The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-12-18

all. I'm paying alimony, and every cent
I pay makes me madder!"
II hope it's good and big!" she said
breathlessly.
"You can bet it isl" he said. "She
she's going to winter at Miami. And
I'm going to get more sleep, lady. Do
I make that clear?"
She couldn't remember exactly what
she had said in answer, but in resume
of the moment she realized she could
have done better; she composed scath-
ing comebacks half aloud all after
-. all men. When she saw him again
she would simply say
Her gestures were jerky from her
tightness.
10 telephoned at 6 o'clock, but she
was through with men; she smiled un-
pleasantly hearing 10, and she saw the
fire eater of the apartment below. She
saw him steadily.
10, his old stuff. If you put it on a
record you'd have it all! o darling,
your party was a riot. Rested, dear9"
He found some necessary ingredient
gone from her tone. He added to. his
went on with, "Am I coming up to
spend a long evening with your"
She said, mo" And it sounded like
a clay pigeon cracking in midair.
Now he went wistful. He didn't un-
derstand . Bet. are you there? Dear,
I don't understand"
She said she did, and that that made
all the trouble.
He stalked in, a half hour later,
with all the ready drama of the light
living up for air. He looked a stock
company Hamlet; three short stemmed
roses, taking the role of the skull:
"Bet, I had to come" he said hollow
ly, closing the door after himself.
so I perceive" she admitted.
altitude breathing as he stood before
her staring down at her -. She was
in his chair, which she usually left
when he appeared. This night she sat
tight and pretty; very pretty. She
looked unusually feminine. He tx
tended the roses, saying, "A few posies
for you, Bet"
flowers, roses, anything but-posies.
Posies! It makes me sick!"
"Why, Bet!"
He laid the roses on the table, and
settling in a chair near hers, he took
her hand; his gang were grand at
folding feminine fingers to their talk.
you've been going a little too hard,
utdT, 1 Clll11h, 1c Sd1O Cd1CoSA116AJ.
"You think right. I'm going to tell
you the truth, 10. I'm going to take life
straight hereafter. I've decided that
I'm never going to give another man a
dollar dinner for the price of three
roses, which, at most, are about 30
cents. I'm going to tell the next one
who comes my way that the Salvation
Army gives out free meals. I'm not
going to be done any more. I'm per.
fectly calm, 10, you needn't look that
way" She shook from excitement; her
words quivered from it. You can re-
member In a business woman and see
facts whole, and if you think you've
been decent to me you're lying! Lying!
And you didn't bring be one thing from
Bermuda ida, uo,;,a and Sl,d l kept 4'm thinking : nkd nf;c Of
business woman, 10, and this isn't hys-
terra But I kept thinking of you
dancing every evening down there. I
had an idea you were dancing with a
blonde . And that you didn't bring
one thing! And you've been coming
all this time, and you have no idea OF
T AIRY sigp ne dead: b Ana last in Pu y asy
and cook you-a Swiss steak!"
He broke in with a blank But you
telephoned, asking me to come, Bet"
What if I did? would" gasp-"a
self-respecting man come?-under the
circumstances? I simply tore, and I
was so tired; I'm looking at this en-
tirely calmly, 10, and in the level I've
learned-from Tending for myself. And
when you brought me nothing from
Bermuda"
She went on with the lecture, as
women do, in business O. out. She had
lost the stopper. Breathlessly she tier
ated and reiterated the fact that she
was looking at this as a business wom-
an would. She gave an airing to his
sins and omissions of their five years
acquaintanceship. She had never been
being male, he had never loved her so
much as he did at that angry interval.
He stormed, for the short moment,
strong. BET, you know I love you. If
I could marry, but I don't make as
much as you do, and"
She rose from his chair with a jerk.
Get the hell out of here!"'. she or
III never-feed another male-one bit.
of food!"
After he left she marshaled the
words, quite a few, that she should
have included in the evenings program.
She should have told him exactly what
the party, given last night for her, had
cost her. Take six cans of caviar, and
they don't grow on bushes. And the
soda and Scotch, and, of course, the
biscuits. And that his bringing a bottle
Of wine once every six or eight weeks
didn't even the score, even though she
had patty-caked and climbed telegraph
poles when he'd done it. THE whole
system is wrong" she said aloud.
Bought men,"
They didn't know a two-way street.
and she'd travel alone! Alone! And
what If she had asked him to come last
Tuesday night? Did that make it diff
ferent? No!
She found she was mixed inside. 1t
made her head ache. OF course no one
had asked for the refreshments on the
previous evening, she realized slowly,
but when people came in you natur-
ally
1.-THE trouble she thought slowly,
lis that I've grown too logical from
being In business, and I think too