The Coolidge examiner., 1932-03-25

for the last twenty years. They'd
probably never do it, but why
shouldn't he do it alone now? That
would solve the problem of his va
cation with a vengeance. 1t was
way of burning his bridges, Of
course, as far as Ruth was con-
cerned, but this wasn't the main at
traction. 1t would show Julia. Show
her what? He dismissed the ques-
ton impatiently. Whatever 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 JUS
tice, 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 resist
ed temptation every time. He had
remained through everything
faithful husband, a 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 implica-
tion, 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 a large Evangelical
church in New York city, but Ed
wards upbringing had not been han
dicapped by pietistic limitations.
His start in business had been
promising. His fathers brother had
been one of the higher officials in
the great insurance company that
Edward still worked for. 1t was,
perhaps, owing to this pull but not
at all to an unjustifiable 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 any
thing, as long as it came, in a dig
nitied way, to him; as long as he
didn't have to go out after it
He'd done his work well. Con-
spicuousy well, so far as it was pos
sible for anything to be conspicuous
in 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
upstate cities in New York. That
was how he'd met Julia. Julia, nine
teen years old at the time, was a
real beauty-queenly, the under
graduates used TO call her. Her
father was dead, but he'd left her
DnOthar a oOmfor+ohlo opp,;+v opd
as the girl had no brothers and sis
ters, the greater part of it probably
was spent on buying 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 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 en-
gagged about year, and during the
whole time he'd found her utterly
adorable. There'd been no quarrels.
no flaws. The only thing she'd found
to cry about during the disillusion-
ments Of their honeymoon had been
the fear that, now his love had
cooled-proved not to be, anyhow,
the constant romantic blaze she had,
before their marriage. believed-he
was repenting his bargain, feeling
that he had thrown himself and his
brilliant prospects away.
Those brilliant prospects of his!
Had they ever existed at all, save
in his youthful self-conceit? For
! few years after his marriage they'd
gone on seeming real enough; his
promotion to assistant cashier and
few months later to cashier of the
great Chicago agency had been in
spiriting assurance that he was we'll
thought of in the home office.
He used to comfort Julia, who
found the vast flatness of Chicago
and its suburban areas depressing,
| by assuring her constantly that