Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1933-02-24

"I've been a fool, Mellish," she
said. I've been a silly damned fool.
I've sent away the only man | ever
loved"
Mrs. Mellish took her hand and
patted it.
Hell come back" she comfort
ed. "He'll come back tomorrow
Barbara broke away from her
sobbing.
Tomorrow never comes" she
wept. Tomorrow never comes
She read Pauline's letter sitting
up in bed long after Mrs. Mellish
had gone comfortably away, BE-
lieving that Barbara slept.
Darling, Darling, Darling pauline
began in her extravagant fashion, !
i don't know why I am writing
to tell you my wonderful secret
even before I tell Dennis, some
thing seems to tell me | must.
think somehow I've known it for
a long time in the way that people
know things-subconsciously, don't
you call it?-and that I've been d
fraid to admit it even to myself.
But now I'm sure, and Pm so Won
derfully happy that ] want to
share my happiness with you, be-
cause you are my best friend and
/ love you. Barbara darling, I'm
going to have a baby. -.
The little green and gold clock
or the dressing table which Jerry
Barnet had given to Barbara licked
merrily on-the only sound in a
world that seemed suddenly to have
grown empty and ceased to live,
and at last with an effort Barbara
picked up the letter that had fallen
from her hand and went on read
ing.
eff it's a boy -" She closed
her eyes with a dreadful feeling of
weakness.
Of course it would be a boy! a
boy with eyes like Dennis's/ and a
smile like Dennis's, like the mar
they both loved. Oh, Dennis
Dennis!
She was so cold; suddenly Bar
bara realized that her hands were
like ice and that she was shivering
violently. She slipped out of bed,
leaving the rest of PauIine's letter
unread, and crouched down by the
fire.
There is still tomorrow" 1t
was as if a voice whispered those
words into her ear as she crouched
by the fire, and suddenly her
cheeks flushed and her pulses
quickened.
Tomorrow! 1t was not yet too
late. He would come back, and
just for once, if never again, she
would know the perfect happiness
of his love, and then.
Across the warm beautiful room
she caught sight of her reflection
in a long mirror, and it seemed to
her overstrung imagination that a
shadow Pauline stood behind her,
a smiling, happy Pauline, with low
ing, trustful eyes.
Her best friend! Barbara fell for
ward on the floor, her face hidden
her hands clenched as she moaned
over and over again in utter self
abasement:
II can't can't. to be such
a beast-such a vile beast!"
And yet in her heart she knew
it was not so much for Pauline that
she was willing to make her sacri-
flee as for the sake of a child she
had once held in her own arms.
Such a little life it had been
but it had yet left something in
delible in Barbara's heart, some me-
mory which, recurring now, woule
not allow her to hurt the child OF
another woman.
Barbara woke from a troubled
sleep late in the following morning
to the sound of voices in the little
hallway outside her door. Mrs
Mellish's she knew-the quiet, un-
emotional tones that never varied
and then another-the only voice
that had ever had the power tt
make her heartbeats quicken ane
her cheeks flush. Dennis! and 81
early.
Barbara leaned on an elbow ane
stretched over to her watch. Half.
past ten. Something must hav'
happened to bring him so soon, 0:
was it just that he found he coule
not do without her any longer
She listened intently.
mot up yet-very tired afte