Nebraska Newspapers

    The Omaha Sunday Bee
EDITORIAL
AMUSEMENTS
TEN CENTS
VOL. 51 NO. 7.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 31, 1921.
1 D
The Oak ffminm ttJie Acom By Clifford Raymond
OU are sure you have the right num-
Y bcr?" Jessop asked the burglar.
JL "Sure he has." said Little John.
xfnrnhv Tin iin a eood memory, lie can al
most remember how many
times he's done
time.'
"I'd rather he put it down," said Jessop.
"He's to burgle, not to bungle.
"If it will make you any easier, I'll write it
down for him." said Little John. "Then some
will lift the pnper off him. He's always get
eg his pockets picked."
"Murphy, this isn't a joke," said Jcsaop.
"It won't be a Joke if there's any double
crossing in It." said the burglar.
I hear you're one of those guys who pulls
chairs out from under fat men." said Little John
to Jessop. "I supposed it was a joke."
"Maybe It was when it started. It's an un
dertaker's Joke now. The flat's at 1438 Fulton
parkway. It's the second floor to the right as
you go up."
"What is Sniffy to do Jimmy the door?"
"No; I'll see that the front door Is unlocked.
The. bedroom Is In the front. The ring Is in a
Jewel case In the dresser, which Is to the left as
you go in the room. I'll try to have a dim light
on. I do not want her scared any worse than
she has to be. but I do want her to see the
burglar Jut as he gets away."
"I suppose you'd liko to take a couple shots
at Sniffy." Little John suggested. "In that case
the price will be $1,000 instead of $300."
"If you make any cracks at me I'll croak
you," said Sniffy. "I don't like a frameup. any
way. Some one always turns crooked."
"Not me," said Jessop earnestly. "I want
this thing done quietly and quickly. I want him
to get away with tho ring and stay away with
it until he gives It to me the next day. I'll give
you each a hundred now and I'll give him an
other hundred when he gives me the ring. It's
like finding money in the street for him, but
he's not to take anything else. How do I know
he won't take other things?"
"You don't," said Little John, smiling. "That
will make it more interesting for you. Remem
ber, you're Inviting him into your flat."
"Don't worry, brother," said Sniffy. "I'm a
square guy. . Treat me square and I'll treat you
square."
"Remember, you turn to the right at the head
of the stairs."
"Maybe you'd better take him home with
you," said Llttlo John. "When do you want
this done?"
"Tonight, of course. I don't want to stand
the strain any longer than I have to."
"I was going to get some sleep tonight," said
Sniffy, "but 1 told you I was a square guy, and
if it will accommodate you, I'll do it tonight."
"The sooner tho better for everybody and
everything concerned," said Jessop.
. He went home directly from Murphy's of
fice. Jessop was, professionally, a good fellow.
He had central territory for Willitt & Moore,
makers of Ponce de Leon, Donna Mercedes, El
Rey de Santiago, and other brands of cigars, and
one of his sales assets was the fact that he was
a good fellow, but he did not allow that to cut
into his nights. Mrs. Jessop could not complain
that he neglected her.
He liked to sit at home after dinner in the
Morris chair, with his coat and collar off, and
read the paper, or go to the Pantheon to see a
picture, or occasionally go, with Mrs. Jessop, to
the Half Moon or Primrose, where prohibition
Imperfectly prohibited.
As a good fellow he knew Little John Mur
phy, not intimately, but well enough to go to
him when he wanted a burglar. Little John was
,ir-c!ty politics and in the legislature. His dis
trict touched the river, included the gashouse
district, the Sicilian quarter, where there were
hip pocket shotguns, and ran over to the other
extreme, of which the papers occasionally re
ported that the little Misses Wallace and Utterby
and Masters John and Will Terwilliger played
yesterday on the Club grounds.
Mrs. Jessop was proof of the astonishing fact
that once a woman always a woman. Half of
life is perception of this fact and the other half,
accommodation to it. If Cleopatra is a woman,
then, of course, Joan isn't: and if Mary Pick
ford is a woman, then Theda Bara is something
else again. Men have 20 pigeonholes for their
ideas of women, and the same woman is in each
pigeonhole.
