White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-03-24
CHAPTER I-Continued

ming shed let him see-made him be-
neve, anyhow-that she admired him.
had long admired him, as man. She
soon began conf1ding to him matters
that were entirely out Of the range Of
her business affairs. She told him
how unhappy she'd been with her hus-
band, how he'd neglected her and been
unfaithful to her. She said that at the
time Of his death she'd been upon the
point of leaving him. She told him
these things desperately, forlornly, I'M
der the stress Of what he had believed
to be profound emotion She put
him under the seal Of confidence. He
wasn't to tell anybody. She didn't
say in so many words that he wasn't
to tell his wife, but he knew that was
what she meant
1t had thrilled him to be trusted
with intimacies like that; enormously
It set him up in his own estimation.
He must be something more than a
dull mlddle-aged failure when this
charming, rather worldly, young wom-
an couli turn to him as her friend
The time came when, on wishing
him good night, she held up her face
for kiss, as simply as child.
There'd been something almost unbe-
hevable to him about all this; that to
him-married and forty-six years old
1T should come unsought.
His response to her caresses was q
passionately made promise to himself
that he would not betray her trust in
him, that she should never find him
snyth,ng but the faithful, high-minded
friend she took him fos.
Might the thing have worked out
better had he been less high-minded
about it2 If he'd been simply a pre-
dstory male taking as much as he
could get, rather thar quixotica'ly
chivalrous fool?
AS far as his present relation with
Julia vas concerned he'd be no worse
of row, he grimly reflected, had the
episode with Ruth taken its natural
course. There were gusty, furious mo-
ments when he wished Il had worked
out that way. A straightforward, mas
cullne sin would be preferable thing
to feel guilty about, II he must feel
guilty. With that on his conscience
he could go back to Julia and tell her
he was sorry. He would be sorry, all
right Bed feel, no doubt, like the
very devil, but as a sort of back
ground 20 his repentance, wouldn't
there De comforting sense, not of
achievement exactly but Of regularity?
Anyhow, he wouldn't be obliged to
think of Ruth laughing at him now.
Whatever buoyancy he'd found In
the act Of running away, the sense Of
adventure, Of truancy, evaporated
w;len he got on the train to go home
again. It did no good to run away,
he reflected, unless one could keep on
running. He couldn't. He had to turn
around end come back. There was his
SOB, his stale, improbable Job, waiting
4cr him at the end of the trip.
Ruth, thank God, wouldn't be wais-
Ing. Shed have gone by now, having
made tho discovery that he wasn't
quite tie abject thing she had taken
Fin for. There was some satisfaction
In that. He rubbed his eyes and wop-
Gered why he'd tortured himself about
her so long.
But Julia, with the children, would
he waiting for him. He tried to i'm
Agfne her repentant Julia. Ed, on
going back to Buttermilk Brook, would
have told her that Ruth had sold her
house and was going away, and that
his father hadn't known Of the plan.
That would have convinced her that
Ahe had done him gross injustice,
He imagined her passionately regret
ting that she had written that savage
letter
He had answered it an hour before
he took the train to California, and
had felt at the time Of writing pretty
well satisfied with what he said He'd
told ha- hs was taking little run out
to California by way Of vacation
and he dtdn't expect to get home until
. few days after she did.
The substance of her letter he dealt
with in q single sentence, pretty care
fully and, he felt, satisfactorily
thought out. You'll have learned, no
doubt, from Ed that the ground for
your objection to returning to Lake
side no longer exists"
That was dignifled, he felt, and suf-
Acient. Julia had told him not to try
70 Justify himself, and he'd refrained
orom doing so. It wasn't what she
wanted, Of course She wanted him to
Erogel; to promise her that he would
get rid Of Ruth. Whether he'd have
done that II Ruth hadn't Of her own
accord packed up and gone away was
an academic question. She had done
It, and his wife's grievance was left,
10 far as he could see, without leg
10 stand on.
But his thoughts during the last day
Vt his trip were not SO comfortable.
The moment of his meeting with Julia
asnorrow assessed him. How would