Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-01-25

OF the month. when it became increas-
ingly hard to pay them all. And after
parties, when Dick, at first, would be
nice enough. and explain that, of course,
he knew 1t was perfectly all right, but
people did talk, and Anne oughtn't to
make herself conspicuous with any such
blighter as Jack Deane, and Anne
would turn the light protests into
something ugly and bitter by coming
back with remarks about Dick and his
inability to see through a vamp like
Kate Winston. And so on and so on.
They must have decided, at just
about the same time, that their mar
riage was a failure, a mistake. But
by that time, they couldn't, either one
of them, go to the other and try to
get things talked out; they weren't
lovers any more, and they never had
been friends. And each of them
probably, was a little scared, a little
appalled,, by the discovery. So they
went on, liking one another less and
less, and travelling a faster and faster
pace, and getting more and more into
debt. And just why they never hap
pened to strike the same obscure
little eating place at lunch time
when Anne was with George Vree-
land and Dick was with Kate Win
ston, who was, after all, a better
sort of woman than Annie said, and
did like Dick pretty well-Heaven only
knows!
An emotional crisis is costly sort
of luxury. Not so much directly as
in An indirect way. You grow nerv-
Gus, you see, and restless; you take
taxicabs instead Of the subway or a
bus And shops have a morbid sort
of fascination for you, particularly
shops where you have an account.
You buy all sorts of things you don't
need at all: clothes and hats, if you're
a woman. and clothes, too, II you are
a man, and neckties that, in your
intervals of comparative sanity you
know quite we'll you wouldn't wear
No. Affairs of this sort call for an
unlimited bank account. in effect.
A ND it was their bills that, with
n the young Fosters finally precipi-
tated the crash. Except for them
they would, quite possibly. have
divorce, about which their parents.
much as they would doubtless have
disapproved, couldn't have done very
much. But they had their last and
most blazing row when some of
Anne's creditors went to Dick with
their bills-which she should have
paid out OF her allowance, and hadn't.
And she knew about some of his I'M
paid bills, too, so that he didn't get
very far with what he had to say.
1t was then that there was the first
actual talk of a separation. and Dick
told, her, in effect, to go and be
hanged to her.
That was, though, about the last
gesture he was able to make. For
some of his creditors were, even
then, laying certain matters before
his father and Mr.. Foster took these
under Amusement, and had lunch with
Mr.. Luray, and they went uptown to-
gether, later, and brought their wives
as it happened.
when the Lurays went home for
dinner they found Anne there. She
had. she explained, left Dick; she was
going to Reno to get a divorce. She
continued to believe that for nearly
an hour. She had always had her
own way: it took quite a long time
for her to realize that this time she
couldn't. But she had to realize 1t;
had to realize IL, too. only little
more gradually. the CHASTITY thing her
parents meant to do to her-the
humiliation to which she was TO be
subjected.
There was, first and last, good
deal of straight talk that night, and
unpleasant it was to hear, too. Her
father told Anne that she couldn't go
to Reno unless she had some way OF
financing the trip herself; she was
to get no more money from him. Nor
could she come home to stay; she
wasn't wanted, to put it plainly. And
there was more.
Upon conditions, her bills and
Dicks were to be paid. But they
er;1 hal
go and live in a house the Fosters
owned, up New Canaan way-it had
been their Summer home before they
bought the new place at Greenwich.
And all the money they'd have would
be Dicks salary-since there was to-
be no more allowance for either of
them until the amount required to
pay their bills had been worked out,
so to speak, and, quite possibly, not
then.
They fought as hard as they could,
of course, both of them; they were,
for the first time in months, united
against a common foe. But they
didn't have a chance. And what they
did long after midnight, dong after
Anne had been carried over to the
Fosters for the continuance of the
brawl there, was to go back to their
apartment, dismally, by various sub
ways and street cars, and face hard
facts.
Look here-rm sorry, Anne" said
Dick. II don't mean-oh, hang it,
lots of people make a mess of mar
riage, and I s'pose we've both helped
about that. But, I mean-I'm sorry
can't ship you off to Reno and let
you have a chance to break away.
I'll work like the devil, thought
mayn't have to be for SO darned
long,
But Anne was much too bitter and
angry TO meet him half way, which
might have made some difference.