Show A 0 B V by EDNA FERBER a 6 doubleday Do abdy part P ft a 00 co V service arv lo CHAPTER XIII continued 16 when in 1018 dirk took oft off hla his form he went into the lie bond department of the great lakes trust company in which theodore storm had a large interest lie he said that the war had disillusioned him what did gilld you think war won was going to do said selina purity I 1 it never has ban yet it wan waa understood by selina ut at least that dirks abandoning of his him profess profession lon was a tem temporary thing quick us uli she usually was waa to arrive at conclusions she did not realize until too late into that this son of tiers hera had definitely deserted building tor for bonds that the only structures he fie would rear were vere tier her own castles in spain ills first two months ns as it bond salesman netted him more than a years salary at ills old post at hollin uen when he told this to senna bellna in tri kniph she said bald yes yen but there much tun fun in it la Is there this selling things on paper now architecture that roust must be thrilling putting a building down on paper little marks here straight lines there figures calculations blueprints measurements and then suddenly one day the actual building itself steel and stone and brick with engines throbbing inside it like a heart and people flowing in and out part of a city A piece of actual beauty conceived by you I 1 oh dirk I 1 to see her ince baca then must have given him a pang etwas it was so alive so eager lie ile found excuses for or himself selling bonds that mako make that building possible lant so no dull either cither but she waved that aside almost contemptuously what nonsense dirk we its like selling seats at the box office I 1 of a theater for the play in rilde bide 11 dirk had made many new mew friends in tho the last year and a half more than that he fie had acquired a new manner an air of quiet authority of assurance the profession of architecture was put definitely behind him ho he did not pay isay to selina that lie he had bad put the other work from from him but after six months in ills his now new position he knew that lie he would never go back from tho the start he was waa a success within ono one y apar pur ho he was so successful that you could hardly distinguish him film from a hundred other successful young chicago business and professional men whose clothes were ma made je at peels who lunched at the noon club on the rooi root of the first national hank where Chi cagos millionaires ate corned beef bed hash NOi whenever enever that plebeian dish appeared on the bill of fare ile he hod had bad a little thrill out of hla his first meal tit at this thin club whose membership was ma ilsup of tho the big men alen of the cites financial circle now lie he could even fool feel a little flicker of contempt for them lie he had known old aug hempel of course for years as well as aa michael arnold and later phililp emery thwodore storm and others cut but lie ho had expected these men ji a different r ent were not at all thy the american nig big business man alan of the comic papers and of fiction that yellow nervous dyspeptic creature who lunches off milk and pie they were divided into two definite types tho older men mea of between fifty and sixty were great high colored fellows of full habit their faces were impassive their eyes shrewd liard hard their talk colloquial and frequently illiterate they often said was for were was you going to see baldwin about that south american stun stuff or Is tie he going to ship it through without most of then them had known little of play in their youth rind end now they played ponderously and a little sadly and yet eagerly as does one to whom the alie gift of it leisure asure had tomo too late they ruined their put pal files find and livers with strong clears thinking cigarette smoking undignified and pipes common only a few were so go so assured ns as to smoke cheap light tellas old aug hempel was one of these dirk noticed that when tie he made one of tits his rare visits to the noon club his entrance was met with B R little stir a n deference arvn ile he was naring seventy five now was wag still straight strong zestful of life a magnificent ent old buccaneer among the pettier crew ills hla had been the direct and brutal method swish I 1 swash ana his enemies walked the plank the younger nien men eyed him with certain and respect thesy these younger men whose ages agea ranged eight to forty five were disciples of the new system in business they were graduates of tnt they had known luxury all their lives they were the sona or grandsons of those bearded rugged cussed and rather terrible old hoys boys who in IS is or 1840 had come out of county limerick br county kilkenny or out of 0 scotland or the rhineland to mold tys this new country ila ih their strong hairy bands dirk to the talk ft ii a noon club about him carefully ap pral sIngly inie president of on an advertising ver war firm lunching with a hanker banker it a bond sal salesman Caman tall talling talking ing to a rare book collector a packer seated at a small table with horatio craft the sculptor two years find and dirk had learned to grub the century in order to save an hour or so ot of time between chicago and new york peel said ald it was