New Britain herald., 1928-02-02

eyes and telling her that she never would be honest or straight or de- cent in all probability.
 We'll. she would be honest and decent and straight! At least. she would try to be. But it was going to be hard, for she never had thought of herself as being anything else until Pat, with his straight-laced ideas about such things, came along.
 Forgetting to slip her feet into the fur-lined slippers beside the bed, or even to put on the negliges that hung over the foot-rail in readiness for her, she went across the room to her writing desk and pulled out pen and paper from the drawer.
 "staiey dear" she wrote, ''it's three in the morning, and 50 I am going to write this and mail it to your office instead of telephoning you. as I would at any other time.
 T want to tell you that Pat is sick ard 50 am going to him. It does not mean A thing-my going down there where he is-except that after all, I am still married to him. and a mans wife ought to be with him when he is very sick. As soon as know that he is we'll cared for, I will come home. So perhaps I'll be back at the house before you get this. But I want to write 1t to you anyway. just to be honest with you. Lilly"
 She did no realize how much she had written between the lines of the half-hysterical little note that she though was go calm and sen- sible. Without another thought, she folded it, put it into an envelope, addressed 1t, and stamped it.
 Then she began to dress.
 She dressed as she never had dressed before in her life. Forget ting to comb her hair or brush her teeth, forgetting to bathe or even to wash, she began to hurry into her clothes.
 Probably for the first time in twenty years, she dressed without so much as a single glance at her self in a looking glass. She did not care how she looked. She did not even think of her appearance. :. Every thought in her mind was for Pat. every nerve in her body strain- ing to reach him.
 Jamming her hat down over her cars. and slipping into her coat, she opened the door of her room. As she stepped out into the hall a line of light suddenly appeared under the door of her mothers room on the other side of it.
 Then, almost at once, the door was opened and Mrs. Lexington stood there on the threshold, her eyes full of sleep and bewilderment and curiosity. "I thought ] heard something" she said, her puzzled gaze on her daughters white, star ing face. "What under the sun are you doing this time. of night?"
 She came step closer and took the girl by her arm. "Cy! Shes walking in her sleep!" she called, half turning her head in the direc- tion of the bedroom she had just left.
 Lily made a sound in her throat that was intended for a laugh.
 "Oh, Mother. What nonsense." she said. I'm just as wide awake as you are"
 You didn't speak. You didn't an- swer me-" Mrs. Lexington cried. sharply. and then: Well, if you aren't walking in your sleep, what are you doing? Where do you think you're going at this hour of the night? What's the matter with you?'
 Not until then did Lily realize that her mother did not know about Pat and his sickness. It had become SO important a fact to her, pushing most other facts out of her mind. that she felt that everyone must know about it.
 Pats sick. forgot 10 tell you. I thought I had told you," she an- swered. duly I've been thinking about him all night. until I'm half out of my mind-and now I'm going to him.
 Her mother gave kind of a groan. Those people down there won't let you in if you do go,' she said. Why Lily. you really must be out of your mind to think of walking out of this house at night. I never heard Of anything so insan.. I don't understand you at all" Her face became more and more puck. cred as she tried to figure Lily out.
 From within the big lamplit room there was a sound of bed springs creaking. then long drawn sigh and yawn. and MT. Lexington came to the door in his Indian blanket hathrobe.
 What's the matter. Mother 2" he wanted to know. sleepily.
 Together they faced Lily, the two of them, who had been slaves to her whims and desires all her life.
 What does she want now?" MT