Evening star., 1922-11-11

/
! * hurriedly on their Journey
northward. Merriam Lindsey
and her father-in-iaw had
! been unable to procure com
| Portable train Accommodations. Ihe
: emotional hours through which she
had lived prior to the journeys start
/ had left her so exhausted that when
she finally cla,nbered into her upper
| berth she was literally too weary to
! rest.
! She buried her red brown head IN
! the pillows. shut her eyes tightly
like !. klddie's, tried opening them
! tried counting sheep and tried her
( best to stop thinking about the
; doubts and terrors that hung over
p; her, for she knew that tomorrow sne
| would need ali the strength she could
command. But sleep she could not
And as soon as morning vas even
| family gray. she rose and dressed
herself and went to sit in the dusty
observation car. The train ieant IKE
wild thing over a badly bAilastsu :, =
roadbed: it clattered and clanked its
way through driIpirg, forests.
| She felt frowsy and frumpy and un-
sroomed. Her spirits were at the
| lowest possible ebb. These noun :
tains and gor:es. looming tnrousa
horrible to her. The trees were
stripped OF their glory. She could
lind no solace in their bleak beauty
! Her terrible anger Of the night be,
fore was gone. Again the hurt anu
deserted feeling possessed her. What
ever she might have been to blame
! for in the dreadful weeks through
which she had lived since she and
John had been separated she felt that
she never had deserved So cruel a
punishment as had been mctcd out to
F, her. But she tried in vain to rouse
her oYn anger and could not.
; Maybe she thought forlornly.
| that was the very last time i'll my
! life I'll be so angry-perhaps In ola
and burnt out now.
| At two m"u came into the car
/ and spread out various papers and
documents She tried to focus her
+! gaze on il magazine che had picked
! up. put over ard over through her
e., mind raced silly sounding phrase
! that one Of them kept repeating. 1t
the train-''rough!y speaking.
! He was such a meek. harassed look
F; ing man that a sudden whimsical
thought occurred to her: it WAS i'm
possible to imagine him roughly
F., speaking"
He'd lie like woman she
thought. Like me. He'd mean to
speak roughly, but he'd just sound
| silly-hysterical"
! She CROPPED in her mind for the dra-
matte phrases that had been at her
tongues tip last nighi-thosc harsh
ou, when her anger at her missing
husband had boiled over. But they
! We're lost in the misery of the night.
Poor. poor Father Lindsay" she
thought compassionately. He'd never
seen me In such a. temper. l must
I saa
/; thought l was crazy
! Suddenly she found her tears
streaming with pity. Pity for john >
father and his people and for her
! children.
"A family is such a helpless thing"
her mind flashed for her. "All of it
suffers for anything that one of 1t
, wouldn't -settie-down person. John
has done terrible thing. for which
, all his people are disgraced.
She saw the men eyeins her. She
, tried to grope her way to the dress
ing room. and in the passa3eway, to
. her eternal chagrin. she stumbled
into another woman. a big. motheriy.
gray-halred person. And on that
strangers shoulders did Merriam
Lindsay put her little bronze head and
| weep and weep.
The woman was as human as She
; looked. She asked no questions. She
pulled the sobbing creature behind
the comfortable shelter of the dress
ing room door and bolted it. though
other women pounded on it in vain
and the porter came and demanded
that she unlock it.
Presently" she said calmly. My
friend is very i'll right now"
And when Merriam was beginning
to check her sobs the motherly per-
son showed her down on the dress
ling table chair and soothed and
petted her and washed her burning
cheeks and said, There. there" as