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


You ask yourself all sorts OF questions
about them. and answer them, too, and
you must, at times, OF course, be most
sbsurdly wrong! For even when you
know people quite well, know their cir
cumstances, know the way they talk
and behave, you are, as often as not,
quite in the dark about their real selves,
their real lives.
A good many Of the neighbors saw
the Fosters leave New York for Con-
necticut. 1t was the sort of early
Spring day when Winter has come back
for something II left behind, and it was
raining-but. oh, what an inadequate
word that is for what was happening!
The rain was coming down in sheets;
the wind drove water before it In a
solid mass. But the Fosters moved,
Just the same; two big. red vans backed
up in front of their apartment house
about half past 10, and a lot of the
neighbors stood or sat in their windows
and looked on.
Neighbors do look out Of their win
dwos, even in New York. and they see
a lot, and get to know good deal about
people with whom they never come to
be on speaking terms, even.
1t wasn't any surprise to the neigh
bors to see the vans back upS that
rainy morning, and the men begin to
carry furniture and boxes out to them.
They'd known the Fosters We're NOV
ing up to Connecticut, and the nicer
ones among them were rather glad.
For, you see, so far as they could posi-
bly, be expected to understand matters,
there was nothing out of the ordinary
about this moving, except, perhaps. the
rain.
Here was just another nice young
couple that had decided to get out Of
the city and go to live in the country.
You can, even in New York, pick up
scraps of news from butchers and ice
men and such folk. So the neighbors
knew that the Fosters were going up
10 an old house, somewhere up New
Canaan way, that young Mr.. Fosters
father owned. And very nice 1t seemed
that they should be doing so. There
was a particular reason, perhaps.
maybe young Mrs. Foster.
No one knew about that, but some Of
the neighbors were quite hopeful, for
this was just the sort of young couple
that ought to have a little family.
So, about noon, the trucks got away,
numbering off in the rain, and. a little
after that young Mr.. Foster came down,
and his pretty wife, too, and he made
her snug with blankets, and got IN
beside her and drove away.
The neighbors couldn't see the
Fosters, Of course, as they drove off,
in their big roadster, with It's tires
strapped on behind. and its important
horn. They couldn't see the way they
looked straight ahead, and never at
one another, and the way they didn't
smile at all, but just sat there, in a
grim sort Of silence. hwith sullen, brood
ing eyes, and tight lips. And that was
just as well, for illusions are pleasant
things, much pleasanter, often, than
facts.
It wasn't surprising that the young
Posters should behave as they did,
though. For these two, who had been
married not quite four years, never
spoke to one another any more unless
they had to. They didn't quarrel much,
any more, but that was simply because
they were long past the quarTeling
stage. And each of them wondered,
rather bitterly, rather savagely, indeed,
how in the world they had ever imagin-
ed they cared for one another enough
to be married. Put IL in as few words
as possible-their marriage had come to
an utter, complete smash.
X x x x
WELL, then, you may ashland quite
w reasonably, too-why on earth
were they off, together. for this house
in the country? II they had come to
grief so completely in town. what chance
Connecticut ridge?
And the direct answer is that they
had had no choice; that they'd had to
go, and go, what was more. together
But to understand that, of course, you
must know something about how they
had come to the pass in which you see
them, and about what sort Of young
people they were, Dick Foster and Anne,
who had been Anne Luray before she
Arn AM ha
patient, too, while you learn little
about their families, or, at least, their
parents.
The Fosters and the Lurays were
nice people more or less old New York
ers. not blatantly wealthy, but very
comfortably off. The Fosters lived in
a big house near+the park on the East
Side, the Lurays in just about as big
a house near Riverside Drive. They
hadn't known one another before Dick
and Anne became engaged, but, after
that, they met, naturally, and got along
very well.
They were very simple, sensible peo-
pie, these elder Fosters and Lurays.
They wondered among themselves,
sometimes, in an amused sort of way,
what the world was coming to. But
they didn't grow hysterical about the
younger generation; they remembered
There hadn't been much excitement
about Anne's bobbed hair and bare
knees, or about Dicks conviction that
he needed a car at college, or about
the way they went about together at
all hours, before and while they were
engaged
And there wasn't any show of disci-
pline. The older folk simply decided to
wait and see how it all turned out.
n
they trusted them, too. And they en-
couraged them 10 get married at once,
and, indeed. made that possible. Mr..
Luray continued Anne's allowance, and
Mr.. Foster agreed to supplement Dick g
salary. which wasn't very large. And
there was many gifts for the apartment
from both sides.
1t looked, really, like an excellent
match. There never were two young
sters more In love than Anne and Dick.
And so far as money went, Dick was
doing well, even If his earnings weren't
large. He was with Landsdowne &
Beale, the architects, which would
give him a certain standing when he
was ready to start for himself, and he
had. it was understood, marked talent.
And, OF course, both he and Anne had
definite expectations.
Mr.. Foster was the vice president
and the actual head of a corporation
that made incredible numbers of player
pianos and monographs, and Mr..
Luray was one of those inconspicuous
lawyers whose professional income
averages well along in five figures,
year after year.
X
FOR the first year, too, everything
Il went well. Anne and Dick had a
marvellous time. After that-well after
that, they Just didn't, and 1t isn't at
all easy to put your fingers on the rea-
son why. There wasn't any one reason,