The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-09-24
EMPTY HAPPINESS
Chapter 65.

SudplSI w.
A doctors smile can sometimes do
more good than all the medicine he !.
could administer. And at this par i
ticular time was more in need of that !
encouraging. kindly expression on his
face than was of drugs and
nursing.
"A little over-wrought and tired,
was his verdict. "A week or so in bed,
perfect quiet, plenty of our Wellsviile
air and sunlight, and think you'll feel
like a new person. Miss Bennett
| looked up in surprise at the name.
He corrected himself at once.
Il beg your pardon, ! mean Mrs.
Taylor. You see it was Miss Bennett
when you stayed here last / forgot
the romance and the elopement with
one of our own town boys. BY the
way, how is Mr.. Taylor"
OF course he could not know,
| struggled for my composure, and
managed to say, Very well, thanks"
and could only get part of it out
through the great lump that filled my
throat
And then | broke down and wept
Historically. | had been choking it
back for days, for weeks and months,
| felt, as ] cried away some of the
nervousness that had been half killing
me all this time.
Even then, the poor old doctor
guessed only half. He gave me some
thing soothing to drink, | remember.
and sent me off to my room in charge
of a trim gray-haired attendant. who
only made me long for the sweet
natured Irish woman who attended me
before
| had not told Wins mother | was
coming Mrs. Taylor of course blamed
me for all that had happened That
was only natural and could not resent
II. She thought | had led Winthrop
into debt and extravaganza How
could she think otherwise? Win had
no occasion at home to live as he did
In the city.
| thought a great deal about her
while | lay in bed in the sanatarium
They had given me my old room, and
not thing was changed-not even the
cretonnes, whose pattern was so famil-
lar to me-
AS ! slowly began to grow quiet and
rested, and to feel that in spite OF
everything, life might be bearable,
thought a great deal about my friends
/
that it never occurred to me that
had run away from them. leaving no
address, and no word, not even for my
aunt and Colin.
| think | slept almost all the time
for the first week or So When | was
awake. ] lay there looking lazily at the
rom. and rather vaguely l felt | was
room, and rather vaguely | felt was
had escaped very hectic, unpleasant
sort of life, and was to rest and be
quiet and happy now. I felt things
were beginning again. | was going to
try and rent the same little white
house formerly had.
Then my head would become clearer
and ! would remember all that was
past--that had definitely broken with
VIM that | had loved, and been loved,
and it was all over now.
But still the feeling persisted vague
". due to the old surroundings, that
all the past experience was to be re-
lieved, that the same thing was to
begin again. So | was not surprised
one afternoon when my door opened,
and Winthrop's mother walked into the
room, her arms full of flowers-just as
she used to come to me.
Without word | held out my hands
ana Sne ldld nef mowers on the table
and came over and kissed me. And
cried and she did too, and in that very
feminine fashion we took up our friend
ship where il was broken off when
had left Wellsville before.
She was exactly the same-limp
gray hair parted in the middle, pale
gray eyes set in a lined, pale face
clothes of an odd cut that fitted
atrociously. Not even her glasses broke
the general effect of rather washed
out gray that seemed to envelop her
for they had steel rims and only &C
cepted the colorless effect.
I only knew you were here this
morning" she said when we had set
tied down to talk. I've been so busy
This is my first visit to the sanatariun
this spring. The doctors wondered
why l didn't come, and l had to tel
them | didn't know you were here
Queer, they must have thought it,"
tried TO explain, but for once sh'
understood without that.
Il know. Don't try to talk too much
They said you were too sick to have
written, probably. Then this morning
| got a letter from Win-frst in
don't know how many months. H,
said you'd left him, said you'd agreed
to live apart. But we won't talk abou
il now.
He said he'd heard you'd left town
and supposed it was with your aunt
That would have been all right, onl,