The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-11-20
ne BEGWNNERS

never been out there. It was a trip
he and Julia had talked about taking,
off and on, for the last twenty years.
They'd probably never do 1t, but why
shouldn't he do it alone now? That
would solve the problem Of his vaca-
ton with a vengeance. 1t was way
of burning his bridges, Of course, as
far as Ruth was concerned, but this
wasn't the main attraction. 1t would
show Julia. Show her what? He dis
missed the question impatiently. What
ever it was, she'd see.
Those days on the train were the
best part of his vacation. They gave
him a chance, undistractedly, to think.
The thing that bewildered him most,
outraged his sense Of justice, was his
conscience. 1t wasn't playing fair with
him. Search as he might, and he
spent hours raking over the past, he
couldn't put the finger Of memory
upon an act of his that had
been consciously wrong. He'd had
plenty of chances to do wrong, but
he'd successfully resisted temptation
every time. He had remained through
everything a faithful husband, loyal
friend, an Industrious official; and yet.
he wouldn't now, he believed, feel
guiltier, more contemplate, if he'd
done every wicked thing that Julia in
her letter, by word or implication, had
accused him of. 1t wasn't the way
a conscience was supposed to act.
Edward ought to know. He was a
minister's son, though not at all the
traditional one. His father had been
pastor of large Evangelical church
in New York city, but Edwards up
bringing had not been handicapped by
pietistic limitations.
His start in business had been prom
Using. His fathers brother had been
one Of the higher officials in the great
insurance company that Edward still
worked for. It was, perhaps, owing
to this pull, but not at all to an I'M
justifiable exercise Of it, that Edward
had been taken in on the executive
side, instead of having to start out as
a solicitor peddling policies from door
to door.
Edward would have loathed that.
The crude competitive hustle of life
was congenitally distasteful to him.
Luckily for him, his uncle had been in
a position to save him from all that.
. Edward had gone to work, the autumn
after he graduated, in the accounting
department of the home office. He'd
never minded long hours nor hard
work, not even dull work. He didn't
mind anything, as long as it came. in
dignified way, to him; as long as he
didn't have to go out after it!
He'd done his work we'll. Conspicu-
ously well, so far as it was possible
for anything to be conspicuous in a
great Office like that. 1t hadn't been
but two or three years before they'd
made him travelling auditor.
His route took him through the up
state cities in New York. That was
how he'd met Julia. Julia. nineteen
years old at the time, was real
beauty-queenly, the undergraduates
used to call her. Her father was
dead, but he'd left her mother COM
Portable annuity, and as the girl had
no brothers and sisters, the greater
part Of it probably was spent on buy
ing Julia pretty clothes and letting
her go wherever the prospects for a
good time were the brightest. A
retrospective eye could see purpose
in all this. To see Julia well and
safely married was her mothers first
duty.
Even If Edward had not looked like
a good match, Julia would no doubt
have married him just the same, for
she fell in love with him as swiftly
and unequivocally as he with her.
They hadn't known each other for a
week before it was as good as settled.
They'd been engaged about a year, and
during the whole time he'd found her