The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-07-13

I beside her bed. How mad she dared to interfere in the destinies of others?
 Remorse drove her to thoughts of 1 penance. She must do something! Her mothers crying came to her through the closed door and flayed her quivering soul until she be- lieved herself solely responsible for all the ills that had befallen the family. She must make up for it! She must do something!
 It was pitiful to think of Irene out there, helpless, except for the grudging care of an unloving hus- band. And Irene hadn't asked any, thing of them. She was being brave.
 that Irene was being cared for in a private hospital room with two private nurses and every possible luxury.
 Nor could Beryl know that in her "helplessness" Irene was planning the final conquest of Tommy.
 Irene did not mind being in the hospital after the doctors had told her she would not be disfigured. The pain had been severe at first but it was gone now and she could give her attention to the role of being an exquisite invalid.
 She had a manicurist and hair dresser in daily. And she was such a dear. sweet little thing the doc tors admired her greatly. Her nurses, naturally, did not share with the medical men the confi- dences they exchanged with each other.
 As few of the lesser social lights who were not sure of the outcome of her seperation from Gaylord came to see her and brought her a lavish quantity of flowers. It was quite within the realm of reason, as one of these callers expressed it, that the accident would bring Gay lord and Irene together again.
 Thus Irene had an audience to flatter her. She was anything but the abject and for1orn little crea- ture her sister had begun to pie ture her.
 There was a change when the doctors told her she must have transfer of skin. Then Irene be- came frightened and sent a fearful message to Gaylord to come to her. He arrived, steeled against an ap- peal for forgiveness.
 Irene studied his face for a mo- ment when he entered the room and saw that it would be useless to expect more than he had given her.
 q want my mother!" she walled pathetically. Gaylord, I want my mother!'
 He promised to send for Mrs Everett but he did not offer more and suddenly 1rene's mood changed. She flew into a rage and accused Gaylord of being responsible for her trouble.
 "You're a selfish brute!' she railed at him. You took me away from a boy who really loved me and then you neglected me for your thought more of soap and wild ducks than you did of your wife. I wish I'd never seen you! I wish I'd let Beryl have you! It would have served her right!' She stopped short of admitting that Beryl had prevented her from marrying Tommy.
 I Yes" Gaylord answered quietly. q wish you had let Beryl have me. She's worth & car load of girls like you but I doubt if she would have had me. I don't think money came first with her." he added bitterly.
 Irene began to sob and Gaylord went away to send the message that plunged Beryl into such an abyss of fire proach.
 When he was gone Irene was sorry she hadn't asked him to send for Tommy. If Tommy could be with her now, could hold her hand for just a little while before they took her upstairs to that awful room, he'd never want to let her go again. She'd be sure of him then.
 "I'lI send for Tommy" she con- soled herself, just as soon as it's over." What she meant was that she would send for him as soon as she was a pretty patient again. Presently she telephoned Gaylord to ask if he'd sent for her mother. He said that he had. "Will you meet her at the sta tion and bring her here" Irene asked. "I don't suppose you'd mind if she stayed at the Brightwell, would you?"
 The Brightwell was a fashionable hotel not far away from the hos pital and Gaylord couldn't help thinking that Mrs Everett might be more comfortable elsewhere but he did not say this to Irene. He was anxious to have her recover and depart from his life. If money could speed the time he was quite willing to spend it. He had come to see Irene as nothing but glamorously pretty little female. Mrs Everett was frantic to reach Irene but her condition was no lon ger one of mock illness. She found herself too weak and prostrated to undertake the journey. And so it was Beryl who was met at the sta tion by Gaylord and escorted to the hotel where he had made reser- vation for her mother. Irene's thoughtfulness, however, designed to impress her acquaintances and her nurses, was lost upon Beryl. She gave no thought to her sur roundings. Her one wish was to get to her sister as soon as pos sible.
 Gaylord waited in the lobby while Beryl freshened herself a bit from her railroad journey before going to the hospital.
 He was shocked at the change in her. When she came up to him at the station while he was looking for Mrs Everett he did not know face was drawn and thin.
 Gaylord wondered now if he had betrayed his shock. Lord, it was terrible! The Velvetan Girl! What had happened to her? The gardenia skin and the kind, smiling lips, the clear gray eyes that laughed wara cool1v Sarane