Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-12-30
CHAPTER XLvIII

BYRD never knew just how she got
through that night.
For hours a~fterward, the break in
Larry's voice, the wounded look in
his eyes, the chug-chug of the taxi
as il died away in the stiffness, still
echoed and re-echoed through her
brain.
Toward morning she got up from
her own bed, where she had thrown
herself in a convulsion Of tears, and
slowly undressed.
She hardly recognized the red eyes
and puffy face that looked back at
her from the mirror.
She bathed her eyes in cold water
only to find them streaming again
"A second later and having to battle
them all over sgain. She slipped
into her pink crepe pajamas and sat
on the edge Of the bed, looking like
q crumpled and very dependent lit
tie flower.
Finally she grew chilly and
crawled into bed.
She woke much later with the sur
prised feeling that she must have
slept. She seemed weighed down
with a conviction that something
terrible was going TO happen. Then
she remembered. Ii had happened.
Her little world had smashed to
smithereensl
Well, she wouldn't think about IL,
now, or she would dissolve into tears
at the ceiling, her mind began 70
nibble first at enc and then at an
other Of the things that had hap
pened last night.
She just wouldn't permit herself
to think about them now, But her
thoughts darted away like naughty
children that have been warned not
TO look into a certain closet.
Foolish, she said, shaking herself.
There was the sound Of a wind
stirring in the boughs of the elm
and the sudden darkening of the
skies that often occurs with a roll of
thunder.
Then she heard the voiecs OF the
three little Blogg girls departing for
school and the drag Of a stick on the
wooden pickets as they passed the
fence that closed in the small New
England cottage across the street.
The smell OF toast floated UP to
her.
She surely couldn't be hungry. she
thought in CONSERVATION. On top of
a broken hearth
She remembered that this was
Friday, and she had accepted an in
vitation to a luncheon bridge at a
neighbours house across the street.
Byrd was glad to lave an excuse not
70 20. for she disliket these big,
formal parties.
well. I find that it's just as easy
to have n big party and have il over
WITH" Mrs. Smith had told her. ats
just as much work to have Just a
few, and this way you get all your
debts paid and don't hurt anybody's
feelings"
And some times she would have 70
show her house, just as the others
did, but now she was relieved of that,
at any rate.
The little white house would no
doubt be back on the market before
the end Of the MONTH
Byrd shuddered. There was no
reason to cry about that, she scold-
ed herself. Larry would never have
been able to keep up the payments
on il anyway.
Just then Mandy ca me busting in
with a breakfast tray.
"Yo' jes' stay in bed this mornin'
and rest" she said, NOW yo'
%mammy's gone. there amt no reason
TO you gettin' up"
Byrd ate her breakfast. She dis
covered she vas very hungry.
Her first impulse was TO take the
night train to Jacksonville and talk
with her father. But the thought
Of Henrietta sopped her.
But she did 90 down TO see Mr..
Polk.
Her eyes bore evidence of sleep
lessness and worry. and Mr.. Polk
eyed her anxiously ms she came into
his office.
worrying again." he seeded. "By
your face I'd say you had more cares
and worries than the president of
the United States"
Then. without any preliminaries,
Byrd blurted out the awful truth.
"Mr. Polk, Larry and ] are not
liv-we've s~errreted." she rulped.
Tears gathered In hcr throat in a
heavy lump. She could get no fur
Their. Tears slipped over the edges
Of the deep, blue wells and trembled