The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-11-05

Had he not hung over her bedside while she was i'll?
 Why, it was the common belief that she. and Bob were eventually to be married!
 Then the most enraging thought of Mary's whole soliloquy dominated her.
 Probably he had made love to An nette-held her in his arms-just as he had dared insult her!
 Insult was the only word, Mary insisted.
 And yet there was queer, new ache in her heart. She was trapped. She was humbugged. Bob had not come to her bringing with him the satisfaction so dear to a woman's soul that she was his first and one regard-the one woman he had ever cared about
 What fool she had been 10 ex- pect this from his letter which had permit themselves to be deceitful
 Q. what should she do?
 Then new calamity faced her.
 The deedi She had forgotten, in the surprise of seeing Bob Landon instead of a stranger, to hand him back the title to this piece of prop erty. What an unendurable over- sight!
 She wtnld see it left the house by the next maill
 That gave her something to do that actually would furnish her the opportunity to. show Lob Landon how much she thought of his mis- erable pretense at adorlng her.
 A Lothario.
 And despite the fact that she re- called Beb's attitude when she and Annette had met him in the public restaurant that night Mary told her seif that he was probably a brute who desired to amuse himself in the rtle of gay Lothario.
 When she had finished with a eurt note refusing the deed to the yrop- erty. and asking that the papers be forwarded back to the owner, Mary knotted the package four times as securely as otherwise< she would if she had not been furious.
 She told herself if she had pre- viously hated Bob Landon, she now loathed him.
 She sped the aged Henry to the branch postoffice to see that the pa pers got away by the next outgoing sack.
 She had never shown her impolite- ness to Bob so that anyone might be able to observe or comment upon it. But, after this. she would not he oarefull He was nothing to her, and she would deliberately cut him upon any and all occasions.
 But getting away from the tedium of thought was Marys main con cern. She would go to picture snow. At least 1t would take her away from the ringing of the tele. phone--whfch she began also to find fault with.
 She Understood
 She hurried to her grandmother's room-but only to be reassured brightly by her relative that she was scarcely aware of having felt faint: and without hearing what was In Mary's mind, encouraged her to go for drive since you seem so pale, my dear.
 An, grandmother knewi
 But when Mary arrived at the DOT tals of the play house she stood transfixed to see Bob Landon help Ing into his super-six the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in her life.
 From the top of her head to her tiny feet, the stranger was an ador- able creature with wonderful masses pA So4uSH udiF anu bOD i<dnQOn was bending over her with every mark of asking her the most earnest ques- tion of his life.
 Mary suddenly felt as if she would sink upon the pavement It was not two women then--it was manyl She was only one of galaxy She al- most ran into the picture show, and had to be called back to produce her ticket.
 'I am going away" the red-haired girl was vowing, T am going, ana I'm never coming back to this mis- erable cityl"
 An hour of the picture passed her by and she was unconscious what it related except that. at the last. the great and passoinate lover turned out to be only poor hoax, and the heroine married a unstable, long-known chap from a nearby su- burb, who had adored her honestly for many years, and who was worthy of her trust.
 For the life of her, Mary could not help childishly but put Bob in the light of the fake hero, and Herbert McAllister in the role of the trusted and true friend.
 The Best Man
 Sometimes" admitted Mary, with dull misery In her heart, "I think Herbert is the best man in the world"
 But her thought sounded more sorrowful than flattering.
 Bob had not caught sight of Mary in front of the picture show down town. He was too engrossed.
 But though Mary was rarely curi- ous. she felt as If she must see An nette at once.
 She must hear something good or bad; ascertain whether Annette sus- pected his propensity for other att tractive femininity, also.
 Besides, Mary was determined to let it be known to Annette that she was "in" for any and all parties that gay young persons light heart might suggest. This would give her, She hoped, a chance to cut Bob--to sho wshim how she felt, anyway.
 For as rapidly as Mary had. de- cided to go away, she had as rapidly decided to remain in Birmingham.
 She wanted to make Bob Landon suffer.
 She wanted him to be punished as terribly as he was punishing her. And so she went to Annettes home.
 She found that young woman busily engrossed with checking off the list of guests she meant to in vite to one of the largest receptions of the season.
 Annette looked very beautiful in an old rose kimono and insisted that it was the height of her most ex- cruciating moment of happiness that Mary had come. Or words to that effect.
 nu~sxsU~
 But she was far from suspecting that Mary had really arrived with heart very hungry and wide open for every particle of gossip she might