The Republican journal., 1922-09-21
Loves Old
Dream
BY MARTHA MACwILLIAMs
s*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*z*x%x*x*x*


If blushing in sleep is wholly impos-
sibe, Mrs. BETTE JEWS Lawrence
achieved that impossibilty Certainly
she awoke feeling horribly embar-
raised, full Of hot shame and self
disgust. But as she sat up. rubbing
an eye, glancing about her fine, or
Derby room. her mood changed utterly
--she fell back upon the pillow with
gurgling laugh as she realized that
her troubling was dream-nothing
more.
She lived alone and self-suficient-
had done it all the thirty years since
her young husband had died when they
were hardly past the honeymoon No
recluse; rather a Lady Beneficent,
helping here, there. everywhere, in
sickness or health at funerals or fes-
tivals. The neighborhood, whole and
several. swore by her. Some units
OF IT swore at her-deep down.
On the surface it would have been
dangerous even for man who had
wooed and wooed, only to be laughed
away, not with scorn, but in the kind
Hest fashion. Nobody had ever been
rejected outright-Mrs. Betty was too
wise, exc too kind, for that. She gave
hearty approval to second marriages
for other people.
Yet she did not plead devotion to a
7 memory-rather a personal shrinking
| from any renewal of the double es-
| tate. From the height of a serene
maturity she saw clearly such changes
in herself, as might have made exist
ence with poor, dead Dudley not a
way Of roses. But never by any chance
did she name such things outside. In
deed, they remained inarticulate even
to her inner Consciousness.
And she had walked from dream
wholly incredible-that PRESLEY Dan
bridge, whom she barely knew, had
driven to her doorstep, asked her out
of hand to marry him--that she had
consented on the spot filed with a
sudden curious heart-warming toward
him-that when she had gone for her
hat so as to drive away with him to
a minister she had come back to
space empty of all but a small grin
ming black lad, who had piped cheer
lily: Pat ar gentemun he told me
ter take an tell YOU he amt never
comm back. no mo-
Matter enough for bushes, even by
a widow Of fifty, yon will admit. Mrs.
Betty's sense of fiTmor was of the
liveliest-as the situation cleared she
io1tt-h1I an fill cba ,.ros
Tie joke was too good to keep all
to herself AS soon as she had her
bath She called up her nearest neigh
Dor and dear gossip. Nanny Stowe,
and told her all about it, AS she talked
she heard gurgles and explosions of
laughter over the wire-then, stoppage
as of hand over the transmitter
which made her certain Nanny was
retelling the story.
But she did not mind until as sound
muImurs began again she caught
among them a word or two in the
growing bass that could belong to
nobody but Nanny's Uncle Jimmy.
That wouldn't have mattered in the
least except for the fact that Uncle
Jimmy and PRESLEY cambridge We're
sworn comrades. Also, that men were
notorious gossips; hence Mr.. Dan
bridge, a widower just feeling his free
! dom, would be sure to hear the whole
mess-thus Mrs. Betty mentally char
acterized it, But she called shrilly,
please, please, Uncle jim, shake your
niece Nanny good and hard for betray-
ing my confidence, and then give your
whole mind to forgetting you heard
what she said"
agreed, provided you won't forget
what YOU dreamed" Uncle Jim said
with huge, signing chuckle. Lord
To think of your wasting that on a
dream man-'specially such as Old
Press. More'n a dozen of us old bald
coots, sighin widderers and moss
backed bachelors, matches to me,
J have been ready and anxious to have
you even look at us, ever since you took
off black. Why any of us'd give his
best smile, and his hopes of heaven
for even half chance ter spark you.
| call it right down un-Christian, this
dreamin' stunt
"Wait till | see you. Wire won't
carry what you deserve" Mrs. Betty
! flung back, slamming the receiver on
the hook. Uncle Jim shook his head,
really achieving creditable sigh.
"Betty's the best of all women" he
said judicially to Niece Nanny, moving
| ponderously In her wake to the wait
ing breakfast table.
He looked over it with approval-it
was so neat. so pretty, the smell or
everything enough TO drive a hungry
man crazy. And he might have it all
| the time instead of only when he
STAYED all night somewhere, If only he
had a wife-the right sort.
Betty was the right sort-nO better
housekeeper in the county-easy to
look at. as the boys said, trim and
light on her feet. even if she was close
on fifty. OF course she'd never really
look at a man who had no looks to
sneak of-nor much else besides land
and money, and live stock-things for
which he had paid with his youth, his
middle age. Work had absorbed him,
been the antidote TO heartbreak back
In the early twenties when Jilt had
played with him. Suppose he had had
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