Show Confessions I I Of a Bride CHAPTER Bob Lives Up True to His Character r I Under the Reaction of Shell Shock I Jane its it's queer Since that shock I II I never think much about women my husband replied And for the first firs time he looked at me with a hInt o ohis of f hIs old confidential manner And I used to like girls well enough too Do you mean to tell me Bob Lorimer Lorimer Lori Lori- mer that youve you've grown absolutely Indifferent indifferent in- in different to love I gasped Bob helped me to another chIcken chicke n salad sandwich In hIs slow and daInty y I wa way then he served himself deliberately as If we were discussing I nothing more important than a comic opera Finally he replied about it it I guess At least leas t I for the present But why not nol Tho Th te e war has left some mighty big jobs for real men Im I'm going to do my bi bit for humanity somehow That ought ough t to fill up a reasonable mans man's days daysI I pretty well I A bachelor can be a useful citizen I suppose was my rejoinder rejoinder-it waa was wa wasa s a stupid one but the best I could d do o for I had had made a discover I was wa s talking to the Bob I had known i ill n 1914 the serIous college man with a bunch of radical philosophies W We e had even agreed that between an Intellectual in- in man and Woman love wIthout passion can exist Had my husband been of a t type I would have lured him on t ta to toa o a flirtation at least and I would gout have trusted to chance for g more But Bob Dob had never fallen fo foa tor tora r a vamp of that his brother Jim Jr had many times assured me I He was ascetic by temperament His reaction under shell shock was quite consIstent with his character Our little conversation over the tea table revealed new misery to tome me I stoOd up and as Bob adjusted my wraps and as we threaded our way between the crowded tables t. s I caught the naive admIration which Bob excited excited ex- ex I cited In the young women I My husband soldier was a splendid I human specimen and he looked perI perfectly per per- stunnIng In hl his uniform wIth its It foreIgn service and wound stripes I lie He was the kInd of a man whom women pursue openly and stalk co- co vertly I walked beside him I that he was too magnificent to be surI surrendered sur- sur I rendered to any other girl without a I struggle and knowing also that thIngs would turn out exactly as Mary I Thomas load had predicted Some gIrl sometime would Invent a way nay to compel compel com com- pel Bob Lorimer to male make love tG teller her And I had to own up that in any such competition hIs I-hIs wIfe must start with a handIcap When we reached the street Bob asked GoIng home Jane i iI I remembered the electrIc I was using us- us lIng ing wIth M l T T. In gold on the door panel How Bob loathed Queen of Smiles He could not bo be permItted to put me Into that car Ive a little shoppIng to do first Isaid I saId Goodbye I held out my hand and I could not keep bath back the tears Why what's the matter Jane Bob looked at me and looked through me I thought as if queer ghosts of dead longIngs mIght be pg somewhere In hIs braIn Then hIs expression ex- ex changed to one of puzzled interest in- in terest in the moment Im nil all rIght Bob I said sharply and I turned Into the big department I store next the hotel while Bob moved down the street toward hIs fathers father's office I bought a little gIft for Mary Thomas and then drove out to her terrace Mary Iary t I exclaimed but I couldn't say any more I threw my hat on a hair chair and myself on the couch and buried mY faro face In Its pillows and settled settled set set- myself for an exhausting cry To hp |