Mrs. Jessop was country bred, timid when
exposed to anything she had not encountered
before, pretty, amiable, getting plump and wor
rying about it. She had been delighted by the
acquaintances she had made in the city after
her marriage. She was eager, sensitive, secretly
disturbed about her hats, wanted a baby, and
had learned to drink a highball. She also had
learned to play bridge, to put garlic in her salad
dressing, and to wonder when House Peters
would reappear in the movies.
Jessop, when he let himself in by his latch
key, found that the flat was strange with a new
significance. It was no longer the comfortable,
familiar place, but a stage for something to
happen.
He thought he must seem nervous and iJn
casy to Mrs. Jessop, but she did not comment
on it, and he concluded that she did not notice
it. After dinner' he asked her to go to the
movies. He said he wanted te get his mind oft
a business deal which worried him.
They went, and afterwards, when Mrs. Jes
sop preferred to go home, he took her to the
Half Moon, where they met their friends, the
Parkes and the Holcombs. Jessop drank a half
dozen dollar highballs and felt better.
When he and Mrs. Jessop returned home
she went directly to bed, but he sat up, saying
that he was restless and would read until he felt
that he could sleep. He sat in the living room
listening to the various sounds which occasion
ally broke the silence of the night and wonder
ing apprehensively when it would be safe for
him to fix the catch on the entrance door so
that Sniffy White might enter.
He took several drinks from his decanter of
bourbon, and at 1:30 o'clock concluded that all
the occupants of flats in his entrance must be
in and that the lock could be adjusted without
probability of its being sprung again.
He thought the stairs creaked alarmingly
as he went down. When he returned his heart
was thumping as if he had been badly startled,
and he took another drink to steady himself.
Then, with a book, he went to bed, adjusting a
reading' lamp eo that it would not disturb his
wife, who slept soundly, but would give a patch
of light to the room. Then he prepared to He
awake.
He listened for sounds which would indicate
the approach of White, but the breaks in the
night became less frequent He had been cer
tain that In his restlessness and apprehension
he would remain awake, but the whisky he had
drank began to benumb him, and before he per
ceived the danger of the pleasant lassitude which
came to relieve him he had fallen asleep.
He was awakened by pistol shots and shout
in. Mrs. Jessop, sitting up in bed, was clutch
ing at him In fright.
"Burglars!" she cried.
Instinctively he tried to hold her, but she
prang out of bed and ran to her dresser, turned
oa the dresser light, and took out her Jewel box.
"It's here," she eald in a tone of relief so
profound It was almost one of awe. "I was so
frightened."
Bha took out a diamond ring and slipped it
a her finger.
Jessop put on his robe and slippers and hur
ried to the door. The door across the hall was
tpea. He toalg hear Uik firm hi Btiihbor'i
wife, crying hysterically. All the dwellers in
the flats of his entrance had been aroused. The
men on the third floor were coming down.
"Mollle," Jessop said to his wife, "go into
Mrs. Drew's and see if there is anything you can
do."
He went down to the entrance. Drew, in his
pajamas, had Just been joined by the neighbors
living on the ground floor. He was standing:
outside the door, on the flagstone. He carried
a pistol.
"What's the matter?" Jessop said.
"Burglars," said Drew. "At least one. I
saw only one. There may have been another. I
think I got him. Look, here's a drop of blood.
There's another."
"Did he get anythirg?" Jessop asked. He
knew that if he revealed one-tenth of what he
felt the first policeman who came would take
him in. Ho had not always been in perfect ac
cord with his fellow men all his life, but he
never had been ashamed to look one In the face
before, and he was ashamed to look at Drew.
"I do not know what they got," said his
neighbor. "The man I saw had the silver in a
bag, but he did not pick it up when he ran. I'll
go back and telephone the police, and then I'll
see what's missing. My wife's in hysterics, I
suppose."
Mrs. Jessop, in her wrapper, came out of the
Drew flat just as Jessop and his neighbor joined
the group at the door.""
"Come, Don," she said. "We can't do any
thing more, and Mrs. Drew needs Mr. Drew
alone to quiet down."
She led him within their own flat and closed
the door. Then she turned to him with sympa
thetic pain in her eyes.
"O, Don," she said, "they got Mrs. Drew's
jewelry'. They even got her engagement ring.
She is crazy with grief. It's terrible. Her en
gagement ring is even more precious to her than
my anniversary ring is to me maybe I don't
know how anything could be more precious.
