Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-07
THE BREAKING POINT
BY MARY ROBERTS RINEHART

automatically he found himself making an
investigation and pronouncing a verdict.
Later he was to realize that this was
the first peak of submerged memory, ris-
ing above the flood At the time all he
felt was a great certainty. He must act
quickly or the man would not live. And
that night, with such instruments as he
could extemporze, he operated. there was
no time to send to a town.
All night, after the operation, Dick
watched by the bedside, the woman NOV
ing back and forth restleSsy He gos his
only knowledge of their story, such as 1t
was. then when she said once:
81 deserved this but he didn't. L TOOK MIN
away from his wife"
He had to stay on after that, for the.
woman could not be left alone. And he
was glad of the respite, willing to drift
until he got his bearings. Certain things
had come back, following the night OF the
operation; David clearly, Lucy not so clear
ly; bit of his experience in France But
David came first; David in the buggy with,
sagging springs ,David's loud voice and
portly figqfe, David, steady, and upright
and gentle as a woman. But there was
something wrong about David He puz-
zled over that, but he was learning not to
try to force things, but to let them come
to the surface themselves.
1t was two or three days later that he
remembered that David was i'll, and was
filled with a sckening remorse and anx-
iety. For the first time he made plans TO
get away, for whatever happened after that
he knew he must see David again.
Mixed I'D with his determination to sur
render, the idea of atonement was strong
in him. There was the necessity of atone
ment, which involved surrender, and there
was the call of David, and the insistent
desire to see Beverly again, which was the
thing he would not face. OF the three, the
last mixed I'D as it was with the murder
and its expfation, was the strongest, for by
the very freshness Of his released memo
ries it was the days before his flight from
the ranch that seemed most recent, and
his life with David that was long ago, and
blurred in its details as by the passing of
infinite time.
When Elizabeth finally came back to him,
it was as something very gentle and re-
mote, out Of the long-forgotten past Even
his image of her was blurred and shadowy.
He could not hear the tones of her voice..
or remember anything she had said He
could never bring her at will, as he could
David, for instance. When she did come
it was mostly at night, while he slept When
the guard was down, and there crept into
his dreams a small figure, infinitely loving
and tender; but as he reused from sleep
she changed gradually into Beverly. 1t was
Beverly's arms he felt around his neck.
Nevertheless. he held to Elizabeth more
completely than he knew for the one thing
that emerged from his misty recollection
of her was that she cared for him. In
world of hate and bitterness, she cared
But she was never real to him, as the
other woman was real. And he knew that
she was lost to him, as David was losts
He could never go back to either of thems
AS time went on he reached the point
of making practical plans. He had lost
his pocketbook somewhere, probably during
his wanderings afoot, and he had no money!
He knew that the obvious course was to
go to the nearest settlement and surrender
himself, and he played with the thought,
but even as he did SO he knew that he
would not do it. Surrender he would,
eventually, but before he did that ne would
satisfy the craving that was in some ways
like his desire for liquor that morning on
the trail. The reckless, mad and irresist-s
ible impulse, to see Beverly again.
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