San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-11-08
CHAPTER XXxVII
GRAsPING AT sTRAwS.

GRASPING Al SIh3WS.
Two or three times at the break
fast table Nora Lee decided 10 say
oh. very breezily, of course-"By tht
way. Dane, Max has about finished
novel. He asked me TO look over
the manuscript. can tell you l fee
rather honored. Hes bringing it this
afternoon. Try and get here early,
viii your"
But each time she remembered
the confusion of her emotions; the
flsre-up of jealousy and bitterness
that had rashly made her PROMISE
the afternoon 10 Max. She remem-
bered the scene at the piano when
Natalie lowered her head. her hands
falling on the keys; then the white
imploring look sent from her face to
Danes
She hadn't imagined the dramatic
tepsity of that moment; nor the
almost wild plea in Natalies vivid
eyes. 1t was there. 1t was real. \
living chord vibrant between the two
Of them; between Natalie and Dane.
The memory OF il muted Nora
Lees lips.
Why should she speak? II Dane
an: could she not have one with a
MANI
Yet as she dressed a pitiful trem-
bling seized her. She kept dropping
the comb. Her dress wouldn't stay
fastened. Finally she bit the clasp
with her teeth and ordered with hot
childish impstience: Damn thing
stay snapped
In the corner Of the room a little
black haired elf was zealously dust
ing the chairs with Danes handker-
chief. Then be shot marbles across
the polished surface. They fell TO
the floor. he picked them up and
squeezed them in an exultant fist
Damn tings, Tay derel Tsy dere,
/ say -
Nora Lee, hearing this, dropped in
q chair and burst into sudden tears.
Another time she would have laugh
ed with guilty joy. She would have
run over and caught the child in her
arms and gleefully ordered him not TO
copy her--copy his lovely daddy.
Now she was SO overweight the
trifling incident condemned her as an
utter failure-a woman who couldn't
bold her husband; a mother who
taught her child evil
WAS HE UNMOvED?
1t was futile to remind herself
that Dane was too fine, too honor
able, too deeply fond of her, too
fcolishly proud and gloating in that
little son of his 10 have more than
a random thought of others.
Why, he was a man and young
and that look on Nstalie's face was
a piercing avowal. If she had drop
ped on her knees in worship; If she
had said, Il am helpless-I love you
- it would not have been more OBJ
vious. Could a man receive such
passion of devotion and remain IN.
moved?
She drew the buffer back and
forth across her nails, keeping time
TO the fever of her thoughts. She
was dimly aware that she had made
the appointment with Max in a des-
perate grabbing at straws. Ye-she
had let herself fall into a rut. She
was fast becoming an empty and
beautiful corpse--a pretty gesture.
And no longer a vital, courageous
spirit.
STILL YOUTHFUL.
But she had time She was not
yet passed from the magic circle of
youth. She would win back all her
vivid enthusiastically her kindling
contacts with Life and thought and
cndeayor. She would become a person
again
And person so brilliant, go deep,
so capricious and appealing that a
thousand Natalie Herberts might |
pass in her shadow and never throw |
the slightest blur across her light.
By the time Max arrived she was
outwardly calm. She said TO her
self: 1T ie for him that ! do this. |
It's for our happiness. ] must have
interests. Max can give these 10 |
me- /
And she looked back pathetically |