The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-06-27
CHAPTER XXXVI

MAN CARROLL MORGAN was
~ not one OF those women who
thrive on drama. She had never
lost her little-girl horror and sick
d.staste of scenes. Her own we'll
bred home had been Singularly free
OF open discord, but once, inadvert-
emily. when she was a child, she
had overheard her mother and ia
ther quarreling bitterly. For days
her shamed eyes had avoided them,
fearful of seeing those two she had
idolized in that dreadful state OF
soul nakedneSs TO which their quar-
rel had stripped them.
Now. her hand on the knob of the
door beyond which an unSpeakably
shameful scene was being enacted,
every ounce of physical courage
which the girl possessed had to be
desperately summoned before she
could force herself to 90 on.
A wave of nausea swept over her.
II she had had only herself to con-
slider she would still have done as
Estelle had feared-she would have
fed the house. leaving Iris in pos
7 session. But, as always, John Cur
It's Morgan came first. What was
il ne had said last night?-"I was
a slave in bondage" Could she
whom he had loved as his deliyerer
consign him to slavery again? He
had said. too, Il hope 1 shall never
see Iris again" Well, now that he
had seen her again. d. But he had
sent Estelle to find her He needed
her. She had never failed him yet
Mans icy fingers turned the knob
slowly. noiselessly, though With nc
intention of muting her entrance
She forced her eyes to take in every
detail of the tableau before her.
Morgan standing tall and stiff, his
pale face stern and forbidding, but
such agony in his deep-Set black
eyes that Nan could have screamed
SWaying against his stiff body. heI
hands locked behind his rightly UNI
bending neck, was an Iris Morgan
such as Nan, in her most uncon-
trolled flights of imagination. coulo
not have pictured.
The divorced wife had torn of
her hat and thrown aside her fur
cOat-the same mink coat in which
she had gone away to join Bert
Crawford. The glorious red-gold
hair was in wild disorder the thick
knot on her neck almost shaken
free by the violence Of her emotion
Before Nan became aware of the
words Iris was pouring out upon her
former husband. her eyes took in
with curious detachment, the fact
that Iris normally slender body hao
become painfully thin. But some
how. subtly. her beauty had fec
upon the wasting of her body
Undoubtedly Iris had suffered, and
as result was far lovelier than
ever. Even her voice had q new
quality. a throb of sincerity in
what had formerly been an artificial
beautifully modulatcd ripple OF mu-
sic. Gradually her words beat into
Mans still half -dazed brain.
TT can't be true, Jack. You've
Il said these horrible things TO
punish me. I'm punished See!
I'm carrying. Jack! Now put your
arms about me. Kiss me! Hold
me so tight I can never leave you
again! And then tell me-tell mel"
With your hands still locked behind
his neck. she tried frantically to
shake the rigid figure-"Tell me
you we're lying you haven't
divorced me and married that
girl"
Over the wild disorder of red
gold curls Morgans haraSsed eyes
caught sight of the small, erect
figure of his new wife. waiting be-
fore the door she had closed softly