Show CHAPTER I 1 edward kneir parting had begun us as on an ordinary handshake but young kd ed suddenly flung both arms around ills his rather father and ana hugged him daal lie cried cant you pos sibly come up to the brook just tor for a day or two ill see edward senior told him m ibi it I 1 can I 1 will ill write bour mother t h about it any anyway v ay hed away ns as he said that but lie he turned back to watch the boy go bounding up three at a time the steps to the elevated coated station ile he was deeply moved and part of ills his emotion was bewilderment it was an unprecedented thins thing between them that sudden strong hug how flow much edward patterson asked himself did the boy know now how much had an unsuspected instinct enabled him to guess of the devastating melancholy that had settled upon the older man when he learned a little earlier that evening that cluth ingraham had sold her house and was going to move moie away to new york the boy hue have seen een through that could he it would be rather nice to go up to the brook the children would give ghe him a welcome anyhow and even julia might be found willing at least to ignore her supposed lup posed grievance just going away anywhere would be a relief a protective covering cohering fo for r the bruise hed got tonight when hed discovered how unimportant hed become to ruth ile he want to think about that bear to think about it ile he be sure of course that that he doling doing her nn an injustice ter her decision to sell tier lier house and mo move v c away might have been forced upon her suddenly Bud denly she might have written him a note that he had not yet et received it might be waiting for him now at the hotel unconsciously lie he quickened ills his pace and then with a half audible groan as he realized what he was doing d deliberately I 1 libera tely slackened it again this ans the way hed been acting for days making excuses for tier her silence trying to steel himself against disappointment and then encouraging his hopes to rise again acting like a fool an abject hungry wistful fool lie ile RO go on like that hed fled give her a taste ot or tier her own medicine if slip wanted to be rid of him she should be sooner and more completely than she intended hed orrange e things at the lie office tomorrow ami abl tomorrow nlelio hed go up to the brook he ma ringed a tone casual when lie he aked the night clerk cleric if there were any messages or letters for him hut but his heart gave nn an irrepressible bound when the man said sald one just came in on the last delivery it sank again ip aln sickeningly when lie diw iw that it was riot not from ruth but from hla his wife at buttermilk brook A thick letter ominously different from the brief dry missives hed been getting irom from her nil summer lie felt sick with premonition as he rode up in the elevator ola ills small barren room was hot and airless ile he switched on oin the light tore open the envelope and looked blankly at the first of the closely written pases for a rood good while before he began to road read its opening addressing him as edward disposed of any lingering idea he might have had find that its length meant an offer of a reconciliation her friendly name for him was ned her affectionate one what a long way hack back that went twenty years or morel was noddy she never used r edward dward except as a term of rep reproach 1 I suppose I 1 ought to have lave written this letter weeks ngo ago slie she wrote hut but ive rone gone along foolishly hoping that things might lia happen plen so vint I 1 have to write it at all I 1 hate bate to write it worse than anything I 1 ev ever er had bad to do and I 1 dont suppose it will do tiny rood good but for the sake of the children iv got to there much time left because the season here her e ht at the brook la Is almost over the lintel hotel will close to in two weeks so you have to decide now alint you want me to do I 1 mean whether you want me n to come bach to our house in balce lakeside side or not whether nether you want to TO go on having a home and a fa family nilly 11 lie put down the letter anil and clenched ills his hands tie it beat with them upon the arms of ills chair then with will A Tin painful infill effort he be relaxed ethnic god cod julia faint v aint here to talk to him I 1 she upset ill him horribly when she lie talked to mm film in the mood in n which this letter wo wa written hed field better rend read the rest of the letter first no ani find out precisely what the terms of tier her ultimatum were tile the next sentence sen tenc over tile the page was ex bif if you avant roe me you will have to get g t rid or OF ruth ingraham people have written me letters Every everybody boly Is 13 talking about it its humiliating it makes m feel like a fool I 1 simply cant stand it hats nil all and I 1 wont if you were sick of me and wanted to be unfaithful to me why did you have to pick her out why you have gone into the city and picked up some woman nt nil the street that all my friends dont know ile he felt himself getting sick with plain horror tit at her monstrous tion A beastly lie ile not only onla as regarded the fait fact she fhe licensed accused him of tint that was it lie of course his relation avith itula had bud been un tin in otio hut but n lie ns as the tate state cibil 1 if julias belief that it lind been 1 rim ire loi sp slip bell believed eved that she was pretending to in order bojus to jus tiby her jealousy well he knew the worst now lie ile might as well veil go on and read the rest I 1 suppose im I 1 rn saying just just exactly what you want me to say ever since you ou fell in love with hor her I 1 must have been just a burden and a restraint to you iou I 1 dont know how long no ago that was long before tier her husband died I 1 suppose I 1 hav en t any plans now I 1 dont don t seem to be able to think thin nt at till nil it if I 1 only had find any wily way of earning money the way kd ed has haa been earning it this summer so that I 1 could support my and be independent