The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-10-08
CHAPTER XII.
Into the Primitive.

much as the Princess would
have preferred a radical oblitera-
tion of the past, a fresh start upon
4 now leaf she was obliged as she
tugged at the oars to confront in
the background the Sally, where
she had so abominably betrayed
poor Joe, and in the foreground
face to face with her and almost
near enough TO slap, Bill, for whose
sake she had performed that act OF
treachery, looking at her with the
righteous and martyred expression
OF a wronged husband.
She'd like 10 know what right he
had TO look like that; but her pas
slonate proclamation OF this wish
was probably disingenuous, for she
made-jt not TO Bill but to herself
only. She didn't want TO start an
argument with him. She didn't
want to speak 10 him at all; she
wouldn't until he began. Hadn't
she laid the foundation, In all she
had done for him since half past
four o'clock yesterday afternoon,
when she had saved his life, for a
faith impregnable to all assault?
Hadn't she trusted him and HIS bare
word through everything? Hadn't
she waited upon him hand and foot?
Hadn't she faced prison rather than
give him up? Was there a heroine
in all movie literature who had done
more for a hero. or so much In so
brief a span of hours? But all OF
that counted for nothing, II seemed,
against the mischance of his pok.
ing his head up through the fore.
hatch Just at the one precisely
wrong moment!
She wouldn't have been so We.
hement about this but for the fact
that down in her own heat
somewhere was voice that sided
with Bill against her, telling her
that for n while, in thought IL not
In deed, she had been faithless.
Nothing in all her experience IN
the screen drama had prepared bsr
for perverse phenomenon OF this
sort. She had been led to suppose
that when girl fell In love-any
girl, even a vampire--it was an un.
equivocal one-hundred-per.ce az.
ialr, an absolute preventive against
all errant inclinations for the rest
of her life.
Yet certainly II had seemed fer
few minutes. beginning when re
reverently had told her that Wa
thought she was the most wonder.
iui person In the world and had
taken her hand. that Bill got rather
out OF focus. Externally her con.
duct had been correct enough, she
felt even In the matter OF that firs'
KISS which had not come off. But
the thing that shocked her was a
realization that for a horrible sec.
ond or two the sight Of Bill half.
way through the hatch staring AT
her. had struck her as at once an
noylng and ridiculous. For inst
that blighting moment OF time abe
had-well-pretty near hated him
She had made handsome amends
OF course, She had given him a
magnificent revenge over his rival.
But would real heroine, would Leda
swan for instance, in any part she
had ever played, have been capable
OF even so ephemeral a d!sloyalty?
1t was unthinkable.
1t was all very miserable and
maddening, not least because the-e
wasn't anyone who could be AT all
wholeheartedly blamed for II. Joe
wasn't villain. Certainly he'd had
the misfortune to fall in love with
her and had been unable 10 conceal
the fact; perfectly orthodox con-
duct, as was also his platonic nro.
UhAn1Asp.r
possibly embarrassing results OF
her escapade with Bill. As for Bill
ms conduct, too, conformed 10 the
highest standards. In two out OF
hve or the serious pictures ona
saw didn't the whole plot hang
upon the fact that a husband han.
pened to see his wife getting inno-
Gently kissed-perhaps merely by a
long-absent brother? One always
drew, didn't he, the most sinister
differences from an episode like that?
Didn't II, as rule, cost the wife
about three reels OF abject humilia.
tion and apology 10 get such a thing
explained?
There couldn't be any doubt
about what Joe was thinking of her,
She had, very likely with that De.
lllah kiss Of hers, destroyed his
faith In all womanhood.
Oh, well what did she carel Il
was his own fault, Just as IL was
Bits They could both think
whatever they pleased. She dug
her oars viciously into the water
and put her back into the quick.
ened stroke, and by the time the
boat, ramming its bow into the
SHARPLY shelving beach, stopped
with a Jerk she had pretty well
worked the bitterness out OF her
heart' Nevertheless she sprang out
without word, tugged the dinghy
a little farther up the sand, and
without glance in Bill's direction
turned on her heel and walked away
along the beach. Bin could come
-