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Show The Married Life of Helen and Warren r. By MABEL HERBERT URNER Originator of "Their Married Life." Author of "The Journal of a Neglected Wife," "The Woman Alone," etc. Helen Is Depressed at Their Homecoming Until a Real Calamity Threatens (Copyright, 1915, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) "Dear, it's so late must you go to the office tonight?" "Mistake. 'Cuse it, please." Resentful and disappointed. Helen, turned away. The wind was now shaking shak-ing the windows with a whistling wail. She thought of it howling through those deserted canyoulike streets around Warren's office. Impulsively she turned back to the. phone she would call him! "Cortland 1428!" Then she waited, eagerly. It had been so long since she had heard Warren's voice on the wire. There had been no occasion to phone him in London. She could hear the buzzing at the other end, but the expected click of his taking down the receiver did not come. Then at last, "Cortland 142S don't answer!" an-swer!" "Oh, ring them again, celitral. I'm i f Got to look over some of that mail before I see Griffin in the morning. This the one you want opened?" Warren was unstrapping one of the trunks. "Both of them, and you'll have to open this suitcase." suit-case." Helen handed hand-ed him the key. "Thatlock catches." "Now, see here, don't try to un- sure someone's there." Another long wait, then central's voice with a note of finality, "They don't answer. I'll ring you if I get them." Baffled, Helen hung up the receiver. He must be there! It was only thirty minutes to his office, and it had been an hour since he left. Vaguely anxious, she went back to her work. Taking off the dusty sheet that had protected the bed, she turned down the covers and laid out her nightdress night-dress and Warren's pajamas. Somehow Some-how the bed, now ready for the night, gave the first touch of home to the place. Three times within the next halt hour she called Warren's office, but still that baffling, "Cortland 1428 don't answer." Even if he had started home before her first call, he would be here by now. What could it mean? Every gruesome possibility now obsessed her an accident In the subway, in crossing cross-ing a dark street, or in the elevator, run by the sleepy watchman. Was this a swift punishment for her rebellious thoughts at the monotonous routine of their home? Was this routine rou-tine to be broken by some tragedy? Abject in her remorse, with a tempestuous tempes-tuous change of feeling, her home life now seemed ideal. If only nothing had happened to Warren! By eleven o'clock Helen had worked herself into a state of feverish anxiety. Unheeding the stinging cold, she had thrown up the library window and was leaning far out, hoping to recognize Warren in every muffled figure that . came up the street. Once more she turned to the telephone. "Central," pleadingly, "see if you can't get that number now!" Again the empty buzzing and again central's indifferent, "They don't answer." an-swer." i Then, with a desperate determination, determina-tion, Helen found the number of a well-known cab company and called for a taxi. In blind, trembling haste she got back into her traveling suit. This suspense sus-pense she could not bear a moment longer. She was going down to his office. If he was not there or had not been there then she would have to call up some of his family. 1 pack tonight. Just take out what you need and get to bed don't stay up for me. Here, I'll not want this," taking a steamer cap from his bulging overcoat over-coat pocket. "Wait, dear; do wear your muffler. It's much colder here, and you're not used to it yet." But Warren, scorning the muffler, buttoned his coat with a vigorous, "Cold? This is fine not that infernal dampness we got in London." Anxiously Helen followed him to the hall door, and stood there until with a final nod he disappeared into the elevator. ele-vator. Then she turned back to the dusty, dismantled apartment with a feeling of utter depression. How strange and unfamiliar everything every-thing looked! As she switched on the lights and went from room to room, Helen almost wished herself back on the steamer. Even their stateroom seemed now more familiar than this. And their London apartment she pictured pic-tured with an almost homesick throb. After the excitement of traveling, there is always a "let down" in getting home. And now, instead of a feeling of relief at having left a war-menaced country, Helen had a lurking longing to be back there. How she dreaded the unpacking! Every