but there isn t anything special tint that I 1 know how to do and I 1 feel pretty old to learn rut but im I 1 m going to do something ned you enn can count on that I 1 won wont t go on living lit ing the way you rande made tie me live last spring if you want to po go on in a different forent dif way tor for the sake ot of the children childrens child renI I 1 know you yoa dont for me you can ole cide now and let roe noe know and rii come back and try to keep things looking as if nothing hid bad happens happened well we 11 come down the of the fifteenth if you dont feel that you can give her up I 1 wish siy say that too in so many words so that ill know its the not knowing driving me wild only dont write justifying your self and trying to get me to change ray my mind I 1 dont don t care if your friend ship Is as sweet and noble and inno cent as you pretended it was last spring I 1 don dont t know but I 1 think I 1 id d hite hate that worse thin than the other I 1 cant can t bear to have her make such a fool of you what she was doing all last spring and I 1 suppose his has been ever since all the more if she never was your mistress do you think she cared anything about friend ship you were useful to her I 1 suppose and what she mostly wanted was to show that she could take you away from me this summer has been like a nightmare it doc seem as it 1 it could be true that after two people had been living together for twenty years a worthless woman like ruth ingraham could come between them and ruin their lives you may not know she has ruined your life but she will I 1 cant help it I 1 have done my best let me know what you decide to do julia anger was the emotion he wanted riot hot sustaining indignation against his wife for the brutality of her ultimatum to him for the licentious injustice of her charges against ruth nuth it come lie ile had no control over tile the gusts of feeling that shook him now from tills this direction and now from that one of them was an ineluctable sympathy for julia herself in her forlorn helpless irish that she could find a job earn her own onn living it lf bearable to picture julia doing that or to think of the misery that had driven her to wanting to do it it help to assure himself that it was her own fault more blore excruciating still was wag the the picture of himself that was vas etched in acid in the last sentences of his cifes letter A fool all the more a fool it if she never was your our mistress welcome so long as he was useful contemptuously discarded when he had ceased to be the object at first of a tolerant and later of an exasperated contempt on the part of a woman who neither valued nor cor understood the friendship he tallied about a woman who would have understood him better if lie he had frankly sought from the beginning the adulterous rewards of a 0 lover o er the hottest indignation that lie he could muster protect him film against the twinge every noy and then of an intolerable misgiving that julia was waa 0 at four that afternoon he was alone luckily in his office at the time ruth ingraham telephoned to him with the recognition of her voice he began to tremble violently she accused him playfully of having forgotten nil all about her it was so BO long days and days she said really it was weeks since hed been out to tn see tier her lie ile must come since she had something awfully important to tell him and unless he came quite soon it would be too late for her to see him fit at all she had find just that hint morning sold her house and she was waa going away for good there were a few matters she wanted his advice about if he still tits ills kind and helpful self when would he come toni lit it was 11 queer tiling thing ills hody body was completely complete y disorganized but tits his mind from froin the moment she bhe began to became suddenly untroubled pellucid the stuff that had for so long befogged it dropped into instantaneous itale lie ile saw tier her now understood her altogether the false plausibility of tier her voice the crudely tran transpire spare nt wish to summon him hack back now that thai lie he could once more be serviceable it no longer mattered to her now that thai she was waa going away for good what prying neighbors might think thin kcf of their companionship lie ile noted without surprise the lie she told him lie he was perfectly aware now that ellie alie hail had often lied to him film before though tills this was the first moment of that awareness well she deni demanded at last Il lavent you got thing to say lave have I 1 struck you slee speechless ciless im tit til most as surprised as that myself it ft dime came over hlin film now that hal he must speak no im not aur A novel by henry mtchell itchell ES webster Copy copyright richt by the almerrill co service he said in met I 1 already knew about abo t it but im afraid I 1 shant u ile be able to come out to see you before you go im going away myself today or tomorrow and ill hardly be back before tile the fifteenth there was it a moment of silence then in a gasp goodby Goo ilby he said and hung up the receiver ile he notched nt ched the instrument for a moment in terror lest she should call him back but the bell was silent mr vane the general agent walked into ills office a few minutes later half stated the errand that had brought baroug him in and stopped short with a n stare into ills his cashiers cash lera lers face the mitter matter lie asked with sharp concern you look as if you were going to faint edwaros protested that he was all right what was it that vane wanted for tile the moment vane let it go at that but later in tile the afternoon lie came caine brick to hdward 1 to urge him to tale take a vacation ile he was entitled to it and he clearly needed it As best he could edward argued against the suggestion the office somehow had become his city of refuge it protected him in a way i I 1 1 J y i ass A woman acoman who would have under stood him better if he had frankly sought the rewards Re warda of a lover against both julia and ