The Wyandotte herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1879-1943, 1941-11-21


dressing a rather oldlsh-
looking woman, who was
munching on a homemade sand
Wich.
Marge had just come into the en-
ployees' lounging room of the big
department store where they both
worked in lamps on the sixth floor.
Good looking guy, too. III say,
she went on Ben, they called
him.
The older woman went suddenly
white. Ben what memories
stirred at the name. The hand hold
ing the sandwich trembled visibly.
What did the man look like"
she asked, trying TO steady herself.
Big brown eyes and red hair,
with a curl over his forehead like
a little boy s.
Then il was true-her Ben arrest
ed.
My God, Stell. what's the mat
ter? l thought you was gong to
pass out on me-" said Marge slip
ping an arm around her You pick
good places to faint"
I'm all right said Stell. brac-
ing herself. Guess I must have
been eating too fast, and then some
how it upsets me to hear of men
going to jail"
That man you're spending your
life grievin' over isn't in jail, is he?
Gosh, you're simp, Stell."
Il don't know where he is def
nitely," added the other. But l
know he'd play an honest game"
IF that's what you call it to walk
off and leave a woman" returned
Marge loftily Better take my ad-
vice, forget him and step out with
Big Jim. He likes you and would
marry you, if you played your cards
right The boys got future" she
added. Hell be head of the lamp
department some day"
The older woman did not reply
Instead she took another bite from
her sandwich before inquiring,
What was the man arrested for?"
Don't know exactly" said Marge.
Just saw him being loaded into the
patrol wagon as l came in You
should have seen the dick, It's
the first guy he's nabbed in / don't
know when, and he was tickled
pink"
Later that day Stell heard the girl
in the credit cage say, He told
the cops his name was Good, and
that he was looking for his wife
who worked here One of the cops
laughed and said, Good, nothing!
You're bad clean through The dick
said he had followed him from one
department to another on every floor
of the store. And he was making
the rounds the second time before
they caught him with the goods-not
anything much, just one silk stock
ing. What's guy going to do with
one stocking, ask you? Unless he's
got a one-legged girl?"
But Stell had heard enough Ben
had come back. Her Ben He had
been here in the store, wandering
from department to department
looking for her-too tinid to ask
and then they'd picked him up. Sure
ly, there was some mistake. What
ever else Ben was, he was not
thief.
But they had arrested him. Now
at least she knew where he was.
Four years before he had left her.
Left her sitting on their packed
trunk, hated and gloved, while he
went to look for a drayman.
They were going to Iowa together
their first trip home since their
marriage twelve years before.
''Tn chase down the street." he
told her, land get Connolly to come
for the trunk. I'll only be gone
minute"
But he had never come back. Not
until the wee hours of the morning.
not until she had waited, and wait
ed, and waited. did she remove her
hat and coat and unpack.
The next day she went to work at
the department store. And she had
never heard of or from Ben until
today. But she had kept on wait
ing, never going out anywhere, new
er looking at another man, just wait
ing for Ben, and working, often
dreaming of her happiness with
Ben And now he was back.
At $50 she was at the police sta
ton, and the guard was leading her
down the grim cement passageway.
What if he had grown tired of her,
sick of the devotion she gave him?
Perhaps he had been too kind to
tell-he had always been afraid to
hurt her. Had he taken this easy
way out?
1t was all so unlike the youth she
had married. Such queer snarl.
The guard looked at the woman
with curious, friendly eyes.
$50 you've come-just as he said
you would" he commented.
Then he called cheerily into the
semi-darkness. She's here-just
like you said" And she was con-
scious of standing before an old
young man in a coarse prison Jack
ct, Unlocking. with great suffering
in his hungry eyes.
Ben. oh, Benz" she cried as she
thrust both hands through the bars
at once.
All her love for him coursed
tbrot.Uh her md NTH =, - -~..-x:1