Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1930-10-02

Peter loves VIII the better she
thought pressing any thorn 1t hand
against her heart After be was gone,
shs vent to her trunk and got out the
handbook she had obtained that day
two years ago, when she Ind come out
here and found Wills father dead
Here was secret source OF supply
Of her own. She looked at her bank
balance II was enough to pay for
herself and the new baby. II she went
into a two-bed ward, as Doctor Grey
had planned for her. This was her
money. VIII would have to manage
for himself and Peter. She decided to
20 and get the money and have cash
In the house II anything happened
But she would not let VIII know she
had 1t.
She put the small handbook on the
dining room table and went about the
clean and tidy house, washing dishes,
setting the rooms In order.
There was long letter from NAM
ma In the morning mail. Ernestine
did not finish reading It. for she had
to 60 and lie down on her bed, seized
with such pain that she could scarcely
forbear crying out She felt within
herself no light at all, no buoyancy,
no spark OF life She Was dull, leaden,
submerged. She felt she ought to
make some effort to resist this spiritual
inertia but she was too Ill. She won
dered II her child would be born too
soon. This thought goaded her into
action. She rose and gathered from
her trunk Peters little baby garments,
long since washed and mended and
laid away. She made the things she
might need for the baby into q bum
die and put 1t In her dresser drawer.
She would get her money. She would
arrange her own afYalrs-with COM
petence. When the call came. she
would be ready.
But she must rest first. She made
herself pot OF fresh tea, asked Mrs.
Schluss to look after Peter, and at
length in the early afternoon she
started OF on the long walk to the
street car.
She rode Unfortunately. withdrawing
her spirit from the conclusion OF the
heat waves that came up from the
stone pavement into the street car.
Walking In a mist she reached the
bank and went inside. She opened
her purse. but found among Its con-
tents no handbook. Like picture
In dream she could see the leather
square Of 1t on the dining room table
In the little house. She had left 1t
at home.
II she had been In normal condition
she would have realized that 1t was
quite possible for her to establish her
at the bank. She had made
many small deposits. The teller would
have remembered her. But as she
stood In disappointment, the world
grew black before her eyes, and for
d strainlng moment, fully conscious
but blind, she stood In silent terror.
The blindness passed, and she picked
up her purse and went out OF the
bank, turned, half instlnctively.
toward Mrs, Benefits. A strange
girl was at the door. colored girl
who rolled her eyes at Ernestine.
mis- Benefits out, ma'am. Will
you waltz
Ernestine left without word. and
vent back to the boulevard. The
darkness. the blindness was coming
down on her again She felt that she
was going to faint. She could not hold
IN any longer-there was nothing with
which to cling--she no longer cared.
The great bulk Of the bus was NOV
ng down toward her-gigantic. menac-
ng. She felt that 1t would crush her,
and moved back a little on the side
walk, her Mortified eyes fixed upon the
Monster which seemed to swell and
yrow, and then. strangely, to rise from
he pavement and to turn slowly and
about In the air. She knew
t was delirium, she knew that the bus
.ould not act that way. But her
could not pierce her fear OF
confusion. And then the bus Iunged |
L her-the blindness came down again,
md Ernestine, alone and very Ill, fell
Iown upon the pavement OF the boule-
ard with soft and plaintive moan