New Britain herald., 1926-07-22

missed him when he was away, and
she looked forward to his letters.
He wrote to her almost every
day and signed himself Yours al
ways, Bill or Yours for keeps,
Bill"
Merry was sure tina. he was
going to ask her to marry him the
next time he came to town.
II may as we'll take him, I sup
pose" she said to herself on a hot
June afternoon, two or three days
before her birthday. II like him
fine, and it would be nice to have
a home Of my own"
After all, 1t was tiresome having
nothing to do but sit here in the
shop all day, answering the tele-
phone or Strengthening out Lilies
sloppy account books.
If she were married to Bill, she
could live the way Cassie lived.
Cassie could lie in bed until noon,
have her breakfast there, propped
against a stack of lktle lacy pill
lows with a lace cap on her head
and a satin bed jacket around her
pretty shoulders.
Cassie could buy all the clothes
she wanted. She could play bridge
all afternoon If she wanted to, and
dance half the night If she felt like
it. She had no job waiting for her
the next morning. No yelping alarm
clock. Nothing but leisure, and a
good time.
And yet she doesn't look a bit
happier NOW than she did before
she was married" Merry was
forced to admit to herself.
AS matter of fact, Cassie did
not look nearly so happy these days
as she had six months ago.
Her Observation-Disclosures mouth
turned down at the corners now,
more than it ever had before.
There was a guarded look in her
green eyes.
She had new way of swapping
Morley up, sometimes, too.
you told that one the other
night" she would say sharply to
him, if he repeated a joke he had
heard. And it wasn't very funny
to begin with"
More than ever Merry wondered
If Cassie cared for him-if she ever
had cared for him.
Perhaps she had, but had gotten
over it as people get over most
things from measles to maladies of
the romantic heart.
Perhaps this was what marriage
did to people-made them stop car
ing for each other in the beautiful
nonsensical way that sweethearts
care for each other! Merry Won
dered.
Then, on the morning of her own
birthday-her twenty-first birthday
"a little thing happened that re-
stored her faith in love and mar
riage and human happiness.
Helen's first baby was born that
in the little house out on
Wandsworth road. 1t was a little
boy and 1t was born just as the six
o'clock bells were ringing from
the steeple of the Catholic church
q mile away.
At seven Mons telephoned Merry
and asked her to bring her roll
of flannel from a certain trunk in
the attic of the house. Mons had
been staying at Helen's house for
the last week, waiting for the ar
rival of her first grandchild,
The screen door was not hooked,
when Merry reached the little
house on Wandsworth road. She
went in and tiptoed up the stairs
to Helen's room.
The door of it stood open, and
Bill Hepworth was kneeling beside
the bed where his wife and his
brand-new son lay.
Merry had always thought of Bill
Hepworth as a dull good hearted
sort of Babbitt-a fit mate for the
stolid Helen.
They made her think of team
Of heavy, slow, patient plough
horses, plodding along side by side.
Surely they had nothing of Ro-
IliliAo ~
their uninteresting lives!
And so she was not at all pre-
pared for the thing that happened.
as she stood there on the threshold
of the darkened room.
Darling" Helen said to her hus-
band, one of her hands In both of
his. Darling. ! knew all along that
he would be a boy, and that he
would look like you, just as Mons
says he does. If you wish hard
enough for thing, you always get
it. ] wished for you, all over
again, and I've got you. I've got
you"
Her free arm went around the
tiny bundle beside her, that she
said was bill all over again." And
there was kind of glory in her
tired low voice as she said it.
There was a queer tight feeling
around Merry's heart as she tiptoed
down the stairs and lump of un-
she'd tears in her throat.
She could hear Mons moving
around in the little kitchen. But
she did not go near her. She laid
her roll of flapnel on the dining
room table and fled out into the
glare of Wandsworth road. She
Knew that If she so much as spoke
o anyone she would burst into
.ears-and she didn't know why.
either!
But that minute at the door of
delen's bedroom had settled one
TACT for her, forever and ever.
Love and beauty did not go out
If life, when two people married.
Not always, anyway. She knew she
had left Paradise behind her in
he modest little house that was
ike all its modest little neighbors.
That night Bill Erskine came. i
He came without sending word
hat he was coming.