The Washington herald., 1922-08-18
The Beautiful :
And Damned
cosrnued from Yestsrdoy.
By r. Scott Fitzgerald.

1--we ever seen hOhcsh4ys
Her tears dissolved In a twisted
smile.
-weIi-you shouldn't have said
that. then. Let's talk about the
'b-baby-"
Anthony paced the floor and
spoke as though rehearsing for a
debate.
TO. put II briefly, there are two
babies we could have, two distinct
and logical babies. utterly differ
entiatsd- There's the baby that's
the combination of the best of both
of us. Your body. my eyes, my
mind. your intelliSence-and then
there is the baby which is our worst
my body. your disposition. and my
irresolution."
"I like that second baby" she
said.
What I'd really like" continued
Anthony. would be to have two
sets of triplets one year apart and
then experiment with the six boys
-
Poor me-" she interjected.
I'D educate them each in q
different country and b. a different
system and when they were % I'd
call them together and see what
they were like"
Lets have 'em all with my neck"
iggested Gloria
The End of q Chapter.
The car was at length repaired
and with a deliberate vengeance
took up where 1t left of the busi-
ness of causing infinite dissension.
Who should drive? How fast should
Gloria GO? These two questions
and the eternal recriminations in
volved ran through the days They
motored to the Post-Road towns.
Rye Portchester and Greenwich,
and called on a dozen friends, most
ly Gloria's, who all seemed to be
IN different stages of having babies
and in this respect as well as in
others bored her to a point of
nervous distraction. For an hour
ter each visit she would bite her
fingers furiously and be inclined to
take out her rancor on Anthony.
Il loathe women" she cried in
mild temper. What on earth can
YOU say to them-except talk lady
lady'7 I've enthused over a dozen
babies that I've wanted to choke.
And every one of those girls Is
either incipiently jealous and sus-
picious of her husband II he's
charming or beginning to be bored
with him il he isn't
Don't you ever intend to see any
women?"
Il don't know. They never seem
clean to me-never-never. Except
just a few. Constance Shaw-you
know. the Mrs. Merriam who came
over to see US last Tuesdays al
ost the only one. She's SO tall
and fresh-look ng and stately"
Il don't like them so tall"
Though they went to several
dinner-dances at various country
clubs. they decided that the autumn
was too nearly over for them to
go out" on any scale, even had
they been so inclined. He hated
golf; Gloria liked it only mildly,
and thou. h she enjoyed a violent
rush that some undergraduates gave
her one night and was glad that
Anthony should be proud of er
beauty, She also perceived that their
hostess for the evening. Mrs.
CRANKY. was somewhat disquieted
by the fact that Anthony's class
mate, Alec CRANKY. Joined with en-
thusiasm in the rush. The Granbys
never phoned again, and though
Gloria laughed. it piqued her not a
little.
You see." she explained to An
,nony. IF / wasn't married it
lwsk
to the movies in her day and she
thinks 1 may be a vampire. But
the point is that placating such pso-
pie requires an effort that I'm sim
ply unwilling to make. And
those cute little freshmen making
eyes at me and paying me idiotic
compliments. I've grown up, An
thony."
Marietta itself offered little social
life. Half a dozen farm-estates
formed hectagon around it. but
these belonged to ancient men who
nj played themselves only as inert,
srsy-thatched Jumps in the back of
limousines on their way to the sta
tion, whittier they were sometimes
accompanied :. equally ancient and
doubly massive wives. The towns
people were a particularly unin-
teresting type-unmarried females
were predominant for the most part
with school-.estival horizons and
souls bleak as the forbidding white
architecture of the three church IS.
The only native with whom they
came into close contact was the
sroad-hipped. broad
Swedish girl who came every day
to, do their work. She was silent
and efncient, and Gloria, after find
ing her weeping violently into her
bowed arms upon the kitchen table,
developed an uncanny fear of ier
and stopped complaining about the
food. Because of her untold and
esoteric grief the girl stayed on.
Gloria's penchant for premonitions
and her bursts OF vague supernatural
ism were a surprise to Anthony.
Either some complex, properly and
scientifically inhibited in the early
years with her Bilphistic mother. or
some Inherited Representatives,.
made her susceptible 20 any sugges-
ton Of the psychic. and. far from
gullible about the motives Of people.
she was inclined to credit any extra
ordinary happening attributed to the
whimsical perambulations Of the
buried. The desperate squeakinss
about the OLE, house on windy nights
that 10 Anthony were burglars with
revoivers ready in hand represented
10 Gloria the auras. evil and restive,
Of dead generations. -expiating the in
expiable upon the ancient and fomatic
hearth. One night. because of two
swift bangs downstairs. which An
thony fearfully but unavailingly in
vestfgated, they lay awake nearly
until dawn asking each other ex-