The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-02-29
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Chapter 81
PITY Not Wanted

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The suspense became unbear-
able. Her actual waiting began
to seem an admission Of wrong
doing. She walked quickly across
the room, across the hall. Bob
was sitting in a deep chair,
staring abSently, almost sleepily,
it seemed at first, at the fern
filed fireplace.
"Bob!"
The face he turned on her made
her cry out.
"Bob, you mustn't-look like
that, I mean! I've done nothing
wrong. l don't know what Eric
told you, but"
"He told me that you'd loved
him ever since you and he met;
that you had left my house to 60
to him when when TreGdonS
failed, and duty - duty, Sue!
brought you back. Ie told me
you had admitted you never
loved me. He said that even two
weeks ago you-my wife and the
mother of my children-had as
sured him that you never had
felt toward me, you never could
feel toward meas you felt tow
ard him. Is thiS-true?"
The tight band about her heart
began to loosen. This was some
thing she could fight.
Literally / suppose it is, Bob;
actually mean in the spirit of
the situation-it is not. was
young and very foolish when
met Eric. / thought ! loved him.
Perhaps did. Certainly the thrill
ling, hot-and-cold, ecstasy-and-
anguish feeling I'd read of and
never felt before was awakened
by-by Eric. l told you when we
were married / was afraid it
might be-by some man I'd never
met. It happened to be Eric. But,
Bob" a forlorn little laugh eS-
capped her pale lips. 81 found it
that sort of emotion - much
overrated thing! It didn't stand up
again your need of me-againSt
my desire to be with you when
when the crash came. L"
That's enough! | don't want a
wife who lives with me because
she is sorry for mel"
81 don't think / was exactly
sorry for you then, Bob. And GER
tainly Pm not now. I'm only sorry
for myself if you're going to let
Eric make trouble between us.
Why" she faced him with hands
outSpread in a gesture uncon-
sciously dramatic-"what was his
coming here tonight but the an
CRY gesture of a man scorned,
rejected? I'd hurt his vanity-bad-
ly. in New York; he wanted to
punish me by trying to destroy
my happiness with you. Are you
going to let him, Bob?"
He seemed not to hear her. "All
these years when l thought you
were such a good little sport
when / told myself that you must
love me after all or you'd not
have gone along"
at was true, Bob!"
sit was because you were
sorry for me; you pitied the silly
young ass who had thrown away
his fathers money, the business
that had been left him. Pats was
honester than you, Sue! She
would not stay with the husband
she'd stopped loving. You were
a traitor to both Farraday and
me; to him when you turned back
at Kansas City. to me when you
left me-"
I came back to you, Bob"
"Purely because of an acct
dent. If the failure had come one
day later, you'd have been with
Farraday. All this" he swept an
arm about the room would
never have been. The children
would never have been born. Oh,
my God" he groaned. think of
that! My children owe their very
existence to the accident of a
business failing one day instead
Of the neXt!"
Nothing To Forgive
CHE swallowed past the lump In
~ her throat. Most human re-
lationships develop from chance,
Bob. If you hadn't driven your
car into mine on the top of Wyeth
Hill, we'd never have met-the
children would never have been
born. And there was something
more than accident in my return
to you: there was my own will.
my decision"
He said: "Farraday tells me
that for days afterward he wired
you, called you from New York.
And knew nothing about It'll l.
fool that l waS!-kept telling my
self that there was one bright spot
in the mess I'd made of things
that you were standing by me"
"And wasn't l, Bob?"
THAT I might have-have put
aside" he said modify, choosing
his words. at was a long time
ago, people change. I've changed
lot myself. But to listen to that
eonfounded SNUG voice telling me
that now-TOtC-two short weeks
ago, you'd admitted to him in
New York that you felt for him
what you'd never felt for me-"
his face was suddenly congested.
Damn you. Sue. I'll never for
give you for thatl"
Her own temper. disciplined
through many years, was rising.
There is nothing for you to
forgivel It's perfectly true-what
| said to Eric; ! never shall feel
for you what I felt for him. But
you might have let me explain
that / consider my-my love for
you a far worthier. a far finer
thing than any :" In her turn
she choked, putting her hand to
her bare throat.