The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-04-30
them didn't breed a fine confidence N

them didn't breed fine confidence IN
the object OF 1t. 1t made them will
Iing-eager. to impute the low -d0Wnest.
meanest evasions and tricks. She re-
membered, years ago, having heard Il
boy say about a girl he'd QuNrreled
with, that she was no gentleman. Did
she want to give Alfred the right to
say the same, thing about her?
A thorough dressing down like that
did her good. The first time she re-
sorted to it, indeed she thought II
had effected a cure. This was on tho
afternoon OF that very Monday when
she took the two thousand dollars to
Major March. She waited for her hus-
band to come home that night, with
nothing in her heart but pure long
ing to make up to him in love and
confidence, for the injurious misgiv-
ings she'd harbored against him.
| But, just the same, when he, be-
fore she'd taken her arms away from
around his neck, pulled out OF his
pocket a. sealed envelope-a regular
pay envelope-and tore it open and
produced three $40 dollar bills, she
scnsed something little unnatural
about it all. If he'd gone to the
cashier to get the money instead OF
the check as he'd promised, would the
cashier have taken the trouble to put
the money in an envelope? The pet
tiness of the doubt Infatuated her, and
! she retorted on herself with a counter
attack. Wouldn't she have been Just
as suspicious, unworthy little fool that
she was, if he'd taken three loose bills
out of his pocket? Have wondered
why they wern't in an .envclOpe?
She waited, breathlessly one might
almost have said to see whether he'd
tell her that he'd heard from March;
assuring herself pretty often that Of
course lie would. and finding herself
believing, in between, that he wouldn't.
She tried, off and on, to convince her
self that there was no reason why he
should. But this ground was unten-
able. s,,e 2t,.a. >te ~
! He did tell her Oh Tuesday night
the very day he'd heard. But not until
quite late, after they'd gone to bed.
1t hadn't been a very jolly evening.
There was an uncomfortable silent
stretch after supper, which he'd brok
ell up by suggesting the movies. They'd
gone, and they hadn't been much
amused. He had been as bored as she,
she was sure. But it ashe who had
asked her what the matter was-why
she hadn't liked it.
"Oh,' she exclaimed, they're all SO
exactly alike, those people OH the
screen. They lie so much and believe
each other so easily! Somebody says
something that isn't so at all, but no
matter how unlikely it is, the other
person acts as if there weren't any
possibility of doubling it,; goes on and
believes it for years. l don't believe
that people really can lie very much,
or deceive each other very long, there
are so many little ways of giving them
selves away. That wife tonight, if
she hadn't been born an idiot, would
have known" .., j.
| Alfred had had nothing, to contribute
to: this conversation at all, and they'd
walked along home. locked UP, 'uli-
dressed and gone to bed in an almost
inbroken silence. 1t was then he
said: . Ia ri
oh, by the way! II heard from
March. He got his money" 80,
Ills two thousand dOllars?" 1t was
curiously easy for her to manage that
tone Of cool indifference. e She de-
spised herself rather, for being able
to act SO we'll. II suppose" she went
on, that the person who gave it to
him must look pretty foolish to you"
ooh, no." he said comfortably, mot
necessarily. No, not a bit There's
a.Bchance that he's made perfectly
|corking investment He probably got
his pound of flesh for it, all right % :
| tn nj hicyv AT,
that she'd made no bargain, expressed
simply given him the money. She
didn't believe that he had noticed the
omission either.
This speculation of hers occupied a
rather long silence. Finally Alfred
went on, jocularly-a little too jocu-
larly, her ear told her.
$50 you see, we may make our ever
lasting fortunes after all. I've got an
iron-clad contract with him-not that
March would try to evade any sort of
contract, or even an obligation-that
gives me half Of whatever his inven:
ton brings in. cash, royalties, or
stock. Old lady, we may get to be
millionaires yet" N.s,
The only appropriate response Celia
could think of to this remark was a
laugh of good humored skepticism,
and as she did not dare attempt this
Feeling pretty sure it wouldn't sound
as she meant it to) she lay still and
waited.
After another silence. he asked. do
you wish we were?"
4 "Nlillionaires? With butler and a
box at the opera and six motors?'
"Oh," he said, II didn't mean any
thing fantastic. / meant, were you
wishing it might run to enough to
put us back where we wcre-your old
friends, the old way of living? Shall
you be looking forward to it as some
thing that would pull US out of this?
That's what l mean. Are you getting
sick of this?'