article would "bring a rush of memories of those weeks in London that now seemed so wonderful. Never had her home life appeared so humdrum; so dully uneventful. She shrank from taking up its daily routine. Yet with the feeling that such thoughts were disloyal, she tried to crush them out. She had turned on the heat and the sizzling of the radiators emphasized the loneliness of the place. Everything was covered with dust. She gazed about helplessly where should she begin? be-gin? When she had changed her traveling travel-ing suit for an old kimono, Helen went out to look for a dust cloth. As she swung open the kitchen door there was a sound of dripping water, start-Iingly start-Iingly loud in the stillness. Stumbling against a sharp corner of the table, she groped in the dark for the light. One of the faucets in the pantry sink was .leaking! No, it was not turned off! Had it been dripping all these weeks? I Nora was too careless. They should She was slipping on her long steamer steam-er coat when the front door banged. A breathless second was followed by the sound of Warren's heavy step. He was struggling out of his overcoat, over-coat, as with an inarticulate cry Helen rushed into the hall. "Oh, 1 I " But just then the telephone rang out clamorously. "Who in thunder knows we're home?" Shaking off Helen's clinging arms, he strode Into the front room to answer it. "Hello, what's that? A taxi? You've got the wrong number," crossly. "We didn't order any taxi here." "Oh, yes yes, we did," excitedly Helen caught his arm. "You'll have to go down and give the man something and send him away." Warren stared at her. "Oh, I couldn't get you on the 'phone and I was terrified! I thought some thing had happened. I I was going down to the office!" "Going down to the office? Of all blithering " "Don't, dear, don't scold me now. If you won't send that cab away I'll have to!" "You stay where you are!" Warren caught her by the shoulders and almost al-most flung her back in the room. Then the hall door slammed after bim. When ho came back, Helen was curled up on the couch, her face in the dusty sofa, pillows, sobbing nervously. nerv-ously. "Now what I'd like to know Is," Warren stood over her, his hands In his pockets, "if it's softening of ths brain or if you're Just plain dippy?" He listened grimly, with an occa. sional nort, while Helen sobbed out an account of telephoning and he? .'ranlic anxiety. "What number did you call?'' "Why, Cortland, 1428." "Got the new book, haven't you? right there by the phone. Why in blazes didn't you look in it? My number's num-ber's changed to Broad S120. Now li you think you've had enough dra. matics for one night I'd like to go to bod.' never have left her to close the apartment, apart-ment, but Warren had insisted that it would be all right. How had she left the refrigerator? A strong, musty odor greeted Helen as she opened it. Far back were a couple cou-ple of shriveled tomatoes. In a greasy brown paper was a piece of bacon green with mold, And her last warning warn-ing to Nora had been to leave nothing in the icebox! There were no clean dusters. Nora had left them all in the bottom of the broom closet, black as floor cloths. Not having the heart to Investigate further, Helen turned off the kitchen light. In the hall closet rag bag, she found1 one of Warren's old undershirts which she took for a duster. Even the toilet things on her dresser Nora had not put away, and the air had tarnished the silver and rusted the pins in the cushion. The first thing tomorrow she would call up that Danish employment agency. She would never take Nora back, of that she was now grimly determined. de-termined. The snow blew in from the outside sill as she raised the window to shake out the dust cloth. It was piercingly cold. The wind was growing stronger. It rattled the window panes with a dismal dis-mal wtvino. Oh, why had Warren gone down to the office on such a night? How desolate it must be in that great deserted building with only the night watchman on guard. She pictured him unlocking his dark office with the silent covered typewriters, typewrit-ers, the closed desks and safe. He had taken her there once at night, and she had never forgotten that impression of deathlike stillness, of tense suspended activity. Her nerves already taut, she startleo violently as the phone shrilled out. It was Warren! He was calling her up ;ust to break the awful loneliness of that office. She flew into the front room, falling over an open suitcase in her eagerness. "Hello!" joyfully. "Number, please," snapped central. "Why you called mel'' |
