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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1922)
4--M THE BEE: OMAHA. SUNDAY. APRIL 23. 192:. The Blakes Meet Their Problem By ELIZABETH JORDAN I Those Lonesome Young Brides! They Flit Home, and They Hit Backt Until Friend Husband Is Distracted. WJU.UM TOVSKNl PLAKB r UMli Hire flight ft stair- l.olimr hi nw l-rootu urtmnt and. with a wid. ,. unt Krin, mr4 liu latrh ky into th lot of th ball door. I'M rt. fr dim, Hi irfvt end of a pr fnt day. but tht ri"rin w not unusual. Only u wk o H IiniI ivn Hilly HUtke'e M'irit a permsnimt wv. In auottitr roomnt h would hear on tint other aid of th door tha llitl ruh wlih whlih hi brld invariably pr titillated hi-rm-lf In In direction whn she hrd the wmnd of Hi turning kry. II knw that for hulf an hour or mar h had bn silting In tlir-ir small living room listening '"r that found. It wa h had eKperted. Thar wl th m ft ruh, Hi onlng nf th door from within by a jt rk so swift that It carried th latrh kry out of hi hand, and. In th uxt moment, hia wifo in lil aim. hr chelc against hia, AH ilila was th umml program, but never onr had filly" singing limit inil Ita rallMilon of th wonder and th glory of th mirarle. Tonight, howver, there waa a new quality In lila wife embrace a quality o subtl that bridegroom with Ira perception might lly lav failed to detect It. It waa merely that ah clung to lilm a trill lunger, a trill mor rluaely than usual. AUo. Ii now obervd, ah did not apeak. Tlila wa odd. I'aually ill burit Into word at th flint eight of him ometlmea. Indeed, before the door opened. II waa diatiiibed by Iter momentary alleno and by that new quality In her touch. It waa almost a If h hud been frightened by som thing; a If ah had flown to him a a refug even mor than aa a loarcr. Hut already ah waa apeak lug aa ah led th way Into th Immacu late frealineaa and quiet beauty of their home. In which euch article offered teatlmony to th admirable tnat of It occupant. Th discovery of thla similarity In taste, by the way, had been another of Hilly' miracle. Kuth's taxte and hi own wer In urh perfect accord! lie had not dared to hope for thla In the small town girl It bad met and loved, and wooed and won, and carried back to New York, all within two month. He wa a thoughtful youth. lie knew that pot-nupliul revelation of taatea and characteriatlra were inevitable. II had expected to make all aorta of readjustments. But from the flint he and Ruth had aeen with tho aame eye. Not alwaya with hia eyes, to b aure. Sometime with Ruth's. Already ah - had taught him many things. Already he waa beginning to smile over the memory of th careful thought and philosophy with which h had entered upon tho married state. He knew that many charming girls were Immaculate about themselvea and hopelessly untidy aa to their belongings. He knew that many loathed domestic duties, that many were extravagant, and that few, Indeed, revealed these fallings be fore marriage. He had been prepared for flaws even In hia Itulh, and had humbly reminded himself that, whatever they were, he could match them with Imperfections of his own. But already hia Ruth had proved a born housekeeper and home mak er, a born comrade; in short, the ideal mate the whole world held for him. Each day of their six weeks together had revealed in her new aptitudes, new charms. The tact, the understanding-, the philosophy with which he had ex pected to meet the hazards of married life still lurked in him untested. Only that morning he had solemnly addressed Ruth across their breakfast table. "Ruth," he said. "I'm so happy I'm actually Setting scared. What have I done 'to deserv such a paragon of a wife? I'm horribly afraid that some day you'll find out what an ordinary chap you've drawn, and then you'll " She had not let him finish th sentence. She had merely smiled, a wise, almost maternal (little smile, and leaned across the tiny table and kissed him. ille had gone off to his work with a new resolution in hia heart. "I'm not worth her," he told himself again, "but, by Jove, I'm going to be!' Now, a they entered the living room, hia arm closely around her, he bent to look Into her face, and what he aaw there brought him upright with a Jerk. "Good Lord!" he gasped In horrified incredu lity. "'Why, Ruth, you've been crying! Vfhat is it? What's the matter?" She tried to laugh, but gulped Instead. . "Nothing," she said. "Nothing. I'm I'm a fool, that's all." - Billy dropped Into hia pet arm chair, which waa big enough- for two, and firmly drew her Into his lap. Ho waa alarmed, but he kept hia head. "Now," h said quietly, "I want to hear all about it the whole story. Tell me exactly what