Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-05-14
Betrayal
By Charles ] McGuirk

else mattered. Love? She s~cornfully
dismissed love. 1t was q madness. To
hell with lovel
Helen Marley suddenly leaned for
ward.
Richard" she said, lit would inter-
| est me very much to marry you. It's
lovely of you to ask me.
Helen-Mrs. Helen-Markley. DELHI
erately studied her sleepy image IN the
mirror above her dressing table and
warmly recognized that she now was
not only a beautiful woman but a sue
cessful one
The room was full of sunlight and
success.
The success was at nee more tangi-
BILE and more intangible than the sun
light. 1t gave the air a heavy fra
GRANGE through the medium OF the
huge bouquet of American Beauty roses
which had been sent to grace her
breakfast. 1t gittered on her dressing
table in the form of a diamond dog
collar, q bracelet Of pure jade, and a
pearl necklace worthy of a great courte-
san, and on the solitaire diamond
! which cleaned in its platinum setting
on her engagement finger. All these
had come in the last six weeks to her.
1t had written itself out in a certified
check on a New York bank which rest
ed. u~nendorsed, in the hotel safe in
the lobby below. The check was dated
tomorrow, but it had been written six
weeks ago, the morning after she had
agreed to become Mrs. Hamilton. 1t
was made out to Helen M. Hamilton"
1t was signed by Richard Hamilton
and it called for a sum in six figures,
his wedding gift to her. Finally, it
manifested itself in the tinkling OF the
telephone.
Good morning. darling" Richard
greeted her. Did you have a good
nights sleep? I called up for your
congratulations. I've been granted my
divorce-Thank you-Well, this time
tomorrow I'll be congratulating you.
And as soon as possible after that,
I'll be calling you Mrs. Hamilton
Goodbye" she told him at long
last. "Of course l do. l like you an
awful lot, Richard. Why shouldn't I?
I appreciate you tremendously"
Richard, she thought, was a dear.
She was lucky to have met him. But
she amended that thought Immediately.
It wasn't that she was lucky now, but
that she had been blind SO long. She
had wasted three terrible years as the
unappreciated wife of Jim Markley.
Like every one who has achieved suc-
cess, she saw, looking back at it, that
it was the simplest process in the
world.
She ordered her breakfast to be sent
to the apartment in a half hour. Then
she took her shower and was dressed
and ravenous when it arrived. The
aroma of the orange juice and the
warm toast and the scrambled eggs and
the coffee mingled with the fragrance
of the roses. And, despite her hunger,
she ate slowly, savoring every mouth
full to the full.
Luxury had not turned her head
She had not gone wild, niger rich
Her personal expenditure had not in
creased a dollar in the six weeks in
which she had become used to it. But
she could never get over the wonder
of security.
To think Of it! She did not have tc
worry about anything, she who haG
worried about everything from the
clothes she would wear to the fooo
she would-or wouldn't-eat. She wa
financially independent. Richard wa
behaving admirably, but if, some day
he became insistent and oppressive, she
could calmly leave him. Tomorrow
afternoon she would be on her way
back to New York, an adored wife
whose every whim was law, instead Of
a harassed worrying about what
her husband was doing with money
that really belonged to both of them.
Regret? She had none. She was
sure of two things. She was never
a Bohemian. And she had never lovec
Jim Markley, She had eve loved any
one and, please God, she never would
The New York World, two days old
which had come up with her break.
fast, met her eye, but it did not at
tract her attention. She had no curl.
osity at all about anything. But sht
poured herself a second cup of coffee
and idly picked it up. She read the
headlines inattentively. Then sht
turned the paper at the fold. Sht
was reading the story before she re,
allied who it was about:
James Markley, the well known
playwright, lies unconscious in tn,
emergency ward of the Bellevue hos
pital suffering from a possible frac.
ture of the skull and other injurie
sustained when the roadster he wa,
driving collided with a milk truck OF
the Boston Post road early this morn
ing. Physicians declared his recov
cry was extremely doubtful. Mrs
Helen Landreth Markley, his wife. i
in Reno for a divorce. She has no
been notified"
The cup from which she was abou
to drink clattered to the saucer. No
Jim Markley! Dear, irresponsible, low
able jim! She remembered suddenl,
his last words to her:
me? I think I'll go out and ge
drunk"
Goodness started in her finger tip
and spread slowly and horribly owe
her body. She should never have lef
him alone She pickpd I'm the teln