It might have been my ring, and I should have
died. Just think. The burglars may have stood
hesitating at the head of the stairs, and they
might have turned our way Instead of the
Drews' way. I'm awfully, awfully sorry for Mrs.
Drew, but I'm awfully glad and that's mean,
I know, but I can't help it."
She was too excited to go to sleep again, and
Jessop was too conscience-stricken. Later in the
morning, as he was about to go downtown, his
wife gave him a box.
"The ring's In it," she said. "You'll have
to put it in a safe place until I can think of a
way to protect it here. I don't know how I am
going to do without it, but I couldn't rest with
it in the house Just now. You'll put It in a safe
place, won't you, dear, where it will be perfectly
secure?"
Jessop's concern was to get to Little John
as rapidly as possible and to force a restitution
of the stolen jewelry of the Drews. As the street
car crossed the river bridge an inspiration came
out of his unhappiness. He got oft the car,
took the ring out of the box, and, careful not to
attract attention, dropped it into the river. Then
he threw the box into a waste receptacle at the
curb a block farther on and went to Murphy's
office.
"Now, don't blame me," said Little John
when he saw Jessop. "I know. He's been here.
He's in the next room now. He says he got
mixed up. He turned to the left, he says. He
says he thought you forgot to leave your door
unlocked. He jimmied it. White's brains are
not in his head. When he got in the bedroom
and got a flash at the man he knew he was in
the wrong pew. Then he decided to make it his
own Job. He was in. Tou can't blame him."
"But I'm responsible:" Jessop cried.
"I think you are, too," said Little John, "and
so does Sniffy. He thinks you're entirely to
blame. It's a sure thing he would not have been
in that particular flat if it hadn't been for you.
And he got shot in the arm. That's going to
keep him from working for several weeks. He's
pretty sore and you can't blame him."
"He robbed that other family," Jessop ex
claimed, "and I'm responsible, and I'll not stand
for it. I'll explain everything."
"Of course you are an innocent bird," said
Little John. "A man can invite a burglar to his
flat if he wants to, I suppose, unless he's got
insurance. Then there might be an objection,
if he tried to collect. I didn't ask you what
your purpose was."
"I didn't have any purpose at all, nothing
illegal at all."
"Never mind your purpose. You've kept
that to yourself. Just keep it."
"I want to see this fellow."
' "He wants to see you."
Little John called White from the adjoining
room. The burglar held one arm in a fixed,
bent position at his side, and his look at Jessop
was unfriendly.
"What did you go In that flat for?" Jessop
asked. "Didn't I tell you a dozen times. What
did you stay there for when you saw it was the
wrong one?"
"Say," said White, "lay off me. Don't try
to ride me. Lay oft and stay off."
Little John was amused.
"It's a bird," he said, "but you can't expect
Sniffy to get the Joke yet. His union has no
accident benefits."
"We've got to get that woman's Jewels back
to her somehow," said Jessop.
"Where do you get that 'we' stuff?" White
asked.
"I might Just as well have gone in there and
taken it myself. It's got to go back."
This idea penetrated Snlffy'a gloom as a
gleam of amusement. He grinned at Little John.
"He's a sure nut," he said, Jerking his head
at Jessop.
"I don't think you get Sniffy's point of view,"
said Little John with smooth irony. "He made
a mistake, but when he found he was on a job
for himself he did it. His duty to his folks re
quires him to make the best use of business op
portunities." "I've simply got to get that diamond engage
ment ring at least," said Jessop in despair. "The
woman is frantic."
"How much will you take for it. Sniffy?"
Little John asked.
"Two hundred," said W'hite.
"You are crazy," said Jessop. "It never was
worth that."
"It's worth it to me and it's worth it to you."
"I've a notion to go to headquarters," said
Jessop savagely.
"You mentioned something like that before,"
said Little John. "Don't say it again. We might
misunderstand you. I don't blame you for want
ing to get this ring back to the woman. Give
Sniffy $200. He's entitled to it. It's only a
hundred more than he would have gotten for
the right ring. I'll see that the ring gets to a
pawnshop and that the police find it there.
Your neighbor will have it, at least. If you want
her to get everything back what will you take
for the junk. Sniffy?"
"Five hundred."
