Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-01
SIXTEENTH INsTALLMENT.


IN ERHAPS 1t was as well for Missile
l. that her honeymoon Journey
took her into the strange new
L world that was New York in
the COS.
She had no complaint to make OF
Wesley. Perhaps he had been frighten-
ed. He made things as easy for her as
he could, respected her reserves, showed
tact. gave to her new status as his wife
a certain dignity.
But often at night with Wesley Sleep
ing heavily beside her, she would try
to picture the future. Already she knew
that they had no tastes in common;
that he had none of the vague ideals
and romantic STRINGS which were her
inner life. To Wesley, then and always
life was q matter of good food, good
friends, good drink. success in affairs.
His fastidious care Of his body was that
he might enjoy 1t.
But how could she continue TO hold
him? She would not always have her
youth, and what else had she to give
him? Children2 But he did not want
children. He was too self-indulgent
And children did not always hold men
anyhow.
With the morning would come activ-
ity and an end to morbid terror. He
small good-humored remarks. He was
cheerful in the morning.
Thank heaven you are woman,
Missile"
"Why?"
Because Providence didn't give you
a beard that keeps on growing while
you Sleep"
Suppose you had hair to do up, like
mine?"
"I'd praise my Maker, my child"
He was already a trifie bald.
She wondered why she did not love
him. He was engagingly boyish at
At the end Of three weeks they wen'
back home. Wesley had taken house
in q good neiehborhood, tall, narrow
house in a row of precisely similal
houses. It was a dark house with &
basement Kitchen the food came uI
on a dumbwaiter, which no amount
OF oil could stop creaking, and never
after could Missile hear a dumbWaiter
agonize without being Immediately
taken back to the innumerable dinner
parties in that tall, dark house, tC
listening for 1t and praying 1t to hurry
before the delay reused Wesley's irri-
tation
For by that time she knew that he
could be an irritable man.
Whats happened in the pantry?"
1T takes q good while, Wesley. They
are doing their best"
You let them soldier on you. That's
what"
She had two maids, substantial wom-
en-, whose very lack OF grace annoyed
him. And they were afraid of him
Long before Missile began to fear his
angerS these women were scurrying like
frightened deer when he appeared
Even that first Winter she sometimes
found herself mutely apologizing fol
him, sitting at the table when there
were guests, with a smile on her face
the food came his frewn would relax
He would eat heartily, sit back, smile
be his handsome best.
He spent money recklessly The
house was we'll furnished. The back
parlor was now a library. with leather
chairs, a sofa, a huge self-rocker. Ir
| the parlor was plush, red plush, a rec
| carpet, red rep curtains hanging from
poles. Wesley did the buying and HI
| liked red. Missile never sat there L
she could avoid it.
She found herself alien in Wesley!
group OF intimates. Nothing in heI
| previous life had prepared her for them
| After 5 o'clock the house was like
| club. Men came in in numbers. dranl
high balls and cocktails-going back t.
her tidy pantry to concoct new anC
mysterious variations of the latter
! smoked Wesleys cigars and left behinc
them an aroma of stale tobacco anC
| alcohol which no amount of airinI
seemed to remove. She moved in anC
| out among them until she discovered
| that 1t did not matter whether she dix
or not. After that she stayed upstairs
One day Ellen dropped in, only sh,
had changed her name to Eileen now
Her hard prettiness attracted the men
and she enjoyed herself. She showed
a new frivolity, a designed coouettish
ness, toward them. They were impor
tant men, their wives were I'm society.
| After that she came often. and gradu
! ally she began to have her reward.
| why don't you ask Missile Dexter:
| sister, She's amusing"
And sometimes Eileen" was asked
Tommy, too, of course, but Tommy
never really counted. He was a none;
maker. He had no graces. and IL wal
too late to acquire them. While EileeY
danced he would stand against q wal
somewhere, has pale blue ewes blank
his mind working. The horseless car