The Washington times., 1937-03-17

address.
He had the strangest feeling,
carrying that letter upstairs, that
it would greatly, for good or bad,
affect his chance with Denise, and
hers with him!
He knocked on her door. 1t was
one of her mornings for extra
sleeping" as she called it, and her
voice just half away, said: "Come
in. I'm enjoying very dull break
fast in bed, Gilbert" She sounded
cheerful enough about it, and
looked altogether lovely in bright
blue fluffy negligee, with her hair
just pleasantly tumbled.
"Hurrah! You have heaps Of
American mail. Was the food any
warmer downstairs in the dining
room? I expect not much"
Letter for you, Denise"
When he handed it to her, and
she looked at the superscription,
he saw her face change. 1--WE got
things to do, Denise. Business
letters. Do you suppose you'll be
dressed and feel like sightseeing
In an hour?"
Eyes; I'll dress right away, Gill
bert"
mo hurry" He went out Of the
room, and made himself stay away,
through a full hour.
She sat up in bed holding that
letter in her hands tightly, as if
to hold it close would burn her
She watched small fleet of clouds
move across the incredible soft
blue of the sky outside her high
window. When they were gone,
she still stared at that oblong of
blue emptiness.
Letters from Felicia had been
bright punctuations of her child
hood since the years she still had
a governess, and Felicia had just
gone to boarding School-of her
young girlhood when she was at
school, and Felicia was a debutant
of her own debutante years,
when Felicia was on her honey
moon and the letters had exotic
postmarks. Always the moment of
opening a letter from her older
sister had been a gay moment.
Felicia had the gift for writing
amusingly, warmly, making her
affection for Denise shine through
her light sentences on scenery,
society and places to buy things.
In all those years Denise would
never have believed that there
would come a day when she would
open a letter from her sister with
dread and a kind of sudden sharp
dislike.
Not since the afternoon that
cablegram came had she written
to Felicia, but had waited until a
time should come when she might
know what to say. The time had
not come yet.
Then she set her pretty mouth.
No need to dread anything Felicia
might write about. The things she
wrote which had used to seem so
important, could not be important
any more. That was gone with the
rest
The letter read:
well, my pet:
Judging by the complete alb
sence of daily cablegrams, trans
atlantic telephone inquiries and
flowers photographed anywhere in
the world, as the ads say with
your best wishes attached, that
you have no best wishes for me.
Nevertheless
by the way, forgive the dis
coursive style. I'm doing this in
bits and pieces over days, in the
intervals between sledgehammerS
going on in my head. I'm pleased
to say the sledgehammers are
lessening in intensity, and they
tell me they're typical aftermath
Of skull fracture. Why do they,
as soon as they've got one locked
up in a hospital, tell one that one
has typical this and typical that?
Gets ones individuality so down.
"AS for my looks, they assure
me they'll be practically the
same. I keep hoping they don't
mean Just that I'll continue to