Omaha daily bee., 1922-04-30

/ had 10 run and get the baby ol
you'd have made me cry, | wheeled
him around for three hours that ait
efnoon while you were al matinee
and ! analysed all OF Us bu, Wilifed
Tor myseli-isther and you and me
didn't analyze WiliTed because
what he's like doesn't matter. Al
that matters 10 me about him i
that there's nobody else ia the world
that ! wouldn't lie 10 or steal from
or murder. guess-ii he really need
ed TO have me do il. I'm going "a
tell you something you don't know,
lie never asked me 10 marry him,
! told him he was going 10 and when
!. was going 10 he. That's 10 show
YOU there are a few things your set
didn't invent for themselves.
Il decided you were both right and
wrong about the rest OF us-you and
father and me; a little Bit right and
mostly wrong. but that the little bit
was more important, TO me that after
noon than the whole lot. I'm no.
going TO argue with you about that,
There isn't time. I'm going to tell
you what happened
She has misread the girls sudden
stir OF attention. For once in her
lie. Anne didn't want TO argue. She
was holding her breath.
Charlotte paused moment,
though. 10 put her story in order.
"fou don't like sob stuff" she ex.
planned. $50 III try TO tell il as
straight as ] can. When | got home
with the baby. | found the mall a
letter from dad and two others. Dads
letter was TO me. not TO you. so !
opened il first. II had a check in il
made out 10 me for $500. ] hadn't
asked him for money. All I'd said
that was like asking was that an
other year when we weren't so ter
ribly poor maybe Wilired and Jane
sic and ! would be starting out with
him and mother for some warm jolly
place. AT is was. said. all we were
praying Tor was that the coal would
hold out. | wanted him to see that
| meant il, but | left il so he could
think was just being funny, il he
liked. Cowardly. OF course. that was,
and contemptiblc. You can say that.
il YOU like"
I'm not saying anything" Anne
remarked. I'm waiting"
"All right. I'll go on. When I
saw the check was made out to me.
| left his letter and opened the other
two. One was from the bank, say
ing our account was overdrawn Sl.47.
The other was from the piano COM
pany, and it said that unless we
paid both installments by next Tues
day. the one that would be due then
and the one we were behind on. they
would take the piano away.
Then | read fathers letter. He
didn't say word about me or my
having written him. He told me how
you'd asked for $500 extra. He said
he wasn't sure what it was for. but
supposed you were trying to get by
with something, as usual. He meant
to let you have it, anyhow, but he
was making the check out to me and
he wanted me to keep it until the
last thing before you went back to
school, so that you wouldn't blow it
in out here. He said if l could find
out what you really. wanted it for,
he wished | would, but he didn't say
anything about my not giving it to
you, no matter what it was for.
I'm not going to discuss father
with you. When you're as old as
l am, you'll understand him whole
lot better than you do now. l know
you got the check and I didn't, but
I'll give you this tip just the same:
you'll get on with him better for
the next five or ten years if you
act more like a daughter to him and
less like a baby vampire. His let
ter made that plain enough to me.
"The minute I'd finished it, though,
I knew What I was going to do with
it. l gave it to Jamesie to play with.
l thought he'd tear it up, but he
chewed it instead. However. it came
to the same thing, and the ink didn't
hurt him. Then wrote a check to
the piano company for $50. 1t came
out of your money, of course, because
was overdrawn until banked dads
check the next morning. / decided
that, from my point of view, that
piano was more important than your
dancing lessons. l don't have much
time to practice these days, but
like to know it's there when l want
it, to keep me from feeling like a
household slave-or whatever you
said l was"
Anne found herself for some rea-
son, horribly embarrassed. She got
up and walked to the little bay win
dow, ostensibly to see whether the
taxi had come.
'You had your nerve with you"
she said, in this position. "but it's
all right with me. Let's not jaw
about it any more. can get on
without it all right. I'd have given
it to you like shot, if you'd told
me you wanted it."
20. l haven't got anywhere near
to the end yet" said Charlotte, who
hadn't risen. "Sit down again; he
won't come Tor another ZO minutes.
The rest is what really matters-to
you
This time it was Anne who felt
her blood run cold. THE rest" she
echoed mechanically.
"When Wilfred came home tina.
night" Charlotte went on, thought
fully, comfortably almost you'd have
said. cycling the knee she clasped,
"he told me he'd lost his job. His
firm was going to, dissolve partner
ship. OF course he could get an
other-a man as good as he is can
always get one. if there's any work
in the city at all-only it might be
hack work and his pay not SO good
at first. But then he went on to tell
me OF an offer he'd had One OF the