Evening star., 1929-12-20


coat rather shiny in the gaslight, boots
creaking, and coming down again, just
as shiny, but rather less ponderous, hav-
ing met only with stubborn silence up
above; something portentious in the
whispered consultation outside, in Mr..
Taylor's mopping his forehead with his
handkerchief stepping in again, assum-
ing a confidential air.
You'll give her this message for me,
and don't forget it. Missile. Tell her
I'll fix everything all right. Tell her
she's not to worry. And shed better
just stay quiet tomorrow morning. Ill
come around at noon"
Suddenly Missie liked Mr.. Taylor.
There was worry in his light gray eyes,
but there was kindness, too.
And don't you worry either, Missile.
You go to bed and get your Sleep"
She felt, when she closed the door be-
hind him, that she had shut out the
only friendliness within reach.
She went to Stella's door again.
He says you're not to worry, nom.
Not to worry about anything"
And at last she heard Stella'S voice,
thick and muffied.
Tell the old fool to go away" she
said
They were the last words she ever
spoke.
For two hours Missile sat in her room
waiting for Ellen, for some movement
from the front room. After long time
she lay down on the top of the bed,
dressed as she was, and fell asleep
Just when Stella crept into the back
room Missile never knew. She remem-
bered Ellen coming in and waking her
and that she drowSily undreSSed and
crawled into the bed. The next thing it
was morning and Ellen was shaking
her.
Where's mother?"
I'm her room. She locked the door
and wouldn't let me in"
Shes not there. She's not in the
house"
But Stella was in the house. She was
In the room at the turn of the stairs,
with the battered gas bracket on the
wall turned on full and the windows
closed. She had been dead for hours.
She had left no scrap of writing-noth-
ing. Somehow, some time that night,
she had given up the struggle. Before
that maybe-perhaps on that dreary
trip back to the house from the law
yer's office, where Lambert had sat with
folded arms and impassive face, q
stranger to her; where her stolen finery
had failed of all effect; lmping home
In her tight shoes. her bright feathers
blowing, her laced stays making her
short OF breath, fumbling for her keys
and letting herself In, crawling upstairs
and into her nightgown and then the
lonely haven of her bed. The crash had
come, MisSie felt, long before Mr.. Tay-
lor had creaked up the stairs and down
again.
Perhaps her strongest feeling, outside
Of her shocked grief, was hatred for her
father. She needed no Stella to conflde
in her: And there he sat, frozen-f faced.
And what do you think he offered? To
get divorce and pay me alimony! To
pay me for letting him go! I said:
You've got another woman you want to
marry-that's you all over. Well, you
get no divorce. You deserted pso, AR5
you've got nothing on me, either. rye
been true and faithful wife to you.'"
Yes, Missile knew.
She was cold and still under the min
iStrations of the neighborS, now sud-
denly kind. II seemed to her that no
sooner had they found Stella than the
house was filled with them.
Food came from unknown sources,
was cooked and eaten. People wandered
in and out. On the evening Of that first
day Mary Seluen took the girls In to
see Stella, and Missile saw tnat they had
put on the black silk dress.
Some time in that black period before
the funeral Harry Sloane came in. She
found him standing in the hall, but
there was no room in her mind for him.
He was only one of the Shadowy figures
who came and went, people who had
ignored or disliked or sneered at Stella,
and now that she was dead could af-
ford to praise her.
rs there anything I can do?"
IT don't think So
I'm awfully sorry"
Why? She's through with Worrying,
anyhow"
Probably that shocked him. Probably
ne thought she was h@rd. Well, let him
think so; what was he TO her?
(Continued In Tomorrnw,s SkarN