tent, her
psattle falling from his grim mood. He
was not thinking Of her flowers except
as q hooking parallel. The desert
storm had made a havoc OF his garden
Ia sorry botch Of his life. He and
snDes had been trying to make a gar
Gen out OF q desert: the desert had
xiouted them. II was not his fault.
Something had happened: something
quito beyond his power. Luck was
aurning against him
! HINES. why. she was playing as with
b toy. II was the natural instinct of a
~uman 20 make things pretty around
hes. But hs had sacrificed his youth.
Aks shenceS His domestic life. too
I'm should never have carried a dainty
kkaaAe voman like Gerry into the des-
ERA He had never reproached her for
saving him. even last time when he
Thought Il vas for good The word
burned his wound. Whose goodf His
~ 0erty'sf Somehow. though they
wrangied. he always knew Il would
tuzn out all right; life would run
smoothly when they left the desert.
.5ut things were getting worse: his
tao0th puckered over some recollec-
tions. Yet he loved Gerty !: he couldn't
picture life without her. He decided
that n was beenuss there had never
been anyone else. Most fellows had
had s~weethearty before they married;
be had mot o . mistress when she
sefs him, though God knows. It would
have been easy enough. His mouth
ssa into sardonic Inca Those half
brood womsni No one sven when q
dtvoTes had hung ' him. Oh. he
kDew what their friends made Of each
- GeFty's Heightened flights; he knewi
ssut that had been spared him. that
vulgar grisIy spectacle Of modern life
wnsn two people who have been lovers
rag the carcass Of their love over the
urfmy 6ooR Of . curious gaping court
BE shuddered. Gerry loved him. Else.
WY had shs come back to himi Why
hid she noe kept her threat when he
refused 10 abandon his desert project
md turn bis abilities into q more
dsdicationf He could see
her face a. she stared Gushing up into
VI that nipping cold day when he had
IN into her on Broadway. He remem-
pered her coQuetry when she suggest
a that there was plenty OF r3em IN
ler apartment His wifei She spoke
e seefng his pictures In the papers.
80 bad grown to be q great mani"
tAnt niQuAnt nlsetng the week fol