The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-02-02
The Rains
Came
Continued from Page s.


when you we're a small child. that
made YOU want all those things-for
which yoa sacrificed everything
decent We're you thinking about
all this long ago when you were
selling cheap knives and watches
in Malaga
Who hurt you? Who put into
your head the idea that all this
power and all this money We're the
only things worth having in life
What made you think that you
could buy things in life-things
like love and fidelity and respect
and breeding?
What are you Ike inside What
must it be like 10 be you What
does it feel like TO be so ruthless.
so bitter. so alone. hating every
body who does not lick your boots
Youll never tell anyone because
you don't know yourself how it
feels. You've never known. You
can't know, because you're like d
man born with a horrible physical
deformity who can never know
what 1t Is like TO be fine and
straight and young and beautiful.
Your brain. your soul must have
some horrible deformity which is
all the worse because il cannot be
seen.
You must have been a horrible
child - grasping and calculating
how to make money even out Of
your mother. But it's all destroyed
you, too. Because you're a fin
ished man. Albert Simpson. The
world is finished with you and you
are sick of yourself and tired and
worn down by the thing you built
up with so much trickery and am
bition.
You're going to die in the India
which you hate. of a lothsome dis
ease. and no one will ever care,
not one person in the world, not
even your wife or your servant OF
the secretary you sent ahead to
Bombay. That wonderful private
railway carriage which you
thought made you seem greater
than other men will go back with
out you. Maybe your ashes will
60 home on that swife beautiful
boat and maybe they won't
But you're finished You'll never
get out of that horrible bed alive.
Youth never again shout at serv-
ants as If they were dogs You'll
never again make me ashamed in
public that I ever knew you. You
did something horrible TO me, to
my very soul. Oh, I let you do it
because | was tired and didn't
care, but you could have helped
me a little. You might have seen
what l needed-oh, so little-to
have saved me. but you didn't see
You never had time. All you did
was to shove money at me.
Well. you're finished. You're
going to die and rot and in a few
years nobody will remember who
you We're. You haven't even an
heir to leave behind you I'm glad
that vile blood of yours won't go
on living because l bore you
child. You're finished and nobody
cares.
There were times when you
thought you could break my pride
and make me as coarse as your
self, but you never did. In the
end I've won. Even last night
won when ! sent you skulkine out
of my room. You hadn't any kind
ness or any morals or any ethics,
so nobody could touch you but me.
knew you well enough to know
where il would hurt. and you made
me use my knowledge. You forced
me to do it. I'm not sorry. l wish
it had been more cruel.
People grow to look like what
they are, Albert. You We're a hog
and you've grown to look like
hog, lying there. Well, you're
going to die. This is the end of
you; and the whole world-even
little brats in the streets of India
and China-will be happier and
have a better life because you are
dead
Leaving him. she Went back TO
her own room and threw herself
down on the bed, and in moment
she found that she was crying
without making a sound. The
tears streamed down her face and
made a nasty little puddle on the
pillow Of pink crepe de Chine She
could not think why she was weep
ing: certainly il was neither for
Esketh nor from fear of death.
She had never been afraid of that,
nor half so afraid as she had been
of growing old and losing the
white smoothnesS of her skin and
the shine of her blond hair. She
could not remember having wept /.
since she was a schoolgirl and now
this was the same sort of weeping, !
from nerves, over nothing at all,
a relaxing. satisfactory perform /
ance. touched by the same volup- (
and melancholy.
But I've never mad nerves.
damned country and tins damned
climate the bloody rain and heat
and boredom
After a time she felt better and.
sitting up. she took her mirror
and looked at herself. a little
shocked that her hair was IN such
disarray and her eyes so red and
swollen
Looking at her reflection she
thought:
is that really me ? II can't be
For what she saw was a woman
who was no longer elegant and
smooth and beautiful. but a rather .
plain. dlsheveled creature on the I
verge Of middle age. And then in .
fright she put down the mirror.
What is I should never escape .