Show Confessions Of a Bride Br de deI r I CHAPTER My Heart Turns Back to Bob and I Remember Our Debts f Jl II 1 have slumped morally as I have said sald before and I have also sagged emotionally I 1 have fallen into an awfully awfully awfully aw aw- aw- aw fully hysterical state I can scarcely speak to any anyone one of the family about Boll Bob without crying Bob is forever Inthe in inthe inthe the back of f my mind even while I fret and fuss a about bout crown jewels and mysterious mysterious mysterious mys mys- dukes and my own fickle na na- ture And latelY I have begun to value points about Bob which used to irritate me Theres There's his dreadful stubbornness stubbornness stubbornness stub stub- it has made me writhe so often but lately I 1 realize that it has often kept me from wobbling and from following after many a faddish faddish fad fad- dish will the I 1 no longer scan scan the casualty lists for mother has had letters from Bob since tho the armistice was signed How- How we do not know whether he ison is ls lson ison on his hs way or whether he is with the divisions which are patrolling the Rhine Once more just as when Bob first went away I 1 pick out all the service I hats which top the crowds in the streets and watch them anxiously as they come closer My glance must be eager Intimate for intimate for sometimes it embarrasses om- om its unfortunate object or makes him stop to speak to me I 1 hurry hurry hurry hur hur- ry on and on-and and pick out the next six- six footer Bob MIGHT chance to come home unheralded Some men do And AndI I wonder and wonder how Bob will greet m when he comes at last Sometimes as I study the soldiers in the crowds I 1 come face to face with wiLh an old friend Only yesterday I met Tommy rommy the grocers grocer's boy a very thin Tommy rommy with a mended leg and one eye gone or rather replaced with a strange false eye Tommy greeted me with the cheerful cheer cher cheerful ful smile which all veterans hand us people who have stayed at home How little some of us understand that cheerful smile We Ve are so apt to accept it too quickly as saying that we need not worry at all about the smiling soldier boy hes all right ight His cheerfulness relieves the strain upon uron our consciences consciences and so we do donot donot donot not take the trouble to provide him with a job and a little fun as well The war is over but not one of us who stayed at home is released from froma a debt to the men who fought over there Heaven cannot help nor hell punish the sodden soulless bipeds who fail to realize that they are forever Ind in indebted In- In d to the casualties of the war Their obligation can never be wipes ou out I Tommy has no home to come back to I 1 suspected as much when he went I away But Mother Lorimer hunted up one ne for him He lie is going to to board with a widow whose son is buried somewhere in France Prance Daddy Dadd talked with him a long time and came into mothers mother's cozy ozy sitting ittin room afterward with tears in his eyes I got at the chaps chap's affairs he ex ex- How do you suppose he had his insurance made out To two newsboy news news- bo boy boy- 3 who peddle papers sear near his old grocery stand Can you beat it The dear good boy murmured Mrs James D D. Lorimer that reserved lady whom many social climbers consider consider consider con con- sider very proud and haughty James she said after a pause well buy a grocery store for Tommy Now mother Daddy protested Tommy only delivered the goods quite different you know from running the store You can help him suggested mother Me Madam what do dol doI I know about the grocery business It takes a genius to make it pay Then as he hemet hemet hemet met mothers mother's smile he added meekly Youve always pushed me on to bigger ventures and greater successes m my ml dear I 1 suppose Im I'm not too old to tc learn the grocery business So go gc ahead buy a grocery for Tommy Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps Per Per- haps he and I 1 together can make it go To be continued |