The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-06-17

the secession bdrs WnO cOSt HlIn u springtime of spendthrift love and suddenly vanished again. After that there was Princess Terck-Wriedt. who embraced him after 8 game of water polo at Worther See. Most unmercifully she had embraced him. dripping wet as he was. in
 Eul view of all the spectators. A woman whom he did not even know wrote him unintelligible let ters, and pale-faced carpet man. ufacturer armed with stick ap- peared at his mothers Title house and wished to give him a sound thrashing in a fit of perfectly base less jealousy.
 To have his feet caressed by a Jayanese slave-girl called Puck was something new. Fleetingly Martin thought of her mother, the Bojan, whom he had once seen as Lulu in '"The Earth Spirit" He felt. . strange clutching at the throat as he recalled this woman to his memory, and he looked down at Puck, with embarrassment. He tried to think of something to say to the girl, something expressing his gratitude for her having come to his assistance, perhaps. He was very much surprised. when some- thing quite different came from his mouth, hoarse words that caused him shame and almost stuck in his throat.
 "I say, I'm most horribly hun gry," he heard himself saying: in fact, as he said 1t he clenched not only his hands but his feet too with their long toes.
 Puck only laughed. "So am T." sch said,. and the next moment she had jumped to her feet and gone. She turned to wave her hand through the door.
 In the silence Martin heard his own breathing and the beat of his heart. Again and again he felt the same contraction of his throat and a bitter-sweet taste slowly filled his mouth. He was aware of thin cool sweat on his forehead and q faint nausea such as people feel befpre an examination. His nostrils dis tended. and through his head there passed visionary procession of eatables. E8t
 That is the strange thing about hunger. Many people never get to know this simplest and most ob- vious sensation of man and beast. Some require tonics, cures. and wa- terlng places, and even then can- not conjure up this very ordinary sensation, As for the rest, good cit- izen and persons of regular hab- It's, they are hungry by the clock and satisfied by the clock. Their hunger is an insignificant as all the rest of their lives. But the outsid- CTS, the solitaries. the Don Quix- otes, the waifs and stars and male- factors, the self-willed artists and inventors and beggars. all know hunger in its true proportions. that monumental hunger out of which come murders and mighty works.
 As for Martin he had no wish to be an outsider. He had had bad luck in his profession, but he did not wish to be an outcast. He had acquired certain experiences of hunger. 1t must be owned. Suppose one is a swimming instructor. there is no need to let 1t be seen that hunger drove one to 1t. <
 A man with money to pay for . meal can talk about hunger with out demeaning himself. Herr Birndi can thump the table impa- tiently in Schwoisshackle's eating house. Young fellows in striped pull-overs can make play with their appetite as with an amiable weakness of athletic youth. But for q man with no money hunger is disgrace.
 Martin was ashamed, in 2 self willed, stiff -necked, and quite mul- ish manner, of admitting his hum ger. To have spoken of 1t to Puck claration of love. But as soon as cost him more effort than a de- she returned. with her warmth. her quick ways, her soft little atten- tions, and her earnest scrutiny of his face, the distance between them vanished in mutual under. standing.
 Two satellites followed on her, heeis--one an extraordinarily fat ana yet handy woman who silently and swiftly laid the table and went out again. She came back and this time lifted silver covers from the steaming dishes of food.
 (TO Bo Continucd)
 (Copyrisht 1s5s, By vicki Baum)