Evening star., 1933-06-11
Burnt Offerings
By]osephine Bentham
Susan Was Nineteen-and a Bride-So, Now
and Then, Peter Was Hard to Get Along With.

DON'T see WHAT'S the maCCer WIFI Tie
III thing!" said Susan Traine desperately.
"You might do something Peter!'
So Peter Traine, too, scorched his
fingers on the toast rack. wreath of
dingy smoke mounted like dubious in
cense to an ill-tempered household god The
toast was inedible.
TT doesn't matter" said Peter, gulping BIS
coffee But you didn't pack that toast TACK
the way told you to- The gadget's jammed
Well it's too bad you didn't marry pro-
fessional toastrack packer" said little Susan
Traine, icily "It's too bad you didn't think
about that when you asked me to marry you.
ITS"
"Yes,. interrupted Peter Traine fumbling
wildly with his cigarette lighter, "the whole
things just too bad altogether!'
Susan didn't know what he meant by that
and she said so. Peter himself didn't know
what he meant.
There was silence. Neither of them knew
what to do about the silence. They were
very young Of course-and very much in love.
only few short months ago they never
would have quarreled over the burning toast.
The whole episode would have been extremely
d;verting.
These dreary little psst-altar arguments, 50
different from the exciting and dramatic ones
Of the premarital era, had started some time
during the last difhcult period in New York.
Perhaps the trouble could be summed up in the
fact that there had been the same old bridge
stakes when there had no longer been the same
old salary. Perhaps there had been too little
for Susan to do and too much for her to worry
about.
with the exception of susan's neither, who
didn't think that Susan had married very well,
every one agreed it was a good thing that the
young people were to have fresh start In
the West. There was to be no appreciable
difference, of course, between Peters new salary
as the advertising manager OF the Glenwood
Paint Supplies, Inc, and his old salary as a
copy writer in New York. But 1t was generally
agreed that what was vaguely called "the pace"
in Glenwood would be more Moderate and con-
siderably less expensive than "the pace" in
New York.
CUSAN herself had hoped that everything
- would be different. But the traditional little
gray home had none of the advantages Of the
apartment in New York 1t was, in fact, an
appalling little gray wreck at the moment. The
Uttered breakfast nook led to larger and more
devastated areas of which Susan Traine shud-
dered to think.
She left the breakfast nook and wandered
into the dining room There, on the table, was
one of the innumerable wooden boxes from
which Peter had pried the lids. Susan shifted.
Then she peered into the box Books She
pulled out small leather bound volume which
she recognized, with mingled emotions, as the
Ine-a-day diary of her engagement days
She sat at the dining-roo table and turned
over the pages, hesitantly.
August z Anniversary p r. and met
each other three months ago tonight. We
soent to the Roosevelt and ,oore my blue
dress. He sent me gardenias adore him.
Susan smiled, and tear ran over her nose.
He had made her wear exactly three gar
denias-for the three months.
II look like florists shop" she'd objected.
You look like my girl"
She had worn the three gardenias.
Little Susan Traine shifted and read an
other passage.
August II . We Uent to the 200 and
ate peanuts. haze more fun NTH p T.
than ever had ioith anybody. He's simply
adorable. He's simply got ,ohat it takes.
Yes, she remembered that day. She and
Peter had laughed until they were weak and
helpless. Nothing had happened that had been
very funny, but everything had seemed almost
unbearably funny
You look like that monkey! You do! Ex-
actly!"
"which?" he'd demanded incredulously. THE
big one?"
mo, the little one, He's got the same kind
of face that you have when you're worried
he has!"
well, I must say"
I TITLE Susan Traine found her handker-
l. chief and wept. But these were not tears
Of Illustration and wrath They were the con-
soling tears Of great tenderness Susan
sprang to her feet-determined in that single
moment, to be very paragon Of wives. With
all the ardor Of her 10 years she threw her
self into the creation Of = new and hawless
Susan Traine
An older woman-a wiser woman--might have
seasoned this conversion with common sense.
Such a one might have taken the first sure
slow steps in the back-hreaking task of un-
packing and settling-might have made her
self ready, at the end Of the day, for the return
of her loved one