The Washington herald., 1922-07-19

giggling. over-gestured. pathetical-
ly pretentious women, who grow
fat with them, bear them too many
babies. and float helpless and un-
content in a colorless sea of drudg-
cry and broken hopes.
They name these brummagem
cabarets after Pullman cars. The
"Marathon!" Not for them the sa-
lacious SMILES borrowed from the
cafes of Paris, This is where their
docile patrons bring their mice
women" whose starved fancies are
only too willing to believe that the
scene is comparatively gay and Joy
Gus, and even family immoral. This
Is life! Who cares for the morrow?
Abandoned people,
Anthony and Gloria, seated
looked about them. At the next
table party of four were in pro-
cess of being Joined by a party of
three. two men and a girl, wnu
were evidently late-and the man.
ner Of the girl was a study in ma
tional sociology. She was meeting
some new men-and she was pre-
tending desperately. By gesture
she was pretending and by words
and by the scarcely perceptible mo-
tionings of her eyelids that she be-
longed to a class a little superior
to the class with which she now
had to do. that a while ago she
had been. and presently would
again be, In higher. rarer air. She
was almost painfully refined-she
wore a last years hat covered with
violets no more yearningly pre-
tentious and palpably artificial than
herself.
Fascinated. Anthony and Gloria
watched the girl sit down and radi-
ate the impression that she was
only condescendingly present. For
me, her eyes said, this is practical
ly a Summing expedition, to be
cloaked with belittling laughter ana
semi-apologetics.
And the other women passion-
ately poured out the impression
that though they were in the crowd
they were not of 1t. This was not
the sort of place to which they
were accustomed; they had dropped
In because 1t was nearby and con-
venient-every party in the restau-
rant poured out that impress
sion who knew? They were
forever changing class, all of
them-the women often marrying
above their opportunities, the men
striking suddenly a magnificent
opulence: sufficiently preposterous
advertising scheme. a celestialized
ice-cream cone. Meanwhile, they
met here to eat, closing their eyes
to the economy displayed in infre-
quent changings of table, cloths, in
the casualness of the cabaret ner-
formers. most of all in the collo-
quial carelessness and Familiarity
OF the walters. One was sure that
these walters were not impressed
by the patrons. One expected that
presently they would sit at the
DO you object to this?" in
quired Anthony.
Gloria's face warmed and for the
nrst time that evening she smiled
Il love it," she said frankly II
was impossible to doubt her. Her
gray eyes roved here and there.
browsing, idle Or alert, on each
group, passing to the next with
unconcealed enjoyment, and to An
thony were made plain the differ
ent values of her profile, the won
derfully alive expressions of her
mouth. and the authentic distinc-
ton OF face and form and manner
that made her like a single flower
amidst a collection of cheap bric-a-
orac. At her happiness. a gorgeous
sentiment welled into his eyes,
choked him up. set his nerves a.
tingle. and filled his throat with
husky and vibrant emotion. There
was a hush upon the room, The
careless violins and saxophones, the
shrill rasping complaint of a child
nearby, the voice of the violet
hatted girl at the next table, all
moved slowly out, receded. and fell
away like shadowy reflections on
the shining floor-and they two, 1t
seemed to him, were alone and in
fnitely remote, quiet. Surely the
freshness of her cheeks was a gos-
samer projection from a land of
delicate and undiscovered shades:
her hand cleaning on the stained
table-cloth was a shell from some
far and wildly virginia. sea.
Then the Illusion snapped like a
nest of threads; the room grouped
itself around him, voices, faces.
movement: the garish simmer of
the lights overhead became real,
became portentous: breath began,
the slow respiration that she and
he took in time with this docile
hundred, the rise and fall of bos-
oms. the eternal meaningless play
and interplay and tossing and reit-
Grating of word and phrases-all
these wrenched his senses open to
the suffocating pressure of life
and then her voice came at him,
cool as the suspended dream he
had left behind.