Evening star., 1922-11-12

Quoted tho advice to tho Lovelorn"
column having resigned. the post of
''Heloise Milton" official adviser to
readers troubled with affairs of the
heart. was hers. Imagine how Napo-
leon felt after Austerlitz. picture Mile.
S. Lenglen after defeating Mrs. NJ.
Mallory at tennis, try to visualize a
suburban householder who sees a
flower emerging from the soil in
which he has inserted a packet Of
guaranteed seeds, and you will have
some faint conception Of how Eliza
beth felt as those golden words pro-
ceeded from that editors lips.
Into James Boyd's apartment she
walked, stepping on feecy clouds, to
tell him the great news.
She told him the great news.
He said "Ah!'
There are many ways OF saying
"Ah." You can put Joy. amazement
rapture into it You can also make
1t sound as II 1t were a reply to a
remark on the weather. James Boyd
made it sound just like that His
hair was rumpled, his brow con-
tracted. his manner absent. The i'm
preston he gave Elizabeth was that
he barely heard her.
The next moment he was deep in a
recital of tho misdemeanors of the
actors now rehearsing his four-act
comedy. The star had done this. the
leading woman that. the juvenile
something else. For the first time
Elizabeth listened unsympathetically
The time came when speech failed
James Boyd. and he sat back In his
chair, broodirg. Elizabeth. cross and
wounded, sat in hers. nursing Joseph.
And SO, in a dim light, time flowed by.
Just how it happened she never
knew. One moment, peace: the next.
chaos. One moment, stiffness: the
next, Joseph hurtlins the air, all
claws and expletives. and herself
caught in q clasp that shook the
breath from her. and kissed SO en-
phatically that it seemed not so much
kiss as a black-hand explosion.
One can dimly reconstruct James
train Of thought. He Is In despair.
Things are going badly at the theater.
as he sits, Is caught by Elizabeth's
profile. 1t is a pretty-above all. a
soothing profile An almost painful SEN
timentality sweeps over James Boyd.
There she sits. his only friend in this
cruel city. II you argue that there is
no necessity to spring at your only
friend and nearly choke her. you
argue soundly. The point is we'll
taken. But James Boyd was beyond
the reach of sound argument. Much
rehearsing had frayed his nerves to
ribbons. One may say that he was
not responsible for his actions.
X X X x
THAT is the case for James. Eliza
i beth, naturally, was not in posi-
ton to take a-wide and understand
ing view Of 1t. All she knew was
that James had played her false,
abused her trust in him. For mo-
ment, such was the shock of the sur
prise, she was not conscious of indig-
nation, or, indeed, of any sensation
except the purely physical one of
semi mi-strangulation. Then, flushed and
moro bitterly angry than she could
ever have imagined herself capable OF
being, she began to struggle. She
tore herself away from him. Coming
on top Of her grievance. this thing
filled her with a sudden, very vivid
hatred of James. At the back Of her
anger, feeding 1t, was the humliating
thought that 1t was all her own fault,
that by her presence there she had
invited this.
She CROPPED her way to the door.
Something was writhing and strug-
Cling inside her, binding her eyes
and robbing her of speech. She was
conscious only of desire to be alone,
to be back safe and alone, in her own
home. She was aware that he was
speaking. but the words did not reach
her. She found the door and pulled
it open. She felt hand on her arm,
but she shook 1t of. And then she
was back behind her own door, alone
and at liberty to contemplate at leis-
ure the ruins Of that little temple or
friendship which she had built up so
carefully and in which she had been
so happy.
The broad fact that she would never
forgive him was for a while her only
coherent thought. To this succeeded
the determination that she would
never forgive herself. And, having
thus placed beyond the pale the only
two friends she had in New York, she
was free to devote herself without
hindrance to the task Of feeling thor
oughly, lonely and wretched.
The shadows deepened. Across the
street = sort Of bubbling explosion