Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-01-25
But It's What They Didn't Suspect That Makes Story

Yes, you wiz" she jeered. You'll
| never make any money! I wish I'd
died before 1 ever saw you"
x * X X
IT'S been made perfectly plain al
ready, hasn't 1t, that Dick was no
hero of romance. but just a perfectly
| decent. human chap, with an average
sort of temper? He didn't try any
soft answer to that; he famed up
again and was just as angry as she.
We'll. anyway-we've got to CO."
he said. mo two ways about that.
l thought we might try to be decent
to one another. But have 1t your
own wayw
So they went away together. in the
rain, in the car that was one Of the
principal reasons for their unpaid
bills, and the neighbors watched
them, sentimentally. and waved
handkerchief and wished them luck.
| Well, they needed good wishes, GER
tainly!
Now. between Dick and Kate Win
ston-who, as has been said, wasn't
a bad sort of woman at all-there
really hadn't been anything at all
serious. He'd liked to be with her
and talk to her. But he wasn't
thinking about her at all as he drove
off. He'd had his jolt, and a pretty
future. He had to make good now
and he knew it, and knew, too, that
1t wasn't going TO be easy. He was
going to hate committing, for one
thing, and it was going to be lonely
as the deuce. For, OF course, Anne
would get around her people pretty
soon, and clear out. He was max
ing his plans already. He'd sell this
car and get fivver. And-oh, we'll
h Ind - 4
Anne was a lot worse off than he,
| really. She'd taken George VreeIand
and his technique a lot more seriously
than she should have done. or than
George-who, after all. was getting
along, and beginning to like peace
had intended her to do. And shed
seen him, a couple of days ago, and
told him everything, and practically
put 1T up to him to do something
about 1T, and newell, she'd realized,
suddenly. that he was trying to let
her down easily, and that he didn't
care a bit, and-she'd had a pretty
bad time, for that sort OF thing,
while 1t may. ultimately. be very
good for ones soul, is about as rotten
to go through as anything that can
happen to one. But Dick didn't
know this; knowing George vreeland.
he hadn't, really, ever taken that
One of the reasons Anne scowled
so, and looked ahead OF her so
grimly, was that it was all she could
do, as they drove uptown and out
toward White Plains, to keep from
breaking down and bowling and
telling Dick all about 1t. There
hadn't been a soul she could tell; that
was the very worst OF 1t!
1t was a miserable trip. There
chester, and the old rim was almost
frozen to the wheel, so that it took
ages to get 1t off. And they had to
stop and eat some lunch, and the
service was abominably slow, and
they were supposed to overhaul the
trucks, somewhere on. the way, and
lead them TO the house. But they
needn't have worried about that be-
cause they passed them below Darien,
and had to wait half an hour after
all. at the turn for New Canaan,
which, for a time, was their road.
"Gosh" said Dick, when the trucks
did come. Il don't like the looks of
those side roads! Those trucks are
pretty heavy"
Silence from Anne.
So he drove on, liking the looks of
the dirt roads that came straying
down to the concrete less and less.
at all any more, but like young rivers
in food. And how il rainedl He
stopped. after a while, and got out
and put chains on all four wheels.
because he had feeling that his car
was going to need all the traction
it could get before long.
< X
THEY turned off the concrete pres
emily and took to a road that,
as it had been macadamized once. a
long time ago, was still wholly
passable. And all the time Anne
just sat there, not saying a word, but
lighting a cigarette now and then.
That hurt Dick, too, in the oldest
way, because, in the old days. when
they liked one another, she'd always
lighted his cigarettes for him when
he was driving. He didn't see why
the deuce she couldn't be half way
decent now. They were up against
this thing; II was their own fault,
pretty much, that they were: why not
make the best of it? Still he wasn't
taking any more chances of having
his face slapped, verbally. But he
wished she'd give him a cigarette
though he'd have died before he
asked for onei
They'd begun to climb now. and