"There's a proposition. I think it is up to
you to get the woman's jewelry back to her."
"A square guy would," said Sniffy, grinning.
"All right," said Jessop. "I'll get the money
and bring it over this afternoon."
"Do you still want White to get your ring?"
Little John asked as Jessop opened the door.
Jessop could not think of anything worth
while saying in reply and merely closed the door
hard.
When he got to his office he found in his"
mail a letter from hia firm Informing him that
a aucetuor been appointed le take ovw
f f Blue I
I I J X (Ribbon;
U Vh Hctkm
J? V
'MOWPIP1 )rV
fff,'
"Draw, in
the
his territory and asking him to adjust himself
to the change, to be made within 30 days. The
letter was not critical, and endeavored to be
kindly. It said that an investigation had been
made of the loss of the business of an important
line of hotels, and it had been revealed the cause
in the unfriendly relations of Jessop as sales
manager and J. W. Roscoe as purchasing agent.
"We are informed," the letter said, "that
there Is no way of reconciling the personal dif
ferences between you and Mr. Roscoe, and Mr.
Roscoe's employers inform us that his value to
them is greater than the value of our product.
If it is still in your power to re-establish the con
nection with the Transcontinental people, we
shall be pleased to have you continue. Other
wise, we shall be obliged to accept your resig
nation." i
Roscoe, Jessop reflected, was the cause of
all his troubles. Jessop could not concede to
himself that he himself was the agent of his
own misfortunes. His sense of injury had to
find an external cause. He blamed Roscoe for
the trouble he was having with the ring. He
could blame him for tho loss of his position.
Ho was too angry to be rational, and immediate
ly wrote a letter to his firm declining the 30 days
of grace and insisting that his successor present
himself within three days.
He had not saved money, and his resources
were being overtaxed by the demands upon
them. To cap them with the loss of his salary
was serious.
He had an egotistic good nature and lib
erality. It pleased him to be liked, gratified his
sense of importance, and he satisfied himself
Injudiciously at times. He was careless in loans
he made acquaintances and in the money ho
spent in proving his open-handedness with men.
The most graceful aspect of this characteristic
was shown toward his wife, to whom occasion
ally he made splendid presents which she knew
he could not afford, but which delighted her
nevertheless.
His carelessness had not led him into debt,
but it had prevented any accumulation of re
serve, except in two Liberty bonds, one $1,000
and the other $500. His checking account would
not stand the draft he had to make, and to satis
fy White he was obliged to sell a bond. He had
a twinge of regret. These bonds and $5,000 life
insurance were all the protection Mrs, Jessop
had.
His sense of injury was dominant and it
dulled other emotions. He went back to Little
John's office with $300, paid White, and had
Little John's word that the jewelry would be
found by the police and returned to Mrs. Drew
at once. That eased his conscience.
When he returned home Mrs. Jessop asked
him what he had done with the ring.
"I put it in my safety deposit box," he said.
"I worry about it no matter where it is," she
said plaintively. "Now I wish it were home. If
it were here, I should be frightened to death."
"You mustn't allow yourself to get that way,"
Jessop said uneasily. "It's unhealthy. ' You
mustn't think so much of anything that you
couldn't reconcile yourself to its loss. That will
make trouble for you all your life, and it will
get worse If you encourage the habit. You'll
never be happy."
"You talk as if I might lose it," she said in
alarm.
"T don't t;ilk uny tsuch wav. J don't want
H uu so upm by Xea
If
hie pajamas, toot standing oattido
outer door on the Hagttono.
Ho carried a pittoL"
"But it never could be replaced"' she ex
claimed. "No other ring would be the sameT"-
"Well, you're not going to lose it," said
Jessop desperately. "Let's have dinner and go
out somewhere."
He knew he was temporizing with fate, but
he did not know what else he could do.
"We're invited to a dinner party b$- the
Tools next Wednesday night," said his wife,
"and, of course, I'll have to have my ring then.
It's so terribly perplexing to know what to do,
but I can't do without it that night, and I shall
die of fright all the time I have it. Why can't
people be honest!"
Jessop computed. It was Friday night He
had Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
Wednesday he had to produce the ring, or face
exposure and consequences he was coming to
dread in every instinct.
