Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-02-11

known it. This then, was the office
clerkship for which he claimed he was
paid such a small salary.
There was a black metal despatch
box under the papers and this also
succumbed to the hammer and chisel
When Christina raised the lid. she sat
back on her heels on the floor clutch
ing the sides OF the trunk, her heart
humping madly against her ribs, her
hands gone icy cold. The box was
4 packed solid with money, crisp clean
notes in neat rubber-banded packages.
Feeling a strange dreamlike unreal
ity, Christina settled down to count
! the money. There was an odd amount
/ over $4,000.
She was filled with some curious
I emotion which surged in her and made
I her feel slightly sick, but 1t was neither
relief nor happiness. 1t was something
! horribly like resentment. She got up.
/ leaving the money spread on the floor
and sat on the chair before her cheap
! painted dressing table. She stared into
the glass at her mirrored face. Pale
and haggard it looked back at her
Starved of sunshine. Of change. Of life,
fulfilment and happiness its girlish-
ness had gone. She looked like a ma
ture frustrated woman.
When she had married George Richie
ten years ago she had been little more
than a school girl, brimful Of charm
and high spirits and very good indeed
to look at, If not technically beautiful.
The mirror gave her back the drab
procession Of those year.
She looked past her image in the
mute evidence OF his callous treachery
on the floor. There lay her precious
youth. her longed-for vacations, her
lost beauty, her zest for living, cruelleSt
Of all-her unborn son. Dear God
she cried aloud, help me not to hate"
Suddenly the room was too small for
Christina, the faded walls seeming to
bend and close her In. She jumped up
from the chair, cranrned a hat on her
head without looking at It, kicked the
money across the floor with a savage
gesture and ran from the house. The 1
house was on the west side and she /
turned the corner and walked east /
ward to the park She walked swiftly, /
blindly, needless of direction, not try !
ing to think.
She was dead tired and sitting on
a bench feeling hollow, lonely and /
lost, when 1t came to her with shat
tering force that she was free now
She need not return to
the distasteful routine Of the office.
run away AAOl4A t4AC1C
bearable memories now etched in such
bitter significance.
She got up. went out into the street,
hailed a taxi. went home and packed
her things She would go TO a hotel
uptown till she had decided where TO
90 from there.
There was a travel bureau in the
hotel. A little folder Of the Tyrol in
spring reminded Christina Of a pic
5ure Of a mountain meadow starred
With flowers and capped with white
peaks which had hung in her bedroom
when she was a child. For years 1t had
been part Of her dream of the glory
life would bring her when she grew
ip. She booked a stateroom on the
Bremen and a railway ticket TO Inns
,ruck in the Austrian Tyrol.
There were three days In which to
,rovide herself with chic expensive
lothes. But she did not. Her wan face
depressed her What would clothes do
or her. except to show up what she
lad become? Besides she had not spent
money with carefree heart for years.
{ made her feel guilty now. Habit was
strong.
Innsbruck was filled with tourists.
he quaint streets we're thronged with
heerful middle-aged people and bois-
erous. beautiful laughing youth. Chris
ina found herself harassed by their
oise, their hustle and their laughter.
he did not want TO feel left out OF
heir gayety and she did not want
ny one to talk TO her.
In the hot sunny street she looked in
be window Of a travel agency and
he realized exactly what she did want.
hose flower-strewn slopes with their
ainted chalets-those steep soaring
ieadows like velvet 10 the feet--that
lent mountain solitude