The times-herald. [volume] (Burns, Harney County, Or.) 1896-1929, 1919-04-19


her lahors The mornlng.glorles alone
were scatheless. A pink olenndel
dropped many broken branches from
which miracles of perfect flowers were
unfolding. The prettIest blossom to
Hardin was the gardener herself Shc
was vivid from enger toll. Hnrdln
looked at her approximately. He liked
her khaki suit, simple as uniform
with Its flowing black tie and leather
belt. She looked more like herself to-
day. She had bleached out, In Tucson
She had been letting herself get toe
tanned, running around without hats
: Sunburn paled the value of those
splendid eyes of hers. He could always
tease her by lllsening them 10 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 rlotc0
over the ramnda, the second roof OF
living boughs. He acknowledged theh
beauty. They gave grace TO bare me-
cesslty; they denied the painting
thirsty desert trst beyond
He remembered his own ramndn.
Certy hnd hated II, had complained Of
it so bitterly when she came home
from New York ihat he had had II
pulled down and replaced hy V roof
Of pine boards glarlng gnG ugly, Gerty
was satisfied Cor II was clean; she nc
longer felt tlat she lived a squaw
house ee tl,a Taifu -, ha,... ...,,tnIoo .
there was no earthly reason we should
He had urged hat the desr lwclers
had valuable hints 80 give tlsn. But
what was a remada f. him. ot anything
elseY Hardin turned TO leave.
She did not want him to 70 80 soon
She pointed ort new vinc To him
She had brought IL from Tucson;
"Kudzu.' they called IT. Japanese
vine, And there was another broken
rose, quite beyond the help Of stripped
handkerchiefs and mesqui, aplin,s.
He followed her around thc tent, her
prattic alllng from his grim mood. He
was noi thinking Of her flowers except
as a fnoeSing parallu!. 1'c dcrcr
storm hNJ rlnde a havoc OF his garden
IA sc,gy botch OF his Me. He and
Innes hHd been trying 10 make n gar
den oUt Of desert: the desert bud
flouted them. II was not his fault,
Something had happened; something
quite beyond his power. Luck was
turning against him.
Innss, why, she was playing ms with
o. Il 81 -,
woman TO make things pretty around
her. But he had sacrificed his youth,
his chances. His domestic life. too
he should never have carried dainty
little woman like Gerty into the des-
ert. He had never reproachcd her for
leaving him, even last time when he
thought II was for good. The word
burned his wound. Whose good? His
or Gertys? Somehow. though they
wrangled, he always knew IL would
turn out all right; life would run
smoothly when they left the desert
But things were getting worse: his
mouth puckered over some rccollec.
tions. Yet he loved Gerty; he couldn't
picture life without her. He decided
that II was becnuse there had never
been anyone else. Most fellows had
had sweethearts before they married
he had not, nor mistress when she
left him, though Gcd knows, It would
have been easy enough. His mouth
fell into sardonlc lines. Those half
breed womenl No one, even when a
divorce had hung over him. Oh. he
knew what their friends made of each
OF Gerty's heightened flights; he knew
But that had beer spared him, that
vulgar grisly spectacle of modern life
when two people who have been lovers
drag the carcass of their love over the
grImy floor OF a curious gaping court. |
He shuddered. Gerty loved him. Else, |
why had she come back to him? Why |
had she not kept her threat when he
refused 10 abandon his desert project |
and turn his abilities into more |
profitable dedlcationf lie could see
her face as SHE stared flushing up into |
his that nipping cold day when he had |
run into her on broadway. lie rcniem-
bercd her coquetry when She suggest |
cd that there was plenty Of room H.
her apartment His wlfel She spoke
Of seeing his pictures In the papers
'Ele had grown 10 be great mani"
That pIquant meeting, tho week fol-
lowing had been the brightest OF his |
Iife. He was sure then that Gcrty
loved him. The wrangles were only !
their different ways OF looking at I
things. or course, they loved each
other. But Gerty couldn't stand plo-
neer life. She had loved him. or she
would not so easily have been pcr-
suaded to try II over again. She
to make him comfortable. she
said. So she had gone back, and pulled
down his ramada, and put his clothes
n the lowest bureau drawerl
at wasn't either Of our faults" he
eliminated. at was the fault of The IN
;tltution. Marriage itself is failure.
Look at the papers, the divorce courts.
A mans interests are no longer his
glfe's. Curious that IL should be so.
M at 4 I. nj. |