Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1920-12-31
LINDA RETURNS

q. lg2O. western Newspaper Union.

tended vacation; whether she came
back or not would depend entirely
upon Jacks behavior, but this he
need not know until she had made
her departure. Linda reached this
conclusion after a last stormy inter
view. 1t was the first quarrel in an
ideal married year, and therefore
most bitter. Linda had heard so much
Of designing, vampish women of late,
and had trembled before their power,
as portrayed by the screen, that she
had, as it were, been on the watch
for this dreaded intrusion into her
own happiness, and 1t had come.
Jack, the faithful, was actually seen
by Linda's dearest friend driving
with his new pretty stenographer on a
far-away country road. Moreover, the
for tea, had been Mortified to find
Jack %partaking of the same tea, with
the girl of his employ.
Gladys hurried home to tell Linda
before Jack should return, and when
he did return. still early In the we
ming, he was met with a surprisingly
frigid reception by his erstwhile low
ing wife. Jack could not understand
the sudden change, but after a sob
bingly confused upbraiding by that
formerly gentle creature, he vas made
aware of his sin and as Indignantly de-
MED the accusations The fact re.
manned that he had driven with Miss
Huldah Brown, however, and had m
m%istakably toad with her at Willow
Inn and though Jack pointed out that
the trip was a purely business one,
that he had been sent for by a valued
client, and it was absolutely neces-
sary to have his stenographer with
him, Linda's outraged feelings were
not appeased.
If" she inconsistency explained,
"the Huldah Brown person were old
and ugly, it might appear differently"
Huldah Brown was ~undeniably
neither. Jack Indignantly refused to
promise her discharge, or even that he
be seen no more in public with his
stenographer; until that arrangement
should be made, the jealous Linda
had, so to speak, severed family re-
lations. The young injured husband
was doomed in his own home to the
life of a stranger-and a disappointed
stranger at that. So, at length, Linda
resolved to start for the seaside, leav-
ing Jack to the capable ministrations
of "Mary," the l~ong-trusted family do
nestle. The seaside proved this time
a dreary place of sojourn. Linda won
dered how she yer found it so de-
lightful. OF course, before there had
been Jacks long, loving letters, and
his weekly visit. What a jolly COM
panion Jack had been, how comfort
Ing and protecting. Linda just could
not think of her unruly husband with
out nm annoying lump in her throat.
Now, his letters were scratches of the
pen, and he came not at all at weeks
end. It was the vampish influence of
Huldah Brown which held him, of
course, for he would still not give in
TO the girls dismissal. Well, neither
would Linda give in. She sighed, she
wept; then Linda wrote her "scare"
letter. She told Jack just what she
thought of him, and limited darkly that
she might never return.
Jack did not answer the letter, the
last one which came from him had
evidently crossed hers in the mail.
He stated briefly that Mary had left
him to his own esources. He would
try to get along as best he could,
with the help of the delicatessen.
Linda had visio2s of a white sink filled
to overlooking with her fine. soiled
china, of rumpled beds far from
restful TO a city-tired lawyer. She
had frightened visions, also, of Peep,
the canary, seedless in his golden cage.
and Bob, the terrier. Would Jackie
remember to feed poor Bob?
Mentally, Linda gave to her lonely
husband his old pet fundamentally
Linda was undergoing a change. Pity,
also, was taking the place of anger.
But though she waited eagerly, tense
~, Jack made no response to her
threatening letter. Evidently, if she
intended never to return TO him. she
might remain where she was as far
as he was concerned. Then one night
she read his advertisement for a maid
in the want column of the city paper.
The address designated was that of
their own apartment. Repentant tears
filed Linda's eyes, and it was Jackie's
lack of care about which she now was
thinking, and not that of Bob's, or the
canary. 1t was with a new and deep
crease between his gloomy eyes that
Jack settled himself next evening to
await the applicants coming in answer
to his advertisement. He chose the liv-
ing room as being least d~iscouraging
in it's lack of housekeeping attention
And he was wondering as he sat if he
could still hold out against Linda's
unreasonable demand. His conscience
and his pride rebelled against the
yielding-yet oh how he wanted her.
The first applicant whose ring bad
sounded unnoticed came slowly to