Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-23


in Paris, during the latter teens
(" of the twentieth century was just
~ as much part of the world up
heavel as machine guns, trench
misery air raid and barbed wire.
Upon this boy from the placid world Of
suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, there burst, wltn
Che yariegated fire of a skyrocket, the spectacle
of plumber and death. Paris and beauty. license
and pain, vice, cowardice and a panorama OF
bravery that through the rockets red glare
made mankind seem sublime.
Perry, at 20, from the even tenor of his
fathers tool factory ON the pretty suburb out
side of Cincinnati found himself something OF
q World war hero, two bravery citations TO ms
credit; a citizen of the world, laundering
around the battle fields of France and Flanders
for two years, and finally, disabled soldier on
extended leave while wounds of an all but
mortal nature slowly but surely closed their
ugly mouths.
Then what happened was just normal part
of the abnormal condition. He met through
q vagary of circumstances, the usual little
French Colette, whose hair was like wet mop
OF curls, whose drollerieS were as exciting as
they were alluring, whose constancy was pa
thetic and whose alteration healed him more
swiftly than medication.
lie forgot, in the phantasmagoria of the
"A moment, "the girl back home" ensconced
attic on the left bank OF the Seine and for
months the idyllic, irresponsible life of man
and his maid flowed In uninterrupted bliss.
Colette! He tried sometimes to capture the
words to describe her. A dragonf1y skittling
over bright waters. Popcorn dancing In its pam
chrysanthemum in gale. All to no effect
She would not be caught IN the prison of words.
She was thistledoVn, dancing ahead of the
wind She eluded on every side. She was
deIectable nonsense, and then strangely, para
doxically she was the frugal little French GIRL
conserving your interests, your funds, your
health, you well being
Life In that attic, with geraniums on the
window stills, cookery reeking from the little inn
provised stove. laughter blowing about the cor
ners happiness squatting every turn. was q
dream caught in an mterlude between two
realities: the reality of war; the reality of the
suburb of Cincinnati.
Life and Paris and flower stands and holi-.
days on the Seine and walks in Fontainebleau
and nibbles in patisseries and kisses on the
back of Colette's darting adorable neck were
just one bouquet of Irresponsible hours crammed
with irresponsible joys. You awoke with sense
of holiday, you galloped through the all too
short days with that same sense of holiday
and blessedly, worn out with fatigue of pleasant
hours, you slept that you might awaken to
another holiday
And 50 the days became the weeks and the
months and finally the year, and then, as is the
case with all perfect holidays, there came one
day the awakening to the still cold dawn Of
reality.
It came in the form of two trumpet calls.
Armisticel And q cable from the girl back
home. Helen, worn with the waiting; eager,
homesick rejoiced, was arriving with her mother
for a Paris wedding and honeymoon trip to
America.
WELL, it fell into the midst Of that small
" paradise as bombs like that were falling
into one after another Of the transient para
discs that honeycombed Paris and had been
erected out OF the toll and MOL Of war. Colette,
who knew everything. and in a way had been
prepared for the blow before it fell, took 1t
.when 1t came in the same dauntless spirit that
characterized the countless Of her kind.
Norman. feeling smirched, guilty toward both
Colette and Helen, wretched, apprehensive and
filed with sense Of the kind of obligation and
responsibility that has its moorings in sections
like the suburbs outside the Cincinnatis Of
America, bowed his head and his heart and sue
cumbed to the predicament Of caring for two
women and having to choose one.
It was characteristic Of Helen, when she ar
rived, that she should have tolerance and sym
patty and understanding for the yelled con-
LESSONS that came In driblets from the lips Of
her fiance.
OF course, Norman had been indiscreet. The