He had an unpleasant evening and a restless
night. In the morning he saw what he had to
do. He had to buy a ring. He would have to
sell his remaining Liberty bond. Then he would
be without resources and without a salary, but
that could not be helped.
Saturday he sold the bond and went around
looking at rings in jewelry stores. Monday he
resumed that occupation, bitterly reproaching
himself that he had thrown the ring into the
river. Wednesday he bought one which cost
$1,100, and he was positive he had the exact
duplicate of the ring he had thrown away. The
purchase strapped him. He went home happier
than he had been for weeks, taking the ring
with him. He had many troubles to face, but
he thought the worst was over.
As he opened the door of his flat he heard
a woman's voice in the living room saying:
"And, as everybody knows it, my dear, I thought
it was simply unfair to you not to tell you. A
real friend would tell you. That's what I kept
saying to myself."
Jessop was afraid to go into the room, but
he was afraid not to. He put his wife and her
cuest on their guard by closing the door with a
bang. Then he went in and fount with his wife
v. woman he had never liked.
His entrance obviously destroyed the in
timacy and candor of their talk.
Jessop saw that the woman's face showed
pvidences of conscious meanness. His wife's
face showed evidences of shock and incredulity.
The woman apparently had done her work and
wanted to get away quickly, but Mrs. Jessop had
been too dismayed to be discreet.
"Did you bring the ring, Don?" she asked.
"Yes," he said, brightening. "Here it is."
"Let me see it," she said. He noticed a sig
nificance in her, tone and manner, but was un
able to interpet it. He pave her the box in which
the jeweler had put the ring.
"How did you get this box?" his wife asked.
"This is a new one. It was not in this when
you took it downtown."
Jessop had forgotten that detail necessary to
the deceit of substitution, and felt a touch of
cold paralysis. He could not answer for a mo
ment. While he was thinking of a plausible
excuse his wife opened the box and took out the
ring.
To his astonishment she, having looked at
it for an instant, covered her eyiiH with her hand,
gasped, and rested her head, almost dropped It
back on her chair. Her friend, startled by this
uddtn demonstration, reached over fur the ring
Mrs. J estop held in her other hand and picked
it up.
"Why," she said, "the ring had 12 small
stones about tho large one. This has only six."
Jessop looked awkwardly at the evidence of
his catastrophe.
"Of course, I was mistaken," said the wo
man hurriedly. "It could not have been 12. I
don't know how I got that idea in my head.
Goodby, Mollie. I must run home to dress.
Goodby, Mr. Jessop. We'll see you both later, at
the party.
Jessop tried to regain his composure.
"This Is not the ring," said his wife. Her
voice was so charged with bitterness that he
would not have recognized it. "Why isn't it?
What have you done with the other? Why
have you brought this one home?"
"Of course it Is the ring, Mollie," he said
desperately.
"Mrs. Chase told me," his wifo said, "that
Mrs. Roscoe is telling a malicious story that my
ring was not genuine, that you bought it in a
novelty shop and told her husband all about the
joke in a saloon. I knew that was not so, but
how can I deny it or face it down without the
ring. Why have you brought this one? Where
is mine?"
"But that is yours, Mollie," said Jessop. "You
have made a mistake. There is no other ring.
That's the one I took to the safety deposit box."
"It is not. Anyone can see Instantly that it
is not. It is not even like it. Why are you try
ing to impose on me? What have you to hide?
Is the story true that Mrs. Roscoe is telling?"
"Mollie," said Jessop in greater desperation,
"to tell the truth, I lost the other one, and I
bought one so nearly like it I thought it was
exactly like it. I did not want to worry you by
telling you that I had lost it."
"I do not believe that," she said with a
calmness which completely deceived him. "You
might as well tell the truth. You could not keep her face averted from him, except for one
lose one ring so expensive and pass It over as a instant, as he paused, with the thought that he
trifle to hide it from me. What is the truth?" might be prevailing, when she turned to him
"I've told you the truth, darling," he" said, with an expression of so much hate and con
"I lost your ring, and I felt so sorry about it, and tempt that he realized the complete futility of
I knew how badly you'd feel, and I tried to hIs effort and desisted, dismayed and frightened,
deceive you. I'm so terribly sorry." This atmosphere, created In the home. con
She heard him without remark, and he, not tinued. Mrs. Jessop refused to see her friends,
seeing that her face was lined and hardening refused to admit them when they came to the
and that her face was full of hate, reached out door, refused to answer the telephone, to speak
his hands in tenderness and appeal. to her husband or to recognize his existence by
"Don't touch me!" she cried. more than getting his meals for him. She did
The anger stopped him cold. not Join him at meals. He continued to sleep
"Don't come near me!" on the living room couch. She wore a dressing
Sho got up and went Into her bedroom. He 8ack and never went out of the flat,
stood for a moment, dumb with the shock of Jessop thought her appearance grew mora
this unexpected flare. Then he walked back
and forth in the living room in dismay and fear.
