New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1919-04-18
CHAPTER XVI.
The Wrong Man.

Mrs. Hardin heard from ever,
source but the right one that Rlckart
had returned. Each time her tele
phone rang. II was his voice she ex
pected to hear. She began to read ,
meaning into his silence. She coult
think Of nothing else than the strang,
coincidence that had brought theil
lives again close. Or was 1t Il cOinci
dence? That idea sem her thoughts
far afield.
She was thinking too much of him
for peace of mind. those days Of wait.
ing. blu the return of the old lover
had made a wonderful break in her
life. Her eyes were brighter; her
smile was less forced. She spent most
Of her days at the sewing machine. A
lot of lace was whipped onto lingerie
frocks Of pale colors. She was Il dis
ciplc of an Eastern esthete. "Women,'
he had said. SHOULD buy lace, not by
the yard, but by the mile"
AS her fingers worked among the
lac"S and soft mulIs, her mind roved
Town that should have been
closed To her, Il wife. She would have
protested, had anyone accused her of
lnfidelity in those days, yet day by day,
sh" was strnying farther from her hus-
bands side. She convinced herself
that Toms gibrs and ill-humor were
getting harder to endure.
1t was inevitable that the wOman of
harcm trimming should relive the Law
renee days. The ennity of those two
men,, both her lovers, was pregnant
with romantic suggestion. The drama
Of desert and river conferred now in the
story of Gerty Hardin. Richard, who
had never married! The deduction,
once unveiled, lost all Its shyness. And
every II saw that he disliked her hus-
band.
She knew now that she had never
loved Tom. She had turned to him in
those days Of pride when Richards
anger still held him aloof. How many
times had she gone over those unreal
hours! Who could have known that
his anger would last? That hour in
the honeysuckles his kisses! None of
Hardin's rougher kisses had swept her
memory Of her exquisite dclight-de-
lirious as was her joy, there was room
for triumph. She had seer herself
clear of the noisy boarding house. Her
self, Gerty Holmes. the wife Of n pro-
able to have the things she
crnved, to have them openly no longer
to scheme for them.
1t was through Richards eyes that
she had seen the shortcomings of the
boarding house. She had ac-
Quired a keen consciousness of those
lulzzical eyes. When they had isolated
her, at last. appealing to her sympa-
thy or amusement. separating her
from all those boisterous students, her |
lream Of bliss had begun.
In those days, she had seer Hardin
through the eyes of the young instruc-
younger by several years than his
pupil. Her thud Of disappointed anger,
If dislike. when the face Of Hardin
)eered through the leafy screen To
waited. prayed for that moment,
md to have it spoiled like that! There
lad been days when she had wept be-
she had not shown her anger!
low could she know that everything
would end there; end, just beginning!
Her boarding house training had
aught her to be civil. 1t was still
ivid to her, her anxiety. her tremu-
,usness-with Hardin talking forever
( a play he had just seen; Richard
sitter. angrier, refusing to
,ok at those lips still warm with his
And the next day, still angry with
er. All, the puzzled desolation of
hose weeks before she had salved her
urt; with pride, and then with Lowell
hose days Of misery before she could
Onvince herself that she had been In
we with love. not with her fleeing
Hardin was there. eager to be
That affair. she could see
ow, had lacked fnesse.
Richard had certainly loved her, or
ny had he never married? Why had
g left so abruptly his boarding house
midterm? Doesn't jealousy confess
we? Some day. he would tell her;
hat a hideous mistake hers had
eenl She ought not to have rushed
ito that marriage. She knew now 1t
nd always been the other. But life
not finished, yet!
The date set for her summer
had come, but she lin