The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1936-07-03
"But I have to-"

SIG TcI1dlu6u.
Jeb crossed the room in long, strong
strides and seized her in his arms.
She said no word but she pushed
away from him.
"What's the matter, Glen?" he over
powered her again. II love you so
and 1 left you to walk into that-when
love you sol"
"Love?" Agnes repeated as much to
herself as to him, looking up at him
do we love, Jeb? Or what Is II
we feel for each other?"
He held her only tighter. II know
he said. you're mixing us up with
them. Don't! oh, I wish to Goo
I'd stayed there with you"
"You didn't Jeb I'm glad"
1t was nearly midnight, and after
Jeb was gone, when she had talk
with her mother and father.
you're not to blame, Agnes, little
Light One," he repeated, petting her
hair at was bad luck; that's all
But why in the world did you phone
for that lawyer"
"O'Mara?" said Agnes.
81 wish you hadn't done It,"
"Why?"
at aligns you with her-and him.
"Does it?"
"She won't go away" her mother
returned to her own remedy in the
emergency "She insists that she can't
leave at ALL"
"That's true" said her father.
"At least" said her mother. you'll
not go back to New York tomorrow,
Bob?"
Were you going tomorrow. Fa-
ther?"
He looked at his daughter, who had
walked in on a murder that afternoon
"Yes," he said.
"Why?" she asked him, as never she
would have before.
Business, of course. Light One"
What was Father doing in New
York? How could he do it? He, who
had been so happy with Mother-so
completely happy - during all those
eleven years in the house on Easter
Lane. But they were passed-as two
years had passed in that apartment
which she had visited, where Myrtle
had shot her husband. How could she
have done 1t?
She didn't do it; not the bride who
had married him two years ago and
once had been happy with him. Fa-
ther-Father, who had brought Moth
er as a bride to the house on Easter
Lane-that father was not doing what
Father was doing against Mother to.
day.
"When such a thing is done, you
don't do it." Martin O'Mara had told
her. "It's your dragons you have in
you that drive you"
Were the dragons Of desire that fed
on Myrtle's soft sensuousness, also af-
flieting Father? ~
Agnes lay long awake. If she could,
by willing it, obliterate her hours in
the apartment so that never they could
touch her again, would she do it?
No, she knew. No. Who, having
passed from innocence, would return
to it again? Who, having encoun
tered him, would obliterate from all
her life ahead, Martin O'Mara?
Who was he? Who-what wife OF
what other woman - might now be
awaiting him?
Twenty miles away in the city q
woman was awaiting him at that hour
though It was long after midnight
She was at a window beside the dool
of a little frame house. and she
watched out with the shade up from
the window.
She watched for him and listened
hour after hour, eagerly but not i'm
patiently or critically. She lived fol
his coming, whenever it might be.
She was slight but straight and
strong. Five foot two, she stood, q
little mother of big men; for both hel
sons had been a full foot taller. Sane
here Is the likes of me-" she'd say
"outlivin' the both iv thin. And theil
fayther. But please, God, let me nivel
bury him.
Him-none like him, to her; moi
even her own sons, or her own man
whose memory never failed her. Hin
was her grandson, Cathal Martin
O'Mara. And little as she was. and
old as she was,-nearing two and sew
enty,-you could see resemblances be
tween them. He had his good hands
from her, and much Of the strong, sen
sitive modelling Of his head. His hail
was like hers, fine and straight and
abundant.
He had his blue eyes from her. ever
to the sparkle In them; and much
much more than can ever be told. AND
it was through her that he had the
event which, Of all elements that en-
tered into his making, most affected
him. She had seen 1t with her OWE
eyes; and as soon as he had become
old enough to understand, she had
herself related 1t to him:
The tenth of July, it was, in eight
cen ninety-three; and the lake shore
along Jackson park was white with
fho 0root fina Wnrld,c Eoir huildinos