He looked in the bedroom and saw that his wife
was lying on tjie bed with her face buried in a
puiow.
He did not disturb her for an hour. Then he
looked in again. She had not moved. He called
her, but she did not reply. He waited longer,
until it came time for them to dress for the
party. Then he called her again, but she did
not reply. He went to her side and put his hand
on her shoulder. She did not move. He sug-
gested that it was time for them to dress. There
was no response.
He walked about the living room a while
longer and took a drink of whisky. Then he
rallied and went determinedly to her bedside,
sat down beside her and told her the truth.
"Mollie," he said. "I had been wanting to
buy this very ring you have, or one Just like it
I had been thinking or it for months, but the
price made me hesitate. One night I stopped
by a window where they had fabricated jewels,
and I saw the very ring I wanted for you.
"I didn't think, Mollie, how terrible every
thing might be; I only thought of the Joke I
might play. I thought you'd laugh about it,
Mollie. I just went in and bought it. It cost
$20. I just wanted to play a practical joke with necessary for him to see Mrs. Jessop, and that
it. I was ashamed to pny so much money, but probably she would refuse to see him if he tried
I'm a damned fool, Mollie. "It is not needed," he said. "You have had
"Just after I got out of the place I ran into the misfortune to touch the very core of a hu-
Roscoc, and he knew where we could get a man life. It is as if you had Jabbed a knife
couple drinks. So we went and got them. I through a membrane into the most sensitive
showed him the ring and we talked about how delicate and Important mechanism in the body'
marvelous it was they could do things like this. This core is the very essence of the amour
Then he said his wife had driven the car down propre. It Is the life sustaining function which
for him and would drive me home. controls and balances emotions, habits ambi-
"When we were in the car he said: 'Don, tions, forces, and impulses. It'is the control
show Emily the ring you bought your wife.' ling guide of life, as necessary to life as the
And I showed it to her, and she started to rave, heart In your wife, after this experience, it is
I was trying to tell her that it was a phony ring, operating not to sustain her but to destroy her.
but I couldn't. Then she said how happy you'd She has been betrayed by you. She has been
be because it was our anniversary, and she raved shamed before all her friends. She thinks they
some more and said that her husband never did may have been mocking her all the while. You
such things and she wished he did. sacrificed her to a saloon Joke."
"Then Roscoe began to get sore because his "What can I do?" Jessop asked,
wife was bawling him out by praising me. He "Wait until, in a mood which will come, she
began looking around as if I ought to explain, shows the slightest flicker or flash of Interest
and I tried to, but couldn't. When he dropped in Sou. Then lead her to the idea of going
me at the house he was pretty sore because his away. Take her into entirely different sur-
wife had made me out so much better a hus- roundings, where she will see few people and
band than he was and I hadn't come across to nne she ever knew or who ever could have
say that I wasn't. heard of her. Place her where she will not feel
"I was afraid then, but you remember what complete isolation and yet where contact with
happened. I didn't intend to give you the ring human beings will be incidental and casual and
then, but I had forgotten that it was our an- where her past will be consciously to her any-
niversary until Mrs. Roscoe mentioned it, and thing she cares to say it was. Give to her the
I didn't have any present for you. I was going impression of a new start and have her under-
to eat dinner and then snck out and try to stand that this condition will continue. The
find something in one of the stores around here, wound in the core of her life will heal slowly
".Then, you remember. Mn. Roscoe called you (Turn rii Bur, Coloma Three.)
up and congratulated you on the marvelous
present I had brought home for you. Don't you
remember that talk you hail, and the way you
turned to me with your eyes beaming?