it a pleasure to fit a coat to his broad flat tapering back and trousers to tits his trong strong sturdy legs ills his color inherited from hla his red cheeked checked dutch ancestors brought up in the fresh sea laden inden air of the holland flats was flue due and clear sometimes selina in pure sensuous delight passed tier her gnarled work worn hund hand over hla his shoulders and down tits his ine fine strong straight back llo ile had been abroad twice ile he learned to call it running over to europe for a few days it had all come about in it scant two years as la Is the theatrical way in which lifts life speeds in america selina was a little bewildered now at tills this new dirk whose life was so full without tier her sometimes she did not see him for two weeks or three lie ile sent tier lier gifts which title she smoothed and touched tou clied delightedly and put away fine soft silken things hand liand handmade made which she bhe could not wear the habit of years was too strong upon tier her though she had always been a woman of dainty habits and fastidious tastes the grind of her early married life had left its indelible mark sun and wind anti and rain and the cold and heat of the open prairie had wreaked wrecked their vengeance on tier her flouting of them her brkin was tanned weather beaten tier her hair rough and dry her eyes in that frame startled you by their unexpectedness they were no BO calm so serene yet so BO alive they were the beautiful eyes of a wise young girl in the face of a middle aged woman lite life was still so ao fresh to her there was about her something arresting something compelling you felt it 1 I dont see how you do it I 1 jullo julie arnold complained one day as aa Sell fiti was paying her one of her rare in town your eyes are as bright so 60 answered dirk as ag a babas and mine look like dead oysters they were up in julies dressing room in the new house on the north side the now house that was now the old house julle julie was waa massaging her eyes hud had an absent look suddenly listen Ll sten selina dirk and paula are together too much people tire are talking talking the smile faded from Se gelinas linas face goodness knows know im not strait laced you cant be in this day and age it if I 1 had ever thought id live to see the time when well since the wor war or of course uny thIngs all right mems hut but has no sense everybody knows sties insane about dirk nil all right for dirk but how about paula 1 she wont go anywhere unless hes lies invited together nil all tho the time everywhere I 1 asked her it if she was waa going to divorce storm and she fihe sold said no she enough money of her own and dirk earning enough ills sal arya thou thousand sandi 4 but sties used to millions well I 1 I 1 they were boy and girl together selina interrupted feebly not any more dont be silly selina youre not as young as that no she was not as young as that when dirk next neit paid one of ills hla rare visits to the farm she called him into her bed bedroom the lie cool dim shabby bedroom with the old black walnut bed in which she had lain as pervus cervus dejongs bride more thin than thirty years ago she looked somehow girlish in the dim light her great soft eyes gazing up at him dirk sit down hero here at the side of my bed the way you used to im dead tired mother twenty seven holes of golf before I 1 come came out 1 I know you ache all over a nice kind of ache I 1 used to fel feel like ilka that when id worked in the fields all day putting pulling vegetable or planting ile he was silent she bl his hand band you like that my afy saying that im sorry I 1 say it to make you tee feel bad dear 1 I know you mother dirk do you know what that wom WOL nil an who writes tho the society news in tho the sunday tribune called you today no what I 1 never read it she said you were one of the jeunesse Jeu riesse doree dirk grinned goehl 1 I remember enough of ray my french tit itt silas miss bisters tl Fi stera school to know that that means gilded youth no me I 1 good I 1 im not even spangled dirk I 1 tier her voice was low vibrant dirk I 1 dont want you to be a glided gilded youth I 1 dont care liow how thick the gliding dirk that what I 1 worked in the sun and cold for im not reproaching pro aching you I 1 mind the work forgive me for even mentioning it hut but dirk I 1 dont want my son to be leown as ai one of the jeunesse doree not no not roy my son I 1 now ow listen mother foolish if youre going to talk like that like a mother in a melodrama whose sons gone wrong I 1 work like a dog you know that you get the wrong angle on things stuck out here on this little farm sho she sat ant up in bed looking down at the thin end of tier her braid as aa she twined it round and round her linger finger dirk do you know sometimes I 1 actually thin that it if you stayed here on the farm good G d mother 1 what fort oh I 1 dont know time to dream time to no I 1 suppose that lant true any anny moro more I 1 suppose the day Is past when the genius came from the farm machinery has cut into his dreams dream patent binders plows reapers readers hes a mechanic ile he time to dream well she lay back looked up at him dirk why dont you marry why theres no one I 1 want to marry no one chos free you mean ile he stood up 1 I mean no one he stooped and kam