The Pulaskian., 1919-04-04

'
 T did try" began Innes.
 ''Yours is good enough for anyone. Why should you get anotherY' He was openly admiring the ample bust swelling under the pink gingham.
 Don't, Tom.''
 Innes tried to explain the sincerity of her search. She had visited every store (which might be suspected of having a figure" She could not bring smile to her sisters face. "There was none your size. They offered to order one from Chicago. They have to be made to order, if they are special sizes. You are not stock size, did you know that?'
 T should think not" cried Gerty, bridling. My waist is absurdly small for the size of my hips and shoulders"
 Innes wondered if it would be safe to agree with her.
 ''When will it be here?"
 'You'll be disappointed" Innes found herself stammering 'But not for six weeks. I did not know whether to order it or not"
 And in Los Angeles with my sum- mer sewing all done! What good will it do me then?' The pretty eyes looked ready for childish tears.
 T know. That is, I didn't know what to do," apologized Inr.es Hardin. ''I decided to order it as To found the place, and was right there, but I made sure that I could countermand the or der by telegram. So I can this very afternoon. I knew you would be dis appointed. was sorry" 'Tll need it next winter" admitted Gerty, helping herself to some of the chilled tomatoes. 'I'm sure 3'm much obliged to you. hope it did not put l you to much trouble"
 Thee words raised the wall of for mality again. Innes bent over her plate.
 What made you change your plans? ?" suddenly demanded his wife of Hardin. "When Sam came in with your bag, he surprised me SO" My boss kept me-" Hardin's face looked coarse, roughened by his ugly passion. "Rickard, your old friend. He served subpoena on me at the station"
 "oh," cried Gerty. "surely, he did not do that, Tom!'
 Sure he did" Hardins face was black with his evil mood. "I'm only an underling, a disgraced underling. He's my boss. He's going to make me re- member it."
 You mustn't say such things pout- ed his wife. "If it does not hurt you, if you do not care, think how I must 1 feel"
 "Oh, rotr" exclaimed Hardin. The veneer was rubbed down to the rough wood. Innes saw the coarseness her mother had complained of, the Gingg fiber.
 q suppose you think I like to take orders, to jump at the snap of the whipY" He was deliberately beating up his anger into froth. "Oh, sure, | do. That's a Hardin, through and through"
 Again the angry blood flooded his wife's cheeks. He, too, was throwing the boarding house at her.
 ''You Qid it yourself" Gerty with difficulty was withholding the angry tears. q told you how it would be. You would do it."
 sOh, hell !" cried Tom, pushing back his plate.
 His sister looked drearily out the wire-screened door. Her view was dusty street. Hardin got up, scraping his chair over the board floor.
 And to keep it from me- persisted the wife. gro let me ask him to din- ner-"
 Docs that dismal farce have to go on?" demanded Hardin, turning back to the table. "You'll have to have it without me, then. I'll not stay and make fool of myself. Ask him to dinner. Me! I'll see myself"
 Innes wished she was in the neigh boring tent. Tom was flashing himself into coarse fury.
 To her dismay, Gerty burst into tears. It was killing her, the disgrace, she cried. She couldn't endure it. She couldn't stand it there; she had not l the courage to go to Los Angeles, where her friends would pity her. It was crushing her. She was not Har- din; she was sensitive; she could not justify everything a Hardin did as right, no matter what the consequences. | The pretty eyes obscured, she rushed, streaming Niobe, from the room. 1 The brother and sister avoided each others eyes. Innes rose and cleared the table of the dishes. She made a loud noise with the running water in the shed, racketing the pans to drown the insistenee of Gerty's sobbing.
 She kept listening for Toms step. She wanted to go with him when he left; he must not reach the office in the blackness of that mood. She wished he would not betray his feel nc a4 c,b ho xryIf<