The Washington herald., 1922-08-10
Co1fsmxss from Yesterday.


-. After q moment she found a
pencil and holding II unsteadily drew
three parallel lines beneath the last
entry. Then she printed fIN1s In
large capitals, put the book back In
the drawer. and crept into bed.
Breath of the cave.
Back In his apartment after the
bridal dinner. Anthony snapped out
his lights and. feeling impersonal and
fragile as a piece of china waiting
on q serving table. got into bed. IT
was a warm night-a sheet was
enough for comfort-and through his
wide-open windows came sound. evan
escent and summery. alive with re-
mote anticipation. He was thinking
that the young years behind him.
hollow and colorful. had been lived
in facile and vacillating cynicism
upon the recorded emotions of men
long dust And there was something
beyond that; he knew now. There
was the union of his soul with Clio
ria's, whose radiant fire and fresh
ness was the living material Of which
the dead beauty of books was made.
From the night into his high
walled room there came. persistently.
Nhdl CNdhC5CChA uAoSOANh6 ooehNs
something the city was tossing up and
calling back again. like a child play
ing with a ball. In Harlem. the
Bronx. Gramercy Park. and along the
water-fronts. in little parlors or on
pebble-strewn. moon-hooded roofs. a
thousand lovers were making this
sound. crying little fragments of 1t
into the air. All the city was playing
with this sound out there in the blue
summer dark. throwing II up and
calling 1t back. promising that. in A
little while. life would be beautiful as
a story. promising happine sand
by that promise giving it. It gave
love hope IN its own surva, 1t
could do no more.
1t was then that a new note
separated itself jarringly from the
soft crying of the night. 1t was a
noise from an areaway within hun
dred feet from his rear window. the
noise of a woman's laughter. 1t be-
gan low. incessant and whining
some servant-maid with her fellow.
lie thought-and then il grew in
volume and became hysterical, until
it reminded him of a girl he had seen
overcome with nervous laughter at
a vaudeville performance. Then it
sank, receded, only to rise again and
include words a coarse joke. some
bit of obscure horseplay he could not
distinguish. 1t would break off for a
moment and he would just catch the
low rumble of a mans voice, then be-
gin again-interminab at first an
noyins, then strangely terrible. He
shivered. and getting up out of bed
went to the window. 1t had reached
Il high point. tensed and stified. al
most the quality of scream-then
il ceased and left behind 1t a silence
empty and menacing as the greater
silence overhead. Anthony stood by
the window a moment longer before
he returned 20 his bed. He found him.
self upset and shaken. Try as he
might to strangle his reaction. some
animal quality in that unrestrained
laughter had grasped at his ina gina
tiOn. and for the first time in four
months aroused his old aversion and
horror toward all the business of life.
The room had grown smothery. He
wanted to be out in some cool and
bitter breeze. miles above the cities.
and to live serene and detached back
in the corners of his mind. Life was
that sound out there, that CHASTITY
reiterated female sound.
"Oh my God" he cried, drawing
IN his breath sharply.
Burying his face in the pillows ha
tried in vain to concentra.e upon
the details of the next day.
MorninE.
In tA gray light he found that it
was only five o'clock He regretted
nervously that he had awakened so