"What could I do then? I had to give you
the ring. I was so soared and ashamed, but
Mrs. Roscoe knew I had a present for you, and
she had seen it, and It was marvelous and all
I had was this rwful ring. So I gave it to you.
"Then you know What happened. All the
women admiring it, and we began to have par
ties and get new clothes because of it. And
all the time I didn't know whether Roscoe,
who was mad, had told his wife the truth or not,
I went to see him and we got mad at each other
because I thought he had told his wife and he
thought I was a four-flusher who had got him
in bad with his wifo.
"Everybody was admiring the ring, and you
were so proud of It, and I was scared to death
all the time. I was awful scared, darling, and
I am awfully sorry, and I've tried to make
things all right. You can understand It, can't
you? I didn't mean to do any harm. It's Just
tho way things turned out Everything's been
against me. Please don't you go against me,
Mollie. I've been a practical Joker, but I never
meant any harm. I've had an awful time these
three months."
He did not say anything of his most des
perate measure, the robbery, but he confessed
everything else.
Ills wife said nothing, and did not so much
ns move to indicate that she had heard him.
Thereupon he became angry, developed his
sense of injury afresh, and walked sullenly into
the dining room, where he drank more whisky.
He sat down and brooded, drinking from time
to time. There was no movement from the bed
room, no movement in it. The flat grew dark,
and he sat in a sullen, silent mood.
It was 8 o'clock in this dark, silent op
pressive atmosphere when the telephone bell
rang and he answered It. Their hostess wanted
to know if anything was the matter. Jessop
said that Mrs. Jessop had been taken 111 sud
denly and that he had been too busy with her
to telephone regrets.
"I'm sorry," " said the hostess. "It's not
about the ring, is it?"
Jessop hung up the receiver without reply.
The story was on its way throughout the circle
of people who knew them, and it was proved in
the face of it with the new ring, even if it were
not like the old one.
He went into the bedroom again and turned
on the light. His wife was lying as he had left
her. He stood and looked at her without speak
ing. Once he saw her shoulders move convul
sively, as If she were restraining in his presence
sobs which shook her when he was not present..
He turned out the light and went back to his
chair in the dining room, where he passed the
night. His wife did not arise, but spent the
right where she had thrown herself on the bed.
Early in the morning Jessop made himself a
cup of coffee and ate some bread and butter.
His wife came out of the bedroom, but she did
not speak to him or look at him, and presently
she returned to the bedroom and closed the
door. When he left the house two hours later
she had not reappeared.
He passed a dark and terrlflo day down
town, aimless and, he felt, Isolated In his un
happiness. In the evening when he returned home, hav
ing no occasion for not going: there and no
occasion for doing eo, his wife was moving list
lessly about the flat. She did not look at him
when he spoke to her or answer htm. She late
placed some dinner on the table for hlmtas Ji
for some one who was expected but not there,
and again went to the bedroom, closing the
door.
Jessop made up a bed for himself on the
couch In the living room. In the morning he
again endeavored to talk to his wife, appealing
to her reason not to permit radical disturbance!
of their life to flow from what she must per
ceive was an insignificant incident. It seemed
to him for a hopeful minute that he must have
sincerity and earnestness enough to be eloquent
in his appeal, but his wife merely stood still,
listened to him, said nothing, and continued to
"suess day by day, her expression harder.
wearier, and deeper graven with the lines of
fixed misery and despair. He found that he
could not preserve a protective sense of inhirv.
That had carried him through the acuter dis-
tress, but in the sustained monotony of unhaa-
piness he perceived that even If his wife were
so unwise as to raise a disagreeable episode to
a tragedy, he, nevertheless, was the author of
tne situation.
His wife's health was giving way under
the poisons of her mental state and he knew
that their future was in Jeopardy. In his per-
plexity and distress he was unable to command
the vigor needed to obtain employment, and
hls days were wholly aimless and resu'ltless.
Hls money was spent, he could not pay his
bills, and there was nothing in the future.
He and his wife had lived in this fashion for
a month and their prospect was to continue
uoing so. Her health was obviously failing. He
decided to go to a doctor for advice.
He apologized to the physician for the ap
parent triviality of the disorder, but said that
the consequences were serious and alarming
and he felt he needed advice. He told, as care
fully as he could, the story of the ring.
me pnysician said that it would be
1
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