Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1919-03-07
CHAPTER VIl-continued.

CHAPTER VII-continued.
s.
The windstorm the previous week
had made q sickening devastation of
her labors. The morning-glories alone
were scatheless. A pink oleander
dropped many broken branches from
which miracles of perfect flowers were
unfolding. The prettlest blossom to
Har6:n was the gardener herself. She
was vivid from eager toll. Hardin
looked at her approximately. He liked
her khaki suit, simple as a 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 too
tanned, running arodnd without hats.
Sunburn paled the value of those
splendid eyes of hers. He could always
tease her by likening them to topazes.
His eyes ran over the pink and pur-
pie hBes of cord-trained vines which
made ft9ral 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
cossity; they denied the painting,
thirsty desert just beyond.
He remepbered his own ramada.
Gerty had hated it, had complained of
It so bitterly when she came home
from New York that he had had it
pulled down and replaced by V roof
Of pine boards. glaring and ugly. Gerty
was satisfied, for it was clean; she no
longer felt that she lived in 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 wns a remada to him, or anything
else? Hardin turned to leave.
She did not want him to go so soon.
She pointed out new vine to him.
She had brought it from Tucson;
"Kudzu." they called it; a Japanese
vine. And there was another broken
rose, quite beyond the help of stripped
handkerchiefs and mesquit splints.
He followed her around the tent, her
prattle falling from his grim mood. He
was not thinking of her flowers except
as q moeking parallel. The desert
storm had made a havoc of his garden
"a sorry botch Of his life. He and
Innes had been trying to make a gar
den out of desert; the desert had
fouted them. 1t was not his fault.
Something had happened; something
quite beyond his power. Luck was
turning against him.
Innes, why, she was playing as with
toy. 1t 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
he should never have carried dainty
little woman like Gerty into the des-
ert. He had never reproached her for
leaving him, even last time when he
thought it was for good. The word
burned his wound. Whose good? His
or Gerty's? Somehow, though theJ
wrangled, he always knew it would
turn out all right; life would rur
smoothly when they left the desert
But things were getting worse; hi:
mouth puckered over some recollec
tions. Yet he loved Gerty; he couldn't
picture life without her. He decided
that 1t was because there had never
been anyone else. Most fellows haC
had sweethearts before they married
he had not, nor a mistress when sh,
left him, though God knows, it woulC
have been easy enough. His moutl
fell into sardonic lines. Those half
breed womenl No one, even when
divorce had hung over him. Oh, h.
hnew what their friends made of eacl
Of Gerty's heightened flights; he knew
But that had been spared him, tha
vulgar grisly spectacle of modern lif
when two people who have been lover
drag the carcass of their love over tn
grimy floor OF curious gaping courI
he shuddered. Gerty loved him. Else
why had she come back to him? VIII
had she not kept her threat when h
refused to abandon his desert projeC
and tura his abilities into a NOR
profitable dedication? He could Sc
her face as she stared flushing I'D int
his that nipplng cold day when he ha
sun into her on Broadway. He remeu
hero d her coquetry when she sugges
Cd that there was plenty of room
FER apartment His wifel She spob
! Of seeing his pictures in the paper
''Hc had grown to be a great man l'
That piquant meeting, the week fo
Fpwing had been the brightest of h
Blfe. He was sure then that Gert
sDved him. The wrangles were on
their different ways of looking
shings. OF course, they loved eaC
ether. But Gerty couldn't stand pi
Teer life. She had loved him, or 81
would not so easily have been pc
funded to try it over again. 81
Searned to make him comfortable, 81
enid. SO she had gone back, and pull,
Gown his ramada, and put his cloth
IA the lowest bureau drawerl
"It wasn't either of our faults,"
suminated ut was the fault of the
Stitution. Marriage itself Is failul
} Book at the papers, the divorce cour
j mans interests are no longer
3 xife's. Curious that it should be
But it's a fact. 1t is the modern d
% content. Women want different careC
3 srom their husbands"
= J. Yet, how could he help throwing
u lfe into his work? lie had commit
4. himself; Il was an obligation. If
= we're not for that indefinable Sol
, thing, his allegiance to the cause VIII
Knocked at reasons and definitions;
he knew he had tilted with &c
y and been worsted The would have
/. signed from his company, his comps
which had dlshonored him. Why sho