The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1925-05-18

Now she was a little cool and
wanted this.
The door SWING open. She pre-.
tended to walk on swiftly. She
looked back. No one was coming.
And she reached the street car;
let three pass, then five. Weights
of iron seemed hung from her Shout
ders, bearing her down. She said to
herself miserably, mot coming
ah!'
At last she got on the car. squeez-
ing herself in the corner. She didn't
think. His eyes. blazing with fury,
followed her, His hand, suddenly
selling her wrists, was there like
burn.
Her frenzy ebbed. She grew mis-
cradle, with chill, flutteing dis
quiet. She tried to go back over the
scene; she could only remember its
shrill indifference. And now it
seemed unreal, incredible. Why had
she done this?
The happiness of the past weeks
flashed like sun in her face-the
nights they had watched the water,
her head-on his shoulder; the long
Sundays on the hilltop.
She was half moved to get off the
car, dash back. Then she began to
expect that he was following her.
He would be at the house when she
arrived. He would say, impulsively,
1iefA NJ
this'-
But he wasn't there. He had gone
back to the office. And now, per-
haps, he was standing moodily at
the window thinking of her. Oh,
he would be sorry. He would pick,
up the telephone
She saw him doing these things.
She wandered aimlessly about her
room, stopping at the bed, at the
bureau-waiting The phone didn't
ring.
The night became insupportable.
She felt as though she were being.
flung now this way, now that. One
moment her mind seethed with In
dignation; the next it was chilled
and humble.
When she lay in bed. going over
It endlessly, fighting it off. then WOO
ing it back, she suddenly saw his
face alive with merriment as he had
come swinging toward her. She saw
1t like this, then f1attening in that
annoyed resignation.
Mary-what did she know-lot she
knew Mary had plunged her into
IN HE went into the office the
IN next morning in a hard.
III steely quiet. She glanced to
his window-saw a shadow. She felt
her breath, hot. bursting.
At noon, tipping relentlessly, she
was nevertheless waiting for his
form to come to the Window boy
ish grin to light his mouth. full cut,
sweet.
The noon hour soon passed. Janina
said: Suppose we chow, together,
baby? You don't seem engaged"
Janina was talkative. A young
girl both of them knew was suing
for divorce. The papers were full
of 1t as they had been Of the mar
riage- year previous. This fur
nished Janina with a theme.
"Thts comes" she pronounced
with her infallible air, "of allowing
youngsters to sign away their lives.
AS I've always held, no man under
80, no girl under twenty-five should
be allowed to contract permanent
marriage"
'Ho-Janina, Permanent any.
thing! They don'tr'
But there's all this bother about
divorce; all this unnecessary pub
Lefty. Does no good to any one. In
my plan there would be trial con-
tracts for the younger set. When
the ties were found intolerable to
either party, as Of course they're
bound to be sooner or later. they
could be set aside. Why not? Since
first loves never last, and yet they
will have their sway"
Family: why shouldn't they
last, Janina7"
mo foundation, ole dear. Moth
thing but the grand animal urge
that sweeps everything out of its
way. When it's appeased, nothing
left to hold the pair together
Lots Of first loves lastl How can
you know that it's only a kind of
attraction"
by its folly, baby! BY its blind
Typical case in your own mitts, ole
dear. Otherwise you'd grab off the
man who could give you happiness
plus, and you wouldn't be languish-
ing for the grand and glorious
Galahad of the empty pocketsg'
Chickie shut her eyes. smiling
vaguely. She managed to say:
THAT wise you are. Janina! But
watch"
Janina's words condemned him.
Listening to them, Chickie wanted
to steal away; never to look at that
window again. There was no glad
ness left on earth.
All afternoon she worked in this
bleakness. At o'clock she said to
herself coldly: "No-Irl not go
down there. Let him phonei He
might know / didn't mean all that"
Yet her steps took her to the al
ley She waited. Girls passed. She
pretended to walk back to the Of
flee. She glanced upward to his
building.
Cruelty 1t came to her that ne
wasn't coming. She was alone in
the narrow street.