| Show eI n Of Ofa a Bride CHAPTER We Have Tea Together and I Quiz Him About Shell Shock Cases Hullo Jane saId my stranger stranger- husband In a tone I 1 knew and lIked when as and schoolgIrl we had passed In the street It It vas as weIrd tIle difference between the vibrant vi vi- brant tone ot of the lover lo and husband who had gone oft off to war and the casual impersonal voIce of the man who had come backI back I I was startled to discover r that so much could coult go out ot of a mans man sou I and leave hIm an energetic and Interesting interesting In- In human beIng normal In ever everything thing hut but ids his affections I missed you ou at breakfast Bob continued Mother Iother saId she couldn't Imagine what wha t had become Lecome ot of you No one was up when I left the I house I saId Are you ou all right I this mornIng Bob FInE sure Fine sure after a nIght in my myown myown own old room But what are you waIting around a hotel for tor Jane For you you-I guess It was a challenge challenge chal- chal lenge whIch would have ha pleased the theold theold old Bob Lorimer hut but the new Bob Lorimer let It fall flat fiat with Tf If such is the tho case Jane Tane lets let's have tea I breakfasted at noon so I thInk a sandwIch Is due me before belore dinner And in hi the famIlIar way In whIch he has al ys bossed me from childhood Bob Boh never waited waited formy for lor lorm m my answer hut but took my arm and dir directed my steps toward the daInty peacock room Many a time had we two lunched under those and gold and blue tapestries Both as lovers antI and as al spouses we had hatI sometimes slipped d dawa away awa from the tue family faintly when we wanted to he be alone or we had skidded skid ded out ot of a boisterous crowd Bob hates a fast set But It was olain that the memory of our little Intimate meals In the ct room had been squeezed out of Bobs Bob's brain cells And I told my- my self seU as Y I ha had d done a doen times before before be- be fore that it was largely ely his fault tault was a curse for hIs own perverse perverse per per- verse and jealous thInking And I warned myself Jane Lorimer if youre you're to get through the next hat halt hour without a spasm youve you've rot to be a good and actress a first class sport Then with my usual directness I produced the one of conversation conversation conversa- conversa tion which interested me most excepting excepting ex- ex that of our war var l love What does shell shock feel lIke Bob Y I cant can't say Jane You IOU see I was In a stupor three days I woke up fIghting not mad insane you un under under- er- er stand hut set on getting etting right after the boche again However the major kept me in a hospItal two weeks under under un- un der close observatiOn n. n I rested and watched fellows who were In worse luck Tell me about them the worst cass cases The cases are tile the limit I thInk Why Jd Id rethor reth- reth or er be all gone than halt half cone Ione There on one chap rhan who IllO had hp hen n a nce d-nce 1811 sun After shell shock he dl nt know what a piano was for although 10 could rould carry carrYon on most other ways And Anti there was an eel who became normal every wa way but ut one he didn't know the pIcture of his own wife when It was wag shown to hIm DId dId lie they recover I stammered bendIng far over the thie table Bob hesitated I thInk he w wondered at tile the straIn In my pose and the 1 tres In my mv voice The musIcIan got well T I never heard about the other man Ive I've been told that If a soldIers soldIer's family fl relations are strained trAInel lies lie's liable to shell shock and hard to cure Then I 1 sat up very straight ht and made what I thought was a supreme test of Bob memory Y I suppose you must mut be awfully glad you never marrIed Bob i To beC be continued u d CopyrIght 1919 by the Newspaper Enterprise En- En Association |
