Evening star., 1922-12-10
Unexpected Assistance Comes When
Young Married Couple Is Rounding
the Hardest Corner on the Journey.


" " Poulter knows it and
Hayward knows it and I
know it. Everybody knows it but
YOU. Why don't you face it" Elsie
Sawyer paused in mid breath: search
ed mentally for further vitriol to
pour into the wounds the k1ives of
her wrath were makins-"face it like
a man. she finally concluded.
keene Sawyer made no reply: but
he fixed his wife with his blank.
bright gaxe. His silence seemed only
to whip her to further frenzies. ''The
idea. The conceit of it. To think
that you, Keene Sawyer. the super
intendent Of baby motor-parts fac
tory in little town in tho middle
west, could come to New York and
sweep all before you. Efficiency.
Of all the men I've ever known to
think that you would be the one to
take up efficiency. A man who can't
put q stud in his own shirt cuff with
out fumblinS it,
Again Keene Sawyer made no reply.
What you don't get" Elsie's voice
whirled on, "but what l do Is that
we're small-towners-you and l. AS
for me. I'm proud Of It. 1 hate this
city. I hate it! hate it, 1t was bad
enough in the winter. and now that
summer has turned it into 4 hell
hole And to sit here night after
night, waiting for you to come home.
Never going anywhere. Nobody to go
anywhere with. Nowhere to go if
there was. Well, you can do what
YOU please, but my mind is made up.
I'm not going to stay here any
LONGER. I'm going home. You can
go with me or follow or not-I don't
care"
Sha came to the end 81 the breath
which had volleyed these boiling
words into the dead air OF the mid
summer morning: stood painting. Eut
before she caught it again, Keene
Sawyer spoke.
III you go, you go alone" he said.
But he said it tonelessly; and for the
first time since their quarrel began.
the authority went out Of his voice.
lie arose. casting mechanical. search
ing glances about the room. His eyes
fell finally on the rim of straw
hat, protruding from under last
nights paper. He seized it: made
toward the door.
TLSIE fixed her eyes on his retreat
l. ing back. keene was a slight
angular figure. nervously made. ner-
vous,y organized. His coat. falling
over his round shoulders. always
creased down the line of his spine.
"Come home or not. don't care what
YOU do" she called after him. quick
to perceive her advantage. All along
she had managed to keep her voice
low; but now cutting shrilliness
gave 1t something of the quality Of
a scream You'll find me all packed
and my ticket bought for home. I'm
through"
At this-his slim. nervous hand on
the knob-Keene turned. For an in
slant he seemed about to speak. But
he bit off the word at the very rim
,s his lips: threw his wife one OF his
haeeard. hopeless glances; opened the
door: slammed it: disappeared.
For a while Elsie sat or the couch
motionIess, her slender figure bent
forward at almost a right angle. her
elbows supported BY her knees. her
face lying in her scooped hands. Then
the heat drove her to her feet She
arose and moved lis:lessly over to the
windows. where she leaned out and
looked at the day. The high city.
pressing it into the long narrow box
which was her universe, almost shut
1t away from her. The top Of that box
was a strip Of sky. brassy with heat:
one end, a band of river that seemed
to exude a hot. blue steam; the other
the dusty clang and clatter of Broad
way. Across the way. as though she
looked into a gigantic mirror, rose the
south side Of that box-a high apart
ment, exactly like her own, xig-sagged
along its front with fire escapes. The
bottom was a slatternly street lined
with rows Of ash barrels and garbage
cans.
Elsie's weather sense informed her
1T had become doubly acute after
nine months in the city-that today
was going to be warmer than yester-
day. And yesterday-the last three
days. hot hotter, hottest-had seemed
to scrape the very limits Of her en-
dufance.
Moving languidly, she walked
through the small living rom to the
snaller bedroom, to. smallest of all.
the dining room. Everywhere on the
furniture thick layers of dust hased
glossy surfaces; everywhere on the
bare painted floors thin rolls of dust.
like the ghosts. Of mice, fiurried back
from her tanning skirts. In the first
room the bed had not been made. In
the dining room the half-eaten break
fast had not been cleared away; the
stifeensd orange husks, the dried-up
oatmeal bowls were empty. The
eggs lay in ossif1ed yellow pools be-
side strips Of bacon. soldered by their
own fat to the plate. Their undrunk
coffee. cold and repellant, filled the
cups. A little mound OF toast Eat
under a flm Of melted butter. Her
napkin, barely creased, on the table,
Kssne's. q balled wad In the corner
lay where they had been thrown when
the quarrel-begun the night before
and resumed on rising-reached it's
climax.
She had lot her housekeeping 60 in
the tropical onslaught Of the last
three days; now she went to work
systematically. She washed and
wiped the dishes; stacked them In the
built In cabinet; proceeded to the front
room; began to mop the floors. But
this was not an unconscious protest
against the slatenly ways into which