The Raymer enterprise., 1919-07-17
CHAPTER Vli-Continued.

s.
The windstorm the previous week
had made a sickenIng devastation OF
Ter labors. The morning glories alone
we're scatheless. A pink oleander
1rooped many broken branches from
Nhlch miracles of perfect flowers were
unfolding. The. prettiest blossom to
Hardin was the gardener herself She
was vivid from eager toll. Hardin
ooked at her'approbatively He liked
ser khaki suit, simple as a uniform.
with its flowing black tie and leather
aelt. She looked more like herself to-
lay. She had bleached out, In Tucson.
She had becs letting herself get too
tanned, running around without hats.
Sunburn paled the value Of those
splendid eyes OF hers He could always
ease her by llkeniny them to topazes.
His eyes ran over the pink and pur-
ple tines OF cord. trained vines which
nade doral screrns for her tent. Free
u the s.rings overhead, they rioted
over the ran'afa. the second roof. of
living bougte. he acknowledged their
beuuty. They gave grace to bare ne
eessity. they denied the painting,
thirsty desert just beyond,
He remembered his own ramada.
Gerty had hated II, had complained of
Il 20 bitterly when she came home
from Natr Ynrk that ba bod haI ~
pulled down and replaced by V roof
Of p.ne boards, glaring and ugly. Gerty
was satisfied. for 1t was clean; she no
longer felt that she lived In squaw
house. Let the Indians have ramadas /;
there was no earthly reason she should.
Tie had urged that the desert dwellers
had valuable hints t1 give them. But
what was remaSn to him. or anything
elsef Hardin turned to leave.
She did not want him to 90 so soon.
Bhe potnted out . new vine to him.
She had brought It from Tucson;
"Kudzu." they called It.. japanese
vine. And there was another broken
rose, quite beyond the help Of stripped
handkerchlefs and mesquit spllnts.
He followed her around the tent. her
prattfs falling from his grim mood. He
was not thinking Of her flowers except
y, moeklng parallel. The desert
storm had made havoc Of his garden
"a sorry botch Of his life. He and
Times Ind been trying TO make gar
den out OF desert; the desert had
fouted them. II was not his fault
Something had happened; something
quite beyond his power. Luck was
turning against him.
1nnes, why. she was playing as with
toy. II was the natural instinct OF a
woman to make things pretty around
her but he had sacrificed his youth,
his chances. His domestic life. too
AZ should never have carried dainty
ittle woman like Gerty into the des-
ert He had never reproached her for
eavihg him, even last time when he
thought 1t was for good. The word
surned his wound. Whose good7 His
,r Gerty's? Somehow, though they
wrangled, he always knew 1t would
turn out all right; life would run
tmoothly when they left the desert.
But thugs were getting worse: his
mouth puckered over some recollec-
ions. Yet he loved Gerty; he couldn't
picture life without her He decided
that II was because there had never
been anyone else. Most fellows had
iad sweethearts before they married :
Ne had not. nor mistress when she
left him, though God knows, II would
have been easy enough. His mouth
.ell into sardonic lines. Those half
Sreed women No one. even when a
1lvorce had hung over him. oh. he
knew what their friends made OF each
n Gerty's heightened flights; he knew !!
But that had been spared him. that
vulgar grisly spectacle Of modern life
when two people who have been lovers
irag the carcass of their love over the
grlmy floor OF curious gaping court.
He shuddered. Gerty loved him. Else,
why had she come back to him3 Why
had she not kept her threat when he
refused to abandon his desert project
and turn his abilities into more
Drofitabls dedication? He could see
her face as she stared flushing up into
kis that nipplng cold day when he had
un Into her on Broadway. He remem.
beped her coquetry when she suggest.
= that there wns plenty of room In
~ apartment! His wife! She spoke
e seeing his pictures In the papers.
~ had grown 20 be great man,
MT OienAat meeting the week fol