The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-12-04
CHAPTER II-Continued

- -
3
For a long time after that mother
didn't say anything. She was sunk
down ever SO deep in her own
thoughts. 1t wasn't until Edith re-
marked that she guessed she might as
well get up, and had swung her legs
out of the bed by way Of carrying out
this purpose, that her mother spoke.
sim sorry you've been thinking
things like that. We aren't very hap
by just now, your father and I. I
can't tell you why. But can't bear
to have you made unhappy about it,
dear. didn't realize that you were.
I don't want you to side with me
against him or to think unkind things
about him. If / have made you do
that, I haven't been fair-to him. 1t
will work out somehow, I suppose.
Until it does, II want you to be
fond Of us both. And not go on wor-
rying about something you can't pos
sibly understand. Run along now,
dear. and dress, and go down and have
breakfast with him. But stop and give
me kiss first"
Mother called her back into the
room just before the girl was dressed.
There's something I'd like you to
do, Edith. See If dad won't go with
you to the matinee, instead Of me.
don't know whether he'll think he can
get away from the Office or not. But
IL he can, I wish he would. I really
mean it, dear. I've got committee
meeting this afternoon that hate to
miss, anyhow"
Dad had agreed, after blink of sur
prise and not much more than min
ute Of consideration, to cut business
for the afternoon and take her to the
show. He had been genuinely pleased
by the proposal and all the more so.
apparently, because it involved play
ing truant.
He was waiting for her In the sta
ton. He blinked at her as she came
up to him. Until she got quite near,
he said, he hadn't realized who she
was. That was the polo coat, Of
course, and the chrysanthemums,
which some of the girls at school
who'd remembered her birthday, had
given her.
"We'l take taxi over to the the
ater," he remarked. "This is going to
be real party. It's long time since
I'VE taken a pretty girl to show"
Edith had been to the theater numer-
GUS times, but this was her first expe-
rience Of being pretty girl getting
taken to show, and she got real
thrill out of it. For that proved to be
no mere idle compliment of dads. He
didn't act parental at all. Along in
the first act, as soon as things began
to get funny and exciting, they found
each others hands and kept them
clasped through most of the play for
convenience in communicating their
special moments Of enjoyment.
OF course the curtain had to come
down at last. Dad helped her into her
polo coat and slipped his hand through
her arm as they walked up the aisle
while the orchestra played the people
out, which somehow kept the spell
alive little longer. But at last they
were out on the sidewalk, and il
seemed that the inevitable end had
come.
A faint, half-pleasurable melancholy
invaded her spirit and colored her
voice as she said, "We may as well
walk over to the station. We've got
lots of time for the five-eighteen."
Really, she wasn't limiting. A cab had
swooped down invitingly to the curb
before them, and she had felt her ia
Their, who still had hold of her arm,
hesitate. Otherwise she wouldn't have
said a word.
mo" he said with sudden resolu-
ton, "we'll finish this thing off prop
erly. Hop in" And then, amazingly.
she heard him tell the chauffeur to
drive, not to the North Western sta
ton, but to the street number of
their home in Lakeside.
'I think" she told him, deep in the
wonder of 1t, ''that this has been just
about the most perfect time I've ever
hadl"
His only answer to that was to find
her hand and squeeze it.
They went back over the play once
more. II don't suppose" she admitted,
''that it could have happened really"
"No." he assented. what a play
like that is trying to do is to make
people forget for while what can
really happen. We're all hungry, you
see. for adventure, for something
that's left out of our lives, and that
sort Of play gives it to us. It's like a
dream, only better"
"Are grown-up people like that,
tool" She'd almost said old instead Of
grown-up, but a sense, quite new to
her. that perhaps dad didn't think Of