Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-26
INSTALLMENT III.

T wasn't easy for Peter afterward
even very soon afterward, to re-
call the impression Martha made
Il on him at sight. He didn't, though
think of her at first as being
beautiful. She was sullen, graceful
girl; he did think, even then. that she
had a distinction, both of mind and
body, that no woman in that room
could match. It wasn't strange that
hiding it. almost deliberately; it
couldn't shine through her sullen,
brooding look He was to come to
know, later. that her beauty always
did depend upon her mood. and her
mood. just then, was bitter and savage
and disconnected
She wore very plain black evening
dress; her wrap was slipping from her
shoulders as she walked toward the
bar. Her arms and shoulders and
hands attracted Peter; they were what
drew his eyes, rather than her face.
They were lovely; there was a mar
velous grace about them. He had a
way of judging people by their hands,
anyway; he was always enormously in
fluenced in his first quick, instructive
reactions toward new people by the
way their hands looked and how they
used them.
Martha's hands weren't dainty, or
small CT fragile; they looked as if
she could and did use them vigorously
But they were beautifully shaped and
she had long, sensitive, plastic fingers
She didn't make gestures: the way she
to accentuate what she said was some
thing much subtler and much more
delicate than that.
"Tacks tight again." said Betty
Rogers. That made Peter realize that
this girl hadn't come in alone: he be-
came aware, with a silly feeling of re-
sentiment, of the big good-looking chap
who followed her
''Tack?" said Peter. inquiringly-bu
with vague stirring of memory.
Tack Thayer-you must have known
him. She was Martha Cameron
That placed the boy for Peter. end he
looked at him more closely. What he
saw was rather shocking Tack had
begun, Peter thought, to go to seed. and
he was too young, and much too fine
erl animal, for that There wes no
disputing the fact. though. It was
manifest in the pouchy look under his
eyes, in the sagging of the muscles of
his jaw, in the slack, weak look of his
hands. AS Peter sat on the roof, look
ing at the mist on the river, he hated
remembering tnat impression Tack had
given him at Emmas. But facts are
stubborn things, occasionally when, like
Peter, you have besn trained to look at
them scientifically, with neither pas
bion nor prejudice.
Nearly every one in Emma's bar that
morning spoke to the Thayers. But
Tack was too far gone to notice, and
Martha, though she wasn't rude, was
obviously indifferent She nodded to
Zahn, though: that struck Peter as odd
He seemed to matter more to her than
any one there; she smiled at him, and
her smile Lit up her face for a moment
and brought beauty. real beauty. into
1t for the first time Then she. and.
Tack found stools at the bar, and Tack
began at once to drink, hard and fast
Martha, though. only took an occa-
eional, abSent-minded sip from her glass.
There was purposeful look about her.
Peter thought; as If she were waiting
for something to happen, or. more
probably, for some one to appear. All
at once she turned and looked at the
door, and following her eyes, Peter saw
a man who'd just come in; a tall. dark.
Sowing boy, with weak mouth.