The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-11-28

in her tears she was lovely, and that is considerable to say about any of them.
 This morning she was in tears again.
 If you tilt back in your chair again" she sobbed, T shall scream"
 But have always tilted back in my chair" he apologized
 T know it." she lachrymesed. You have always done 1t. You have done it eighty-seven and a half times this morning, counting the time you just tilted your chair down again. You are going to do it again. You are an un- feeling brute"
 ''But sursly it is an innocent habit. It does"
 Don't say aonther word" she shrilled. And don't pick at your salt mackeral that way with your fork. just can't bear 1t. I shall explode"
 But 6an't eat the mackerel whole"
 Don't eat it at all then. Why should you eat mackerel. Why should anybody eat mackereL loathe mackerel. Do you think l am creature of iron to endure the sight of you and a mackerel at the same breakfast"
 But you bought the mackerel."
 Yes, because I am sacrificing and yielding and eager to please you, bought it. But how could I know you were going to sit there and tear it to bits before my very eyes,"
 It was then that he began to wonder if he would have married her if he had known.
 Busily engaged in wondering he ab- sently tilted back in his chair
 URGE FOR SELF-EXPRESSI0N
 With low cry she picked up the mackerel and hurled it at him. Crash went the sideboard mirror.
 "Ah!" she said, T have expressed my self I feel better now" But you didn't hit me-" he said flictd damag. Thathmtaihm hmtaihma
 Never mind" she triumphed. Y in- flicted damage. That is what must do when my nerves are overwrought- 1 fnflict damage. It expresses the fury that. lacking an outlet, would stab mo to the heart. He rose.
 Where are you going?" she de- manded.
 "After the broom"
 ITO strike me with? She shrank back, white and tense. Also she laid a timid trembling hand on the water caraffe.
 No. To sweep up the broken glass"
 Don't dare to touch a one of those pathetic fragments All day they shall lie there as symbols of my broken heart" ''Very we'll have it your own way"
 Isn't that like you--you monster. You'd go callously to your business leav- ing me to clean up the wreckage you have made''
 What do you mean. the wreckage I have made?'" 1 You broke that glass when you picked that mackerel to pieces. Could I control my impulse to destroy you? Was it my fault that you tilted back in your chair? Can you never understand me?" fno to same question"
 T don't doubt it, There are no depths of brutality to which you are not capable of sinking. Don't roll that wad of bread up between your fingers. Do you want me to go madT
 Isis there anything wrong with you this morning?"
 T might have expected that You treat me like worm beneath your feet. You provoke me to desperation. You rend a salt mackerel to shreds before my very eyes. You tilt back in your chair till my soul cries out in horror. You wake in me the desire to strike you dead at my feet, and then you ask me if there is anything the matter with me. Go. And go forever!" r "But-"
 If you speak I shall leap out of the window. Oh. why did ever marry your"
 A NINTERLUDE
 He turned to the door,, He would have stalked angrily out, but he happened to stalk into the trajectory of the carafe which was aimed at the spot where he had been"
 Two hours afterward he awoke. His head ached. bandage swathed his brow. By his side sat a lovely woman, who bent over him with tremulous sym pathy.
 Could those hands have been the ones that impelled the carafe at his heady They could. But that was two hours ago. What was little effervescence of the nerves between husband and wife He decided then and there that if he were again at the altar he would go through the ceremony. just as he went through 1t the year before
 They never learn