San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-03
Nora Lee Is Unable to
Shake Her Jealousy
of Natalie.
CHAPTER XXI

- . S4N An<hnAA
1t was the day following
Max's dinner. Nora Lee was
IN the back garden playing
with her little son. He had
a shovel and a bucket and
kept ladling little heaps of
sand.
Suddenly he saw a cluster
of white daisies in the lawn.
He dashed over eagerly and
picked one, returning with his eyes
shining in an ccstacy of discovery.
See! Sec." He held it tightly in
his fist. waiting breathless for her ap-
plause. He looked so like his father
with the merriness lurking over his
lips that she grabbed him up quickly
and murmured: Put it in my hair if
you want
He was deliberately painstaking,
twisting fine hairs, knotting the stem.
patting her head with a wise: He
Pity! You look pity"
PAIN OF DREAMS.
She laughed to find him delighted
with the task. He went resolutcly to
the daisy patch. picking the flowers
one by one and sticking them in her
hair until they made an uneven
wreath that struggled half way down
her forehead. Then hc turned her head
up and his eyes were blue jewels shin
ing on hers.
A wave of love, fierce and terrible
with pain swept over her. For the
child looked as she had always fancied
he would look; as she had visualized
him so often when Dane drew music
from his bow. Long, long before her
marriage these dreams had thrilled
her.
Now. watching her son, she went
back through those scenes. And they
caused her a vast, brooding ache.
All morning she had been recalling
them. And all morning her heart had
thudded mournfully.
SELF PITY.
She put the boy swiftly on the grass,
giving him a bag of colorcd pebbles.
Then she went back to her musings,
dropping her lids sharply over sting.
ing eyes, letting her hair fall over
her face so that the violet shadows
dcepened.
She said to herself: "Why do l do
this? / ought 10 be ashamed"
And moment later: Eyes
Ashamed, Idle thing, Nothing to do
but pity YOURSELF"
But the ache gnawed and gnawed.
Why? The evening had been perfect.
Never had Max been more sincerely
brilliant: meyer was Dane so exuber.
ant in his enthusiasms. This was al.
ways the mood Of his she most loved.
And Natalie had lost completely her
haughtiness her faint weary note OF
contempt. She had spoken and laughed
in pitch Of almost pure joyousness.
While she herself had been so ca.
priciously gay; she had looked so win
some that Dane said to her teasingly
when they started: wild flowers and
singing gypsies! Remember that:'
She was so stirred at this tribute
she could have embraced the world.
She was attuned only to happiness.
And then the trifling incident hap
pened-less than an incident. But it
had banished her joy. Her only cause
for gratitude now was this-no one
had noticed the subtle change in her
mood. Not even Dane.
1t happened in this way. After din
ner they were sitting in the big, half
rustic living room. Though it vas
September, the wind was cold. A fire
blszed low in the wide, cobblestone
hearth.
DANE LEADS WAY.
"Play for us, Natalie Max asked.
She leaned dreamily against the
cushions of a chair 80 deep it half
swallowed her. She shook her head.
"No-I haven't for so long, Max. And
it's too pleasant sitting here" She
hogan 10 talk OF operas she had gt