ha happened." "Nothing has happened and there isn't any story." Hia bride groped for her handkerchief, and. falling to find It, took his from hia breast pocket, wiped her eyes with It, and sniffed dole- -fully. Before this unbelievable phenomenon the young husband was aghast. "Darling." he spoke urgently, "you're mak ing me horribly anxious. Please tell me why you have been crying." "I I'm ashamed to." Ruth buried her face In " his breast - and gulped again. "It's bo silly." she ended dismally. "I know it's silly. You'll laugh at me or, worse still, you'll be disappointed In me." ' "Ruth, please tell me what all this Is about." At his tone Rhe raised her head and looked into his eyes. What she saw there brought a rush of contrition. - "I will," she said quickly, "and you'll see how absurd It is. It's only that that well for several daya I've been feeling queer. ' I didn't understand what it meant till today. ' Then, suddenly, at 4 o'clock, I I went all to piece. I broke down and cried for an hour." "But why?" demanded the bridegroom. "Why?" ' ' . "I didn't quite understand, myself, at first," Ruth gulped. "You know how happy I am and how I wouldn't have a single thing changed jiut while I was' crying, all I could see was our home and and mother and Elsie. Billy, I hate to confess it, but I'm so homesick I'm !-, most desperate!" Billy's arms tightened around her, but he did not speak. Her words rushed on, as If, hav ing begun, she could not stop them. "It seems so idiotic, when I'm so happy, and I adore you, and I love our apartment and everything in it. And this Is where I belong, and where I want to belong. But it eeems aa if I'll die if I don't see my own home I mean," she hurriedly corrected herself, "my old home, end mother and Elsie!" Carefully, so as not to dlsturft her, Billy slipped his hand into hia pocket, drew out his watch, and looked at it. "There's a train that leaves for Boydenvllle at S o'clock tonight," he said quietly. "It's only 6 now, so we can make it easily, and be with your mother by 9 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is Saturday, you see, so I can stay with you till fcunday night, and get back before the office pens Monday morning." "O, Billy!" She raised an ecstatic fac to him. "Do you' mean can we afford it?" "Yes, I do, and we can. I'll telephone Has 1 Ins at his houBe and explain I'm taking Satur day oft and that I'll make up the time later. I'll telephone for a Pullman section, too, and wire jour mother that we're coming. Rustle 'round in the meantime, dear, and get ui a bit to eat," tW$:PWW - Sha hurried into the tiny kitchenette. Sho waa transfigured. Suddenly she' was back at the door, peering in at him with a face in which aheer rapture flamed. ' "Have ou enough' ready money?" she asked excitedly. He nodded. "I alwaya keep $100 in the secret drawer in my desk, you know, for emergencies. Don't you remember? I told you that." "Yes," she eagerly corroborated. "I had forgotten." 8h flashed back to th kitchen, and he heard her quick movements as she cooked the simple meal she had already prepared. Billy did hia telephoning as briskly as the operator permitted, but with an odd flatness in his tone. There waa an odd flatness In hia spirits, also, which he hardly dared to analyze. With Ruth his own life was utterly complete. With her beside him he could not imagine himself missing anything or anybody on this earth. But no doubt it waa different with girls. Just the same, it . waa a bit unsettling to discover so abruptly that he did not fill every chink of his bride's life to the degree in which she filled his. The reflections accompanied him to the Pullman car and into the section in which, until thetr bertha were made up, they sat side by aide looking out at the changing landscape. Ruth's silence was that of absolute contentment and ecstatic expectancy. Her brown eyes shone like tho of a happy child. After a time she slipped her fingers into hia and his hand closed . promptly upon thenv "You'r . simply wonderful, Billy .darling," . sh breathed. "I don't believe that any one else would rush oft with me like this, at a moment's notice." ' ' ' . "Any on , would who loyed you as I do," aald Billy quietly. ' "The one thing In life I simply couldn't stand, Ruth, is to see you un happy. You've got to be happy,", he ended al most fiercely. "You've got to be happy al ways." . Her grasp on his hand tightened. "I will be," she said. '"I am." Her voice dropped to a whisper. , "How could I help It when I have you!" , ' ..'