The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-02-20
The Story Of Julia Page By Kathleen Norris

I on Richie's face. Ned. never more than an overgrown boy, put his face ] in his hands and began to sob. i ''Sh-h!" Jim warned them. Mrs. Poland came in.
 boys!' she said, tremulously happy.
 Her eyes went from face to face. 1 Why, whats the matter?' she de- ! manded. You don't think it's-do you, Richie? Do you Jim?" Richie merely flung up his head and set his lips. Jim put one arm around her.
 He's pretty i'll. dear" he said, gently, and Julia found his smooth | tenderness infinitely less bearab1e | than Richie's blntness.
 "Why, but what are you talking about-what do you mean Il don't know what you mean!" Mrs To- | land said bewilderedly. Doctor | Barr has gone home, Richie; he said he wouldn't come back unless we sent for him!" MO one answered from Julia's grave face to Richards sprrowful one, from Ned's despair ing figure by the fire to Jim's trou- bled look. terror seemed to seize her. Her pretty middle-aged face wrin-
 kled; she began to cry bitterly. Julia put her in deep chair, knelt | before her. trying rather to calm than to comfort her, and after a
 while so far succeeded that she could take the poor shaken old lady up- stairs. She did not glance again at Jim, although he opened the door for them, and tried his best to catch her eye.
 Between and o'clock he was I summoned to the sickroom. They were all there: the girls on their
 knees, Richard kneeling by his fa- ther, his fingers on the falling pulse. Mrs. Poland was seated, Julia kneel-
 ing beside her. holding both her cold
 hands. A sound of subdued sobbing filled the air; no sound came from
 the dying man except when a f1utter-
 ing breath raised his chest. His
 eyes were shut; he appeared to be
 sleeping.
 The clock on the mante1 struck 6, and as if reused, Doctor Poland stir
 red a little. and whispered. "Janey!" Poor Janey'S head went down against the white counterpane; she never dreamed that the little-girl aunt, dead 50 years ago, with apple cheeks under a slattede .sun-bonnet, and more apples in her lunch bag. had come in a vision of old orchard and sunIbathed river, to put her
 "diHI 1llLle HdnQ III nef DfOCner'S g again, and lead him home. And before the clock struck again. Rob- ert Poland, with not even a twitch | of his kind old face, went smiling | away from earth in dream of child hood, and Richie. with a finger on | the silent pulse. and Jim,with a hand | on the silent heart. had said togeth- CT: "Gonei"
 An hour later Jim, standing fY11 of looked down to see Richie bring the | runabout to the front door. Down | the steps came Barbara. bare head | ed, and Julia, in her wide black hat and flying veil. The three talked | for few moments together, the light | from the open hall door falling on i their faces; then Julia got into the I last word to Barbara. her face com 1 posed and sweetly grave. then turned | to Richie. and they were gone.
 Jim would have found 1t difficult | to analyze his own emotion. Some- thing in that look toward Barbara, So brave and quiet. so bright with some inward serenity, stirred his heart He went downstairs to meet | Barbara in the hall.
 Where's Rich? asked Jim, in the hushed voice that had suplanted all the usual noise and gayety of the house. Hell be right back" Barbara said apathetica1ly. 'tHe's driving Julie to the boat" A
 For some reason Jim,s heart sank. He had supposed them as perform ing only some village errand. at the-l florists, the drug store, or the post office. A certain blank fell upon his spirits; Julia had her grievance, of 1 course, but she seemed singularly in- different to the-well, the appear-l ances of thingsi I.
 But Julia, alone on the boat. could have laughed in the joy of escape, in the new sense of freedom on which ! she seemed to float. Above all her sympathy for the family she so deep ly loved, and above the sorrow of her own very real personal loss, rose the conviction that Jim's sway over heart and soul was gone, l he was no longer godlike; no longer powerwul to hurt or to enchant her; he was just a handsome man nearing 40. not particularly in teresting, ot noticeably magnetic. not in any way.