Evening star., 1937-06-13

TOR six days Frederick Stedman had
L labored with the pretense that he was not
noticing the tension in the home since his
wife's return from her visit in Cleveland.
This was the seventh day and in the middle
of the busiest afternoon he discovered he could
pretend no longer. His nerves, tortured by
suspense proclaimed their warning that the
time had come for him to step right up to
Helen and ask her right out, What eating
you anyway
Several times before he had got this ques-
ton up to the edge of his lips But each time
something in Helen's face drove it back into
his throat 1t required very little analysis to
tell him that he couldn't ask the question
because he was afraid of the answer. He was
afraid she would tell him that while she was
out in Cleveland she had seen someone who
had made her realize that she had married the
wrong man. At first the notion was so fan
tastic that he had tried laughing it off, but as
the tension grew, the notion grew and there
and been answered.
All day long he had been striving to whip up
the courage he would need to look straight
into her lovely young face and demand the
dreaded truth. But he kept seeing his own
face as it would look when she told him. He
could not bear it. Helen must never see him
look like that No! When the blow fell he
must be alone, so that if he wanted to burst
into tears he could do so in decent privacy.
Shortly before four o'clock in the afternoon
the solution to the problem burst upon him.
He would simply sit here in his Office, write
the question and stay away from home
altogether until he had received the answer.
He cleared his desk He was alone with pen,
ink, paper, cigarettes and all the words in
fulsome language from which he had only to
choose a few simple phrases. But by four
forty-hve, after seven beginnings, ranging
from Dear Helen" to heartbroken, "Oh,
my darling" sweat stood upon his brow and
ink upon his nose, but not one word upon the
eighth sheet of paper under his clammy fist.
In an agony of Illustration he was just
considering insanely a cool Dear Madam"
when the door opened and in walked his old
friend, classmate and fraternity brother,
Herbert Berry Herbert's round young face,
a mere blob in the thick smoke haze, hung
over the despoiled desk top for an instant.
Don't" he said, sinking into a chair,
write a letter Never write letter to
woman Say it with flowers. They wither and
die and they can't bounce back on you. l
know"
"You can't" growled Frederick, ''use
bunch of sweet peas to ask your wife what's
poisoning her life And how do you mean you
know"
Herbert put his hand into his coat pocket.
He brought forth largish grey suede box
and let the lid fly up. Frederick eyes bulged
upon a circlet set with diamonds and sap
phires which were giving off what he esti-
mated swiftly to be thousands of dollars
worth of glitter.
Imagine, he murmured vaguely. "Is it
yours?"
Herbert drew long breath. Il bought it for
Edith But Edith may never see it. The
chances are that this lovely bauble, which
swallowed up my last sou, will have to 60 to
dizzy blackmailing blonde named Diddy.'
"Diddy," breathed Frederick. He stared at
his friends drawn face, feeling shock that