Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-01-14
LET'S LIVE!n ": q! 3 :, ! !. !!
WEA3 - go M " E&8 a 0s2s CENTRAL PRESS ASST nc

don't know. Larry said he just loved
old-fsshioned breakfasts. but | sup
pose now that you're 60 swell, with
a cock and all, you wouldn't stoop
to mushi"
Byrd's gaiety during the rest of
the meal was forced. or her mother
had deprived her Of her feeling or
well-being. temporary though II was,
By just that allusion to Larry.
While she waited for her father
to get the car out. she went into
the dining room with a sinking heart
and sat down.
She wondered If she had chosen
the lesser OF two evils by coming to
Jacksonville. Parents let their daugh-
tiers 20 with regret, she philosophiz-
ed, but received them back. she no
ticed, with more regret. She knew
she was far unhappier in Jackson
Vile than she had been in Cleve-
land. eve separated then from
Larry.
She realized now that her mar
and a release from a town that she
had cutgrown when she left high
school. Old friends and families
that had been part Of her back
ground meant nothing to her except
her past. The girls and boys she
had known in school lad settled
down to repeat the dull experiences
OF their parents. They had little
shops, little stores, little businesses
of their own and their minds ran
along the same little grooves.
Unconsciously her ideas had
changed and she couldn't point them
back 10 Jacksonville End its unpro-
gressive atmosphere.
And the greatest shock of all was
that there WIS no place for her m
her fathers house. A shelteT-thst
was all. To slip back into a single
existence. to take her former place
in her old environment, was impos-
sible.
The pallid lives Of those around
her got on her nerves. She wanted
10 reform the whole town, 10 wake
them IN. 10 stir them ard tell Their
they were missing the elixir OF HE
There was nc justification for the
narrow. soul-grinding economy that
her mother and most of the otner
women in the town praeticed, and "
was only the outworn shell OF me
p~recepts that had come down 10
them from their puritan ancestors:
II wasn't only missing Larry; u
was missing marriage; missing the
gaietv and intimacy; the creak on
tha stairs when Larry came home
late. the very worry and tanEie M
things; everything that she had once
abhorred she would have exchanged
right then and there for all the peace
ana horsehair of this little torn.
She had been telling herseif ou
times a day that she had done tne
only thing possible in her POSITION
insulted continually as she had peer
hv Larrv's conduct toward her. MS
lack Of responsibility. his friends
III noker games. his investments
and finally that last straw, lndia!
Ard fifty times a day the refrain
grew thinner and f~latter.
And Larry began TO take on new
and more attractive qualities, com
rared with the men p was meet
ing AZ the bank an1 in the neighpor'
hood. She had seen men in the iit,
tie restaurant where she iuncneo
look over the menu calcuiatingiy ana
csIculatingly eschew a fIfty-cen'
lunch for n forty cent one. Larry
verv spcnd-thrift qualities seemed
enhanced now In her eyes AZ any
rate hs had the red eorpuseies OF
a man who was living and not the
aenemic blood Of these stolid- uE'
imaginative. dried-up beings
A fleeing picture Of Larry. gay
and lively. wearing that sir q mr.
cess. full OF the elan Of life. WIZ
that flavor Of expensive ei-sr'
hanging about his clothes and ths
air or having just eome from place
where exciting tkin-s we're happen
ing. danced in her head.
Suddenly she knew she cculdni
live much longer with the horse
hair furniture and vaxed flower'
under glass and she knew she conlf
never bring ", her baby under fn'
critical and dominating eye Of ne
mother.
That morning she talked 10 he
father frankly about her mzrrisE'
and separation. In fact. she tols
him the entire story. EFerythini
but the rsrs of the bsrT-
"This firm that Larry was viii
AZ the time Of your marriage SAT-
\ Mr.. Hamilton ri dsy. @ther hsf