Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1937-03-04
CHAPTER So

JANET hadn't the remotest idea
when she was going to see Russell
Bede again. He had said nothing
about it when he was leaving. In
fact he had said little after Joel
had arrived and part of Janet's
anger toward Joel was because he
had destroyed the pleasantness
that had marked the late after
noon and evening.
While she couldn't put her finger
on anything definite that Joel had
said or done, she was conscious
and so was Bede-of Joeps cold
ness which was entirely unwar-
ranted.
Also she was angry, truly angry
for the first time in her marriage,
toward her husband for his churl-
ishness toward her. Their rela-
tionship from the beginning had
been marked by courtesy and
while they had had quarrels in the
fashion Of most married people,
they had been brief squalls that
had blown over lightly with ex-
plantations and the light winds of
laughter.
When Janet went upstairs that
night after Bede's leaving, she was
angry with the kind of hot anger
that stilled her tongue and made
her feel strong and unforgiving.
She went into her own bedroom
and closed the door between her
room and Joels. She bathed and
went back to her dressing table
and cold creamed her face leisure
ly. Her feeling did not pass or
lessen. Joel had been rude to her
guest and Joel had been rude to
her, and for the first time in her
experience she was not going to
compromise. If Joel was not 60
ing to apologize, she was going to
make no explanations.
She heard his step, which was
heavy, on the stairs. With her
hand poised midway between her
face and the cold cream jar, she
waited a trife anxiously for him
to stop at her door. He didn't.
She heard him pass and go into
his own room.
Still she had no feeling of re-
morse. If Joel had made no reso-
lutions regarding their marriage,
Janet had; she had decided that
first day of her marriage that no
night in their lives together would
ever pass on a misunderstanding.
That she would do everything in
her power to make all things clear
and honest between them.
Stroking her soft hair over and
over again with her hairbrush, she
was thinking Of that and thinking
Of the nights when she kept her
worries, her fears to herself. Sud-
denly the number of them became
proportionately great. She had
had fears about money, about the
lack Of it, and later, the eXtrava-
CANT expenditure Of it. She had
worried about JoePs future in
those early days when she was
bending her energies toward push
ing and helping him. More re-
Gently, she had worried about the
women in his life, worried about
what his career was doing to the
artist in him, albeit she was be-
ginning , to realize-though she
would not put it into words-that
Joel was not an artist. He was
capable actor, a competent actor
but he was not an artist. But
that didn't really matter. She
hadn't married him because she
had fallen in love with the artist;
she had fallen in love with the
man.
Truly that man had brought her
many worries which he was never
to worry about. That was all right
with Janet. It was woman's place
to take those burdens silently in
the code that Janet inherited. It
was womans place to smooth and
encourage a mans course, to make
him happy and keep him con-
tented.
Joel was not noticeably con-
tented that night, Janet thought
grimly, long after she had turned
out her bedside lamp.
There was a narrow bar of light
under his door. Time and time
she heard him strike a match for
his cigaret. She heard him wall.
TO the far corner of the room
where his book shelves were. re-
turn to his bed, get up and walk
to the shelf again.
II were the right kind of a