The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-06-11
BY
WILLIAM
C.ORCORAN

MIN, So Iiiob CiS WY o
was peace. Peace, if he could find
it 49,. and there is no peace IN
abiding with an ecstasy he could
never share.
He was humbled, haunted, tor
mented; he was seized by the ter
ror of life. And when human
creatures come TO a. certain point
in life suddenly, point where the
prospect is appalling and over
whelming for mortals to look
upon, nature provides for them
that life may never halt. Lie
cannot halt. Nature makes them
little drunk, drunk with too
much sensation, SO that ;theyHno
longer mind, being without Won
ton while life sweeps them on
into an unknown. :.
They walked together in the
night, the two Of them, and they
talked little. They made no plans;
Terry needed none; joe had
spoken, and that was all that mat
tered. When she addressed him
it was about things quite irrelc-
want and trivial: the gay song
someone was singing inside an
open window, the look on a girrs
face as she talked in doorway
with a boy, the frantic friendli-
ness of, a puppy that came stun,
bling and galloping up, to greet
them, the majesty Of an allWay
beacon in the night sky. The night
was full of many things, and she
walked among them together with
her man. -......
1t was late when they arrived
at her home. All was dark and
quiet, and they entered the front
room stealthily. They listened,
and there was no sound: Joe
broodingly, Terry insclutably.
Terry lighted the lamp and then
she extinguished the lamp. They
sat together in the stiffness, listen
ing. Terry put out a hand in the
darkness. And then abruptly,
brutally and darkly and hun
grily, they turned to one another
and swept into each others arms.
Joe was drunk with sensation
and Terry with ecstasy, and they
listened no longer, for there was
a roaring as of mighty and ON
nific surf on an endless ocean
and it drowned out. all the world.
They were married in the
chapel of the. municipal, building
downtown by the city clerk at 10
o'clock in the morning.
; Now do not think for, minute
that disposes of Terry and Joe
and my story about love. Mar
riage is an incident in life, and
life goes on. 1t goes weaving and
winding, OBVIOUSLY hiding and
mantonly Haunting its always in
scrutable purpose, undaunted
even by death. Terrible and beau
tiful it goes, spiting all plans and
provisions, constant to one thing
only: the certainty of change:
The very magnificence Of life lis
its completely sublime disdain.
There was something wanton
and disdainfuT about this mar
riage Of Joe and Terry. No in
evitability was in it at all, but
much chance and fortuity. Pre-
carious indeed is any marriage,
but here was a marriage with no
foreordained compulsion about it,
with no fond benediction of fam
lilies and friends, with nothing,
practically, but that small and in
tense persistence of Terry Nal.
low. And she was young, know
ing neither life nor the world sui.
ficiently, where Joe knew both all
too well. ..-
1t was a marriage sustained
only by that small and intense
persistence, and by it to stand or
fall. '. r.. '--.--~
They told no one about their
intentions when they met. early
and went downtown together.
They got busy Immediately after
ward and selected small flat, a
four-room box flat three stories
up on a side street in their own
ncighborhood. Joe drew his money
from the bank and let Terry Sc
lect a bed, table, utensils, fur
nishings. They bought with
frugal care, having none too much
money for their wholesale needs,
and they bought right in the