.' The Joyous wave of welcome from Ruth's mother and schoolgirl sister lifted Billy on its crest and carried him along with the rejoicing trio. He was glad he had come. There was something unusual In the atmosphere ' of the big, comfortable old house, which seemed to en- . fold them in protecting wings. ; . t Billy had always enjoyed It during the brief week-ends of his courtship. He enjoyed it again now, and felt a deep new thrill that night when h accompanied Ruth across the threshold of her girlhood room, which remained exactly as the had left It. Having no mother or sister of his own, he enjoyed the petting given him by Ruth'a mother and Elsie and the genuine at foctlon they showed him. Here was a family ' circle worth possessing. He felt a sense of per sonal loss in not having known Ruth's father, who had died when Elsie was a baby. As an expression of his appreciation, on Sunday noon at the family table he offered a supreme sacri fice, j - "Why don't you stay on a week or two with mother and Elsie?" he suggested to Ruth in a tone he tried to make casual. - "I can batch along all right in the flat till you get back!' On the Instant the air waa filled with the , eager voices of Mrs. Boyden and Elsie, approv ing the suggestion. Ruth herself did not speak for a moment, but Billy, with steadfast eyes up on her, realized that she was actually consider ing the idea.. Something queer happened in the region of his heart. At last she shook her head. "No," she said firmly. "I'm going back with you." And she laid a Boft poultice over poor Billy's torn sensibilities. "I couldn't be happy a moment, thinking of you there 'all alone." v Returning to New York that night, in the sUeper her young husband revealed his sym pathetic understanding of his bride's position. "I've been thinking things, out, Ruth," he aid, "and I leel pretty bad about them. You see, what I've done is to take you out of a com munity where everybody knew and loved you, and transplant you into a big city where you don't know a human being but me. It must be simply awful for you and the worst thinr about It is' that I . never realized what It would mean to you." wat prttty ttapiJ not tm rulixt that I aw itnding ya tm Utury She snuggled closer into the hollow of his arm. ; "I never realize It, either, when you are with me," she explained simply. "But, you aee, you are gone from 8:80 in the morning till 6:30 at night. That's nine hours when I'm abso lutely alone, without a soul to speak to. Even the provisions come up on the dumb waiter. Of course I go out and do our marketing three times a week, but I can't atretch that over mor than an hour, no matter how much I dawdle. "If I had more to do," she went on slowly, thinking the situation out aa ' she talked, "it would be easier. But the apartment is new, . and everything in it is new.r My housework is done by 10 in the morning. All our clothes are new, too. ' There isn't even any sewing or mend ing for me. I'm not fond of fancy work, and I can't read all the time. So from 10 till 5:80 I merely sit around and wait for you to come home." r ' - . . - . He almost groaned. "I'd cut my throat after a week of that sort of thing," he admitted. "And you are used to a big house and a family and neighbors running in and out all day long! ' But you'll make some friends here in time. Don't you think you' will?" he added wistfully. ( "I don't know who they'll be.' Ruth spoke rather dully Already, her husband felt, the ' shadow of the loneliness that must follow her return was falling upon her. "I've heard how it Is in New York apartment houses., On never knows other tenants. . One's neighbor across , the hall might Just as well be living in Iceland, ' so 'far- as meeting . her Is concerned.? Sh laughed a little. "I rather expected to get some : comfort out of Mrs. Bailey, the laundress," she admitted. "She comes one day a week, and she's a good, motherly soul. But she does all I her work down in the basement," she ended ' with a sigh, "so I only see her when she comes for the clothes in the morning and brings them back at night. I keep her talking, then as long . as I can." . : ' . . Billy listened with 'an actual contraction of the heart. This was the existence to, which he had reduced the belle of Boydenvjlle. He wa ' a young man of imagination, and the picture of his bride's empty days appalled him. "It's a mighty serious situation," he ' de clared at last. 'I've got to do aomething about it.' , ' ; '. What he did was revealed to Ruth 24 hours later, when, at breakfast, he laid a typewritten slip ebf paper on her plate. "Your program for the day," he airily an The Married Family Greed Intrudes Upon the Equitable Division of Aunt "Pear, don't way would be Sarah's Effects, Any way'U "n,, h.. a w.n'r.. T noon. Marv." really want the hall clock the sew- had been With Aunt Sarah tor years corner "wnai-noi were nuerea wuu iui5 .cuuSC 6'", ,a u. S tobte ipslSr T and that smdl opened the door. photographs a plush al- Warren's yet her sense of respect Kbn,i, r,Z t, wi, vir come vet?" bum, gilded horseshoe, hand-painted restrained her critical comments. Kashmir rug in the back parlor come yeu . , ' olaaue of water lilies, shell boxes The dining room was laid With the Yw .t itnow about that sewing- "Yes M.ss Carrie was here this ffS atrocious bric-a-brac. ,.' same, Brussels carpet of cabbage rose table," Warren s eered her oyera mornin' gom' over the house," usher-, other a rocwus one a c. . v muddy crossing. "Think Carrie said mg them into the long, gloomy par- The furnishings in the back par- narlors something about wanting that' lor. Said she'd be back at 4 to meet lor were even ore hopeless 1 he Pcumbe'rsom back wa,nut "She has one,',' protested Helen, you." mantel, with its bali-tnnged lam i(J . . "castor" a pon- 'it's just because she knows I want Helen had not been in the house brequin held some wax 0.Ijs derous silver-plated water set with a it." since the funeral, and now shudder- under glass, a painted conch shell, pitcher and a elass cake- "Now, if you two get to scrapping ingly she glanced into the back parlor and large photograph of Aunt swing mg ptb cher . 8' -I'll send the whole lot to auc- where Aunt Sarah had laid in state. Sarah and Uncle John taken o ornate frames adorned the tion." " The air seemed still heavy with the their wedding trip and framed with waI . "But Carrie has so much room! flowers that had covered the coffin, gilded pine cones. "Here's some good table linen," She can take some of the big things." "One of us'll have to take those Over the mantel hung the inspira- jjelen had ooened the lower part of "Well here we are," turning up family portraits," announced War- tional motto: "No Cross wo the sideb0ard. "We could use that thr tn nf an - nM hrnumslnnr rin honsp. . , . "Dpar air If had been, three months since hanir them?" Warren's Great-Aunt Sarah had died. "Well, if Carrie won't we'll have table were two large "spring" rock He was one of the executors and her to. We can't let 'era go to auction." ers. their plush backs and arms pro will ctimilateri fhal- he anH hi Ri'ster flld nil nnrtraite wnnld have been trrteA hv crocheted "tidies. Carrie should select what articles welcome, but these were horrible "Dear, there isn't they desired, before her household crayon likenesses of Aunt Sarah and w can use." murmured rfferts were sold at auction for the Uncle Iohn in irilt and velvet ."Yes. it's pretty benefit of an old ladies' home. frames. brim? enough at auction to pay to qujt on the heavy walnut bed. "And Knowing Carrie's proclivity for Everything in that long dismal move it. . u here's that sewing table I do want getting the best of everything, Helen front parlor was impossible neither Helen thotipht of the "Bad Taste tj,;, was wondcrintf just how their selec- smtique nor modern. The walnut exhibition held ' !at winter bv . a xj)e Colonial mahogany sewing oarlor suite, tions would be made enXnmnt.' nounced. She picked it up and studied it, at first with amazement, then with growing In terest. Slowly she read it aloud: " 'Two p. m.: Take Fifth avenue bus to end of line, and back again to Eighty-sixth street. There enter Central park and visit Metropoli tan museum. Four p. m.: Have tea at park casino. Home 5:30."' "That would be rather nice," she murmured thoughtfully. "It will be mighty nice. And it's only the beginning. Hereafter, for a while at least, I'm going to map out your days tor you. Tomorrow you will go to the best matinee in town. I'd have started with that yjday, but there's nothing but moving pictures on Tuesdays, and we aee enough of them in the evenings. By the time I've arranged your daily programs for a few weeks you'll know New York Inside and out. In the evenings, if you are not too tired," he added, facetiously, "we'll go to things together, when we feel like it, as we've always done." "Billy, you really are wonderful!" There was awe In her eyes as she gazed at him. "Dont be too sure of that till we've tried out my plan. But I think it's going to work. New York's a mighty Interesting place, and there's a lot of variety in it." It seemed to work with the efficiency of the traditional new broom. Following her hus band's typewritten schedule, handed to her promptly each morning for- Billy never forgot this detail of his day's routine young Mrs. Blak searched the heart of the great city. She aaw its pictures and Its plays, and she heard It music. Sh visited Its parks, Its river front, it Ghetto, its Chinatown, its artistic haunts, and its suburbs. She lunched at the Blue Pig, drank tea at the Black Cat, and dined with her hus band on the roofs , of mighty hotels. . She learned to know its great shops as she knew her pockets, and, Its taxlcabs and trolleys had no secrets from her. Nevertheless, at .the end of two months she abruptly . announced at dinner one night that she would like to go home the next day. "It's ' coming on again, Billy," she said al most desperately. "And there's only one cure for it" f Billy knew too well what it was. "All right,' he said promptly. "Start as soon as you like. But I can't go with you, of course, in the middle of the week." "It won't cost you anything," Ruth ex plained. "TJiicle George sent mo a birthday check last Thursday. . it will pay all the ex penses." Life of Helen you think the fairest 'Rogers Group" on its onyx stand. "Horrors of the Awful Eighties" to choose in turns?" were air of the hideous mid-Vic- they had called it. But it had been suit me. Good after- torian period. as an elderlv maid who The top of an ebony rnwn" Bv tne eraie ran't? Where could we snittoon wreathed with Flankine the center naileddown carpet and group of humorously inclined artists liilly reaoluuly reutiii44 bmiaelf that it wa h thaua-ht ft th miim wbb Ii Kept her frent mnwg that i heuld fuliuw hrr for lb werk-end, "How lung da uii enit lo at) ?" b aV(4 with apparent rrtln. Nut mor than werk. You won't mind that, will you?" till remained, lutweter, I d br ex planation being that if ah ram bom In I ha middle uf th week ah would not ttiuuh t( lUHy. any ay. With her return, ha dally kvhedulr and Kuraiiia wer reaumed, Kaeh night, nver llifir dinner, at hoiu or abroad, ah v her tiuaband an account uf hrr xperitme. And liaivnitig to her, with aii.klng heart, a ttuve additional month l-Haaed. Billy noted III l-niit vitality tt iter inlereat, aalontly sa ahe tried lo conceal litis. Suddenly on night, at their hoin dinner table, he atopped hr In th mlddl of a n tenr In which he wa half-heartedly deacrlb lug Jaunt lo Greenwich Village). "It lan't working very well, I t, dear?" he saked soberly. Mia looked at lilm coolly, almoat with de. ntineiit. Obviously, ah had rthd the de. ftnalv stag. "I don't know why you say that," ah aald. "( do everything you uggt.M "I know you do," Hilly conceded smily. "Hut that la not th point. Th Idea bark of all thla Is not merely to keep you buy, but to Klv you phaaure. Are you getting that? Are you enjoying your tiutln? Or are you un happy all tho time? That's what I want to ktow." Th sensitive lips he loved quivered. Th charming face lie loved turned from him. Sud denly, to his horror, his wife burst Into a atorm of tear. "O. Billy." ha cried, "you'll deapla me! 1 don't blame you. I deapla mjaelf. I went so foolish and ungrateful. Hut It's peupl I want. Hilly; not thinga. l'v got to hav om on to talk to, mutio on I love. It's simply hideous to go and go and go, alwaya atune, al ways seeing othera In pairs and groups, talking and laughing. Tho few women who have called here wives of your friend, have nothing In common with me. They can't help me. bend me back home aguln for a while. I'm aorry. I'm humlllnted. I'm dlaguated' with myaelf. But I've simply got to go! I think I've got to go for a long visit. I shall not com back, Billy, till l'v pulled myself together." Even In th chaos of hi emotions Billy took In th full meaning of her word. She had aald "Send me!" She had not said "Take me." 8h not only desired to return to her old home, but she wished to return alone; and apparently she waa not at all aure that ahe cared to come back to him. rosaibly the whole thing had been a mistake. Possibly she did not love him. Possibly she had never loved him. Possibly, quite probably, she waa leaving him for all time. Under the shock of these- reflections h answered almost curtly, "All right, dear," he said. "Start tomor row if you like, and plan to make a real visit. Stay a month Or ho. Mrs. Bailey can keep the place clean, and I'll take my meals out." "You you couldn't go with me, I suppose?" The suggestion came too late. He shook his head. "No, not Just now. I'm aorry. I'll come and get you, though, when you're ready to re turn." ' "Perhaps," she was speaking almost timidly, "you could come on for a week-end while I'm Uurfe." "No, I am afraid not." Poor Billy was re flecting that since she was so ready to leave him she would not miss him much. "I's the beginning of our busy season, you knoW;" he went on, more naturally. "I can't ask for time ofTfor a few weeks. But you'll be happy. You'll have your mother and Elsie." There was no bitterness in his tone, but she looked at him quickly. "I want you, too," she said. - " know." He threw down his napkin, rose, and, crossing to her, kissed her. "Unfortu nately you can't have us all at the same time, so I guess you'll have to alternate," he added, lightly. "First mother and Elsie, then Billy. Then mother and Elsie and the old home and all the neighbors. I waa pretty stupid not to realize that I was sentencing you to solitary con finement when I brought you here, but we must make the best of it." Suddenly he drew up s chair and sat down again close beside her. ..'"Ruth'" he saId- underlining his words, there s one thing I want you to understand. If I could make a living in Boydenvllle I would take you back there for good. You believe that, don't you?" . "Yes." The word was almost inaudible. "But I can't. It's a one-horse town great to live in, but no good to work in. So" he drew in his breath "as It's clear that you can't stand the life here long at a time, it's equally clear that you and I must agree to compromise. I suppose it will end by your spending your summers in Boydenvllle with your mother and your winters here with me if you are willing to give me .that much time," he ended quickly. Since the thing was coming, he had decided, ho might as well anticipate It. She sprang to her feet "I'm a beast," sh cried hysterically. "But I can't help It!" "You're not a beast, and there's nothing to . blame yourself for. Don't let the thing get on , your conscience or on your nerves. Go home, have a ripping time with your family and your old friends, and let me know when you are ready to come back." 1 For what seemed a long time she stood looking down at him in silence. When she spoke her words revealed the character of her re flections. "I ought not to go," she said slowly, "bit I've got to. I think I'll have a collapse if I don't. I haven't told you, and I hope you haven't suspected, but I've not slept more than an hour or two a night for weeks. I've just stared into the darkness and dreaded the day!" "So It's as bad as that! I didn't know.' Billy rose, too, nd studied her somberly, and Warren ' no worse than this. piano and a Though she had hardly -known was a inuia And the bed linen there ought to moss roses. be some fine old linen sheets. Let s go upstairs now there's nothing marble top down here." Up the carpeted, brass-rodded steps, and they entered the large a thing here Helen, bad. Wont spare room. "Oh, I'd love to have this quilt," Helen smoothed the patch-work 'Turn to rave Srvm.k taking in with a ff ork .tr !lor an4 tl.r Mrin4 ,ir-i" of her . know u fre nut slrrflnf well." b M.t wit, with "That all I Vm- Ihouch I ufu4 thai )uu i (dipping ff th trullfy sain." Hi ucitt t th word a if lin y hi 4 len a lifeline Tlii' Mrtly It." h nM. 'Tim' Ju.t th way fvl A If 1 had held on lung a I ulJ. and lltrn aoiitotliing wgn to ti. I iirver felt n)fhln da It before. Hut thru," h dd4 nflwtivly, "l'v nrr bi from horn brfui. you know, had tirvtr bn away from my mother a singl niiiht emit I nmrrM you!" Hilly diw a l-'iiif brraih m iriliipnr4 hi young h'uKIi a if la rijtit ihfiu to burden. Vihi you'd ttfitt-r sl Hut I o'tlm-l. train tunlshi," ho ugstd. "Vou can, oi know.' "And Irav ou SI hour siHim-r?" This wa hr ftrt rriin. Then her man ner rhanard. p "Wouldn't ou mind?" nil nd4 faintly It would b grrat to I hum at In th morning, tr'or I haven't told you, but tomor row mothr' birthday. I suppiwe that' on rem why I hav felt sa bad. Wt'v alwa had a special relrbration for hrr." Then II surely must be th I wVlnrk trlti niiit, I'll rerv your berth.' Jtilly trtl for th telephone. In th I'ullnun car. at th niomrnt of part ing. Itulh rliing to him despairingly. "I'lliy. whHt are you guinr to do?" ntvi wailed. "If Ilk a nightmare. When I'm away from you I'm unhappy, and yet I ran't b happy away from horn.' Ullly wlncid. "Horn" wa till Boyden vllle to lluth. But her word had given him a rertnln dreary comfort. "Forget me," h laughed, "and hav a good time." "You will writ every duy?" Bho was still Hinging to a button of hi coat, though th con ductor' warning announcement lilted th air. "Of course. Don't I always writ vry day?" It kissed her acaln, then hurried down the aisle and Jumped off th now moving train. On th platform ail sense of hast left him, and he walked alowly toward th passenger xlt. won dering how h could kilt th two hours thst lay between now and bedtime. Th prospect of returning to th deserted flat wa unbear able. Horrible, too, waa the thought of the empty week that stretched befor him. Even as he contemplated them they seemed to stretch Into months. Into years. Deep In his mind a coiled suspicion raised Its head and hissed. If, In th first sis months of their married life, he could not successfully compete In his wife's favor with the chsrma of her old home, what would the future bring? Longer visits "home" and shorter Intervale with him between them? It looked that way. He had been married half a year, and this waa hia wife's third visit to Boydenvllle. An overwhelming depression seized him. In the bitterness of the moment he almost cursed himself for not having made in his bachelor hood more women friends who might have helped him now to send the roots of hia wife's being down into the soil of her new environ ment. As It was O, as it was. Billy was at home by this time. He let him self into the deserted flat, his lips gwlstlng sar donically as he listened to the echo of his foot steps on the hall's polished floor. Then, without troubling to turn on the lights, he went to his bedroom, undressed in the d.irk. anH .-au-t.i into bed to turn his back alike on the hour ai7"v The two .months that followed were long months to young Blake. Ruth wrote every day, but no letter contained the slightest hint of het homecoming. Of course! Billy told himself, sha would come back for Christmas. They had been married in May, and it was now Decem ber. That Ruth should let him pass alone the first Yuletlde of their married life waa un thinkable. He wrote cheerfully, imitating hei reserve as to her return, asking no questions, making no suggestions, but letting his love for her burn in every line and every word of hia letters. "Ruth' needs a iong leash," he grimly told himself. "The only way to hold her, if there's any way, is to let her feel that she Is free." Her decision to return, when it came early in December, took the form of a one line tele gram, which her husband received at 6:30 one stormy evening. ( "Reaching home 7 tonight," it tersely stated. Billy started at the typewritten words. His heart leaped, but his amazement was at least as great as his rapture. This waa Wednesday. In two days, Friday, he could have left for Boy denville on the usual 8 o'clock train, spent tha week-end, and brought his wife back home Sun day night. Only two days yet she obviously preferred to travel alone rather than to wait those two days. And, yes, ahe really had used the word "home" in speaking of her return. 8he had never done that before. He re-read the telegram. It had been sent from a point only an hour away. She must be entering th city now! Before he could be at the station to - meet her she would have taken a cab for home. He rushed around the apartment, turning on the lights, pushing the furniture Into place, till ing the interval by getting ready for her. Then, at last, he heard a sound the familiar click of a latch key. turning in the lock of the hall door. Dazedly he leaped into the hall and threw open the door. He caught her In hia arms, and, as he kissed her, speechlessly he heard her broken words. . "Billy, I simply couldn't wait another min ute. I was so horribly homesick!" Young Mr. Blake blinked. He knew now that ' it was all a dream, but he was determined not to wake 'up. It was a dream to cling to. Still wordless, he stooped, picked' up the small nanaoag sne naa dropped, ana, taking her arm leu ner into tne living room, and to the big chair by the flrenlace. Then, almost onnraii.n slvely, he turned to look at her. Perhaps, after all, she wouldn't be there! But Bhe was there, and again, for a long moment, they clung to gether. ; "I can't take it in," Billy muttered, at last. "Why didn't you write that you were coming?" She threw her hat on the table, slipped out of her coat, pushed him into their favorite chair, and settled herself comfortably In his lap. Her brown eyes held a new expression, happy, yet shy. "I told you why I came," she said, "i was homesick." "Darling!" "Besides, she hesitated, "there's another rea son. I had to come to get ready for some one." "O." Despite his effort to control it, Billy's voice went a trifle flat. "Is mother coming on or Elsie?" "No, it's some one you haven't met yet." As he looked down at her. still puzzle, she dropped her eyes, and, Snuggling her head against his shoulder, drew a long and blissful sigh. "But you'll like him," she contentedly murmured. "You'll be simply crazy about him." "Him? Ruth, who Are you talking about?" "Come closer and I'll tell you." It was rather difficult to come closer, but Billy managed it. Then, her lips at his ear, she breathed her next words: "I'm talking about William Townsend Blake, Junior. "At least, I am sure that's going to b his name," she continued more naturally, as his grasp of her suddenly tightened, "though mother says It may have to be Kleanor, after her. But O, Billy, Just think of it! He's coming in June and I'll never be lonely aga.: ICopyright. l:i )