kissed d tier her lightly her arms went round him close her hand with tho the thick gold wedding band on it pressed his head bead to her hard so big bigl I 1 ile he was a baby again you ha called me that in years yeara ile he was laughing she reverted to the old game they lad had played when he was a child how big Is my soil I 1 how big she was stalling smiling but her eyes were somber so big answered dirk and measured 9 a acty very tiny space between thumb lind and forefinger su so big she faced him sitting up very straight in ili bej bed the lie little wool shawl hun hunched clied about tier lier shoulders dirk are you ever going buck back to architecture the war la Is history its now or never with you pretty soon it will be too late are arc you ever going back to architecture to your profession A clean amputation no mother she gave tilt an actual gasp as though icy water had been thrown full in tier her face slie she looked suddenly old tired her shoulders sagged ile he stood in the doorway braced for her ber reproaches proa pro chea aches but when slie she spoke it was to reproach herself then im a failure oil oh what nonsense mother im happy you rant cant live somebody alses life you used to tell me when I 1 was a kid I 1 remember that life just an adventure to be taken as it came with the hope that something glorious was always hidden just around the corner you said you had lived that way and it worked you said she interrupted him with a little cry 1 I know I 1 did I 1 know I 1 did suddenly she raised it a warning finger her eyes were luminous prophetic dirk you cant desert tier her like thakill tant 1 desert who lie he was startled beauty cauty Il self expression whatever you want to call it you shell turn on you some lay day some day want tier and slie she wont be there inwardly he had heen been resentful of this bedside conversation with his mother she made little of him lie thought ahll white outs outsiders outsider idem appreciated appreciate his success ile he had said so big measuring a tiny space between thumb and forefinger lorell nger in answer to tier her half playful question but lie he had bad riot not honestly meant it ile he thought tier her ridiculously old fashioned now in tier her viewpoint and certainly unreasonable hut but he be would not quarrel with her you wait too mother he said now su smiling illing some Sovie day your wayward son will be real success walt till the millions million roll in then well see she lay down turned her back deliberately libera tely upon him pulled the covers up about her shall I 1 turn out your light anti ami open the windows Mee nall do it IL she always does just call her goodnight good night he know knew that he had come to be a rather big mun man in his world influence ent o pad had helped lie he know knew that eliat too but he shut hla his mind to much of paulas maneuvering and ware alre pulling refused to acknowledge ledge that tier her lenn lean dark eager fingers had manipulated the mechanism that ordered his career paula herself wits was wise enough to know that to hold him slip she must not let him feil indebted 0 tier lier she knew that the debtor hates his creditor site she lay awake at night planning for him scheming for his advancement then suggested these sc lemax to him xo so deftly as to ninke make him think ho he himself had ba d devised them site she had even realized of late that their growing intimacy might handicap him if openly commented on but now ahe abe must see sea him dally daily or speak to him her te telephone 10 was a private wire leading only to her own bedroom she culled called him the first thins thing in the morning morn lne the last thing at night her voice when she spoke to him was waa on an organ transformed low vibrant with a timbre in it ita tone that would have made it unrecognizable to an outsider her words were commonplace mon place enough but pregnant preg nuLt and meaningful for tier what did you do today did you have a good day mily you call me did you follow up that suggestion you made about kennedy I 1 think its a wonderful idea dont you youre i a wonderful man dirk did you know that I 1 iniss you do you when why not lunch oil oh not if you have a business appointment how about five no not there oil oh I 1 dont know its so public yes goodby good by goodnight goodnight good night they began to meet rather furtively in out of the way places they would lunch in department store restaurants where none of their friends ever came they spent off afternoon hours in the dlin dim close atmosphere of the motion picture palaces sitting in the back row seeing nothing of the film talking in eager whispers that failed to annoy the scattered devotees devot cea in the middle of the house when they drove it was on obscure streets paula had grown very beautiful t her world thought there was about her the aura the glow the roseate exhalation that surrounds sur rounda the woman in love frequently she irritated dirk at such times lie he grew quieter than ever I 1 more reserved As he involuntarily withdrew she advanced sometimes he fie thought he hated her her hot eager hands her glowing asking eyes her thin red mouth her sallow heart shaped exquisite face tier her perfumed Llo clothing thing her air of ownership that was it I 1 her possessiveness sometimes |