Show a Woman ett B By RU Ruth Agnes Abeling I Helga Sorensen breaks her engagement to Tom Bradford after I pursuing him for his money She finds employment as social secretary secretary sec see I of Mrs John Ames The latter's law in a rounder I Interests himself in her Also he is most affectionately attentive to Mrs John Ames I OFFER SOLACE TO JOHN AMES AME After tea of the fourth day of m my employment I sought the desk a at which I knew I should find find the letters letter Mrs Ames wanted taken care o of Dusk found me still busy I As the shadows began to gather t in inthe the garden below I saw Mrs Ames Ame and Philip arm in arm moving along the path toward the lattiCe cd seats at the end nd of hedge dge I stayed there in the shadows shadow watching the coming of night to for tor perhaps an hour or more when I be became became became be- be came conscious of or another presence in the room room Hardly daring to move I shrunk back further Into th the shadows of the corner near the window window win win- dow and waited I couldn't see anything I couldn't couldn hear anything I could only feel Intuitively Intuitively in intuitively In- In that someone else was Ii in inthe Inthe the room with me And I could only wait walt silently and fearfully Finally the lights of an automobile coming up the hill bill toward the house hous flashed for a second in the room Every sense alert in that instant o of light I envisioned a figure on the bed half sitting and then the shimmer of Lila Ames' Ames flimsy dressing gown g I wanted to slip out unseen but I I The door was at e other othe i iside I Iside side of the room and I should have hav had to pass between the windows window and the bed to leave and thus would have been discovered So I stayed on clinging silently to the little desk chair until my shoulders ached anc and my knees felt feIt stiff At length after atter what seemed like an hour I heard a faint taint movement There was a stir of silk The fl figure ure i ion on the bed was moving mo Vaguely I I could get the outlines and see the I shimmering silk sIBe of the foolish garment garment gar gar- ment mont his hands had grasped There was a sigh then John Ames Ame straightened up The frivolous silken thing was sas trailing on the floor ft in weird shimmering lines He came to tc the window and dropped down there his arms on the sill He was so close to me I knew that I must be discovered any minute and wondered how I should explain having stayed and dared watch him hirr walk alone through his Gethsemane I didn't wait walt to think it out Involuntarily my hands went out and it seemed that against my own will and my own good judg judgment ent I I took his unresisting cold fingers Irmy in Ir it must nave have m my warm ones I think been something of the same sympathy which moved me when I was just a little girl to feeding and nursing a asick asick sick cick stray dog or kitten which prompted me to offer him that silent s sympathy John Ames didn't look 1001 up His Ills fingers ringers tightened slightly around mine nine For a long time we sat so while out there in the perfumed night right his wife was spen spending the hours bours with another manThey manThey man They The are out there Jio 10 o said I Yes I knew there was no use oCI of oC resorting to subterfuge I He lie peered ou out t In to the darkness Then There isn't any use of at torturing tor tor- tor- tor turing luring myself myself myself-Is Is there But I cant can't help it People al a always s 's torture themselves when they are in love I said softly When at length in the darkness I crept to m my room after m my strange meeting with John Ames m my e eyes es were vet wet with tears and something was clutching at my heart It had been a big adventure for tor me this his dipping into the love affair of another man and another woman It had iad shaken me I had never ne spoken to John Ames before He had seemed so detached so RO 0 little a part of the household I Imd had md como come to feel that perhaps he was wall tired ired of ot matrimony a little bit discontented discontented discon discon- tented but willing to let things shift along Llong with his wife leaning on another man nan for affection Thus finding him broken and with of his that hat flimsy films intimate garment wife's rife's crushed in his hands startled me ne And his words as I remembered them hem Just before I slipped away to I I my room thrilled me strangely ant and disturbingly I 1 knew new it was you and you and Im I'm not sorry you were there he said ant and then added slowly I 1 wish wIsh wIsh- but h he I didn't finish it I wonder what he would have said In the darkness I couldn't see his his' face but it seemed that as he added the last two words his eyes were s searching mine I What could ho he have wished Perhaps it is only sympathy It is so hard hard to to find the line of at de- de to find where sympathy ends and love begins but begins but what did he wish Life Isso is so so complex Why couldn't Tom fighting for my affection have havo appealed to me as did this strange man crushed over the failure of his wife's love for him It seems so much easier to do th the wrong thing than the right thing But there is always duty and folk who are strong can make themselves do things when they know It is their duty I wonder how John Ames will be tomorrow morning It will be hard nard to meet him without without without with with- out some little betrayal of what has gone before I cant can't believe that he will ignore me as his brother Philip did Yet I would wish he would would would-if if It weren't that it would make me understand understand understand under under- stand that like his brother he ho too is a weakling And I dont don't want to think that John is unworthy It was nearly midnight when I heard Lila Llla Ames' Ames light laughter at the steps below my window and glancing out saw her and Philip standing there together I couldn't help thinking as asI asI I watched them of the strang of I the wa ways s of men and women I Closed In his room Just up the hall was John Ames lonely and unhappy because a woman preferred to flirt Somewhere in the city was Mrs Philip Ames probably alone and unhappy because bo- bo cause a man preferred to flirt And below in the garden were two flirting and and as I already knew from fact discontented because they were flirt flirt- ing I had never seen Philip Ames' Ames wife and I wondered as I looked down on I him what kind of a woman she was vas wasand wasand and the why all aU Had she purI purposely purposely pur pur- let him go Was l she too philandering I For a while after I heard the rustle of Lila Llla Ames' Ames movement as she came upstairs and made ready for tor bed I sat I huddled at my window my lights dim dimand dimand dimand and a warm dressing gown pulled closel closely about me Suddenly some something thing flew in the window A movement movement movement move move- some some-I ment of my hand to brush away what I thought was a a huge hug white moth I struck the tho thing to the floor Should I touch it I was fearful tearful I moved it carefully with the toe of my slipper and then saw It was just a folded bit of ot white paper I picked it up and felt a pebble weight in it Copyright 1921 by Newspaper Enterprise En En- T To Be Continued |