The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-02-27
THE RAINS CAME
Copyrixht. 1887. 1898. 1899 by Louis Bromfiell
Distributed By Ledger syndicate

blue eyes there came the shadow
of something which Aunt Phoebe
In her wisdom understood, some
thing which astonished her. For
second she was silent and then
she said, We'll, you might scrape
the vans" but when she placed
the basin and the yams and the
knife before her, she saw that
Lady Esketh had not the faintest
idea of how to scrape yams, so she
took the knife in her own work
worn hands and said, See, like
this"
Lady Esketh said, I'm sorry,
but I'm such a fool about things
like that" and into her face came
look of childishness, almost of
innocence, which Ransome had
discovered on the night of Mr..
Bannerjee's party little while
before the earthquake.
Turning away to the stove, Aunt
Phoebe thought, That's it! That S
what she wants" The yams would
discolor her white hands and the
water would crack the lovely nails,
but that was what she wanted
more than anything in all the
world.
1t was Lady Esketh and Mrs.
Simon who kept watch through
the night, armed with Aunt Phoe-
be's revolver A little after mid
night revelations of the distant
explosions from the direction of
Mount ALBANIA rocked the house
and brought the others into the
candle-lighted kitchen where the
two women sat with the door bar
ricaded by chairs and tables. Ii
was Aunt Phoebe who OWNED the
cause of the explosions.
As the night drew on the two
women talked to each other. At
first there had only been an ex-
change of occasional remarks. civil
but undressing, for Mrs. Simon
was still bedazzled and Lady Es-
keith found herself bored and un-
happy Miss Hodge had been one
thing. but Mrs. Simon she found
was another.
In her snobbery Lady Esketh de-
tected kind of formlessness. it
was the manifestation of an indi-
vidual rather than a whole caste.
and so it puzzled her. The old
answers which had satisfied Miss
Hodge did not seem 10 satisfy Mrs.
Simon. She OWNED that both
women We're commonplace and
boring. but she discovered almost
al once that their quality was diff
ferent. Mrs. Simon had a chip
on her shoulder; poor Miss Hodge
was grateful for any kind word.
Mrs. Simon wanted more than
formulas. She demanded intimacy
on an equal footing as the final
price of a tolerable relationship
For the first time in her life
Lady Esketh felt III al ease. think
ing Perhaps, after all. our way
is the best. AT least you know
where you stand. Mrs Simon
dared 70 ask her direct questions
about her husband. about his ILL
ness. what she thought about
Rsnchipur and the Manaranee and
about Ransome. II was not only
that she expected an answer: she
expected the same intimate reyela-
tons which she herself produced
with such hreath-tsking frankness
and simplicity
When she brought the name Of
Ransome into their desultory talk.
obliquely rather like crab drag
ging its prey sidewise, she limited
al an intimacy between him and
Fern which made Edwina feel
that he had deliberately deceived
her about the depth of his rela-
tionship TO the girl.
She talked TO Lady Esketh with
a curious detachment about her
husband and her daughter who
were dead. saying. Tomorrow.
somehow. We must bury them. a
As she listened it seemed to her
that the woman almost believed
that poor Hazel and Mr.. Simon
had arranged 10 have themselves
killed in order 10 spite her. And
as she sat there. idly answering
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