The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1937-04-24
EYES UKCHARD
By MARGARET wIDDEMER

from Hollywood, darling, after only
being there a week. didn't expect
awning at all-and letter to Judge,
she held the letter up and shook
y to see II there was a check inside.
nearly certain that there wouldn't be.
OUT hopeful enough to investigate.
something fell out. but 1t was not a
cneck. 1t was a smaller size of note
paper, in handwriting instead Of
Marylin's tipping. It looked familiar
yes-Mitzi's hammered small hand.
Maryiln. Eve thought idly. really
shouldn't pass other peoples letters
around as she did: nevertheless, she
began to read it.
Marylin darling" II began conyen-
tionally: then: This is to tell you that
i've given in at last-as you ALWAYS
SAID ! would, you old hatterer! If
was loved with enough passion" Eve
stopped to laugh heartlessly; and then
sopered. as she realized that evidently
billiard Betz's taunt that men didn't
really care for her had stung Mitzi
Power into getting engaged to some
body -.
Who on earth" she said half
aloud. looking around for Uncle
Henry or George to tell it to. But
George, she remembered now. had
gone. with reluctant look backward
al his seedlings. to some New York
convention. Uncle Henry was potter
ing IN the garden. She went on with
the letter.
"You know" Mitzi wrote with
blacker and blacker excitement. show
long he's wanted me and longed for
me under everything {. in spite of
everything. Denny and are going to
be married."
'All Set. Old Dearr
I've looksds curiousiy at the word,
IL with queer icy feeling all over
her. Unmistakable. Up-and-down,
black ,5h9l fSprintipg. with its long
ssr9i eht thick fails and crossbars-
Dehhy. .Dehny shd Mitd were going
% be married, Eye did not feel any
thing at all. Every nerve center was
deadened from shock.
She sat very still in the middle of a
world of queer cold isolation. queer
silence. Nothing had anything to do
with her but those seven black words,
unchanging in the little dull-blue
piece Of expensive paper she was
staring at She shivered there in the
warm evening. and noticed duly
how wet her palms were and how
stiff the muscles of her throat. She
was quite motionless in the hammock
for she never knew how long; until
the light began to fade.
Her brain began to work again, very
quickly. terrified. She mustn't be here
when anybody came back. before she
had read the letter all through. :.
She caught it up and ran to her own
room. AS she ran she began to hope
crafty that 1t wasn't true, it was just
another Of Mitzi's delusions about
being adored. -.
She finished it sitting on her own
bed. II was not one of Mitzi's usual
boastings or insinuations. self-flatter-
ing. self-comforting. 1t was plain. as
sertive exultation, sentimental, UNI
mistakable. They were engaged. They
were announcing it to a few close
friends. They were to be married in
month. They would live on at South
ampton till October. after a trip TO
Canada for the honeymoon. They
would then settle down in New York
in a penthouse they were already
looking at. AS definite as Mitzi's let
ters to her lawyers.
And scrawled line at the bottom.
Denny's own handwriting: "AIl set,
old dearl Good luck in Hollywoodw
Eve sat on the bed long. long time.
AS long as she lived afterward she
remembered how many knots Of flow-
ers there were on the wallpaper Mrs.
Jennings had left. She counted them
over and over. aimlessly. Seventeen
one way. FIVE another. Red roses and
orange nasturtiums and blue violets,
and yellow tulips and pink forget
me-nots in one row. The same flowers
in the row below. with the colors
changed so that the roses were pink
and the nasturtiums yellow and the
violets red and the tulips orange and
the forget-me-nots blue. 1t must be,
she supposed. an "analyzed" old
fashioned garden. Red roses and
orange nasturtiums. He must have
gone straight to Mitzi.
He must have cared more for hav-
ing money and good times than for the
kind of person he loved He must
~ Her-sAind went painfully down
every byway. fingered every reason
why it had happened. -.
"a Betweentimes she counted red vio-
Ifek and ofahge nAsturtiums and Won
Fdered why they had wanted to make
violet red. IF they had been every
other Ioie. yellow" she heard herself
say. 1T, would have been much bet
ter. ~"
She thought, at would be better IL
they had been in only two colors."
She thought, They will live together
in Mitzi's penthouse and Mitzi will
laugh and put her finger in that cleft
in his chin the way used to. :" She
shivered little She sat on. staring at
the wallpaper till the dark came.
Judge hammered at her door. "a
lady's telephoning. She wants six
dozen rolls and two layer cakes for
over Sunday"
"Tell her she can have them to-
morrow morning" Eve said in clear
voice.
Copyright. 1857. Margaret WiddemerJ
Eve c0llapses In the orchard, Nom
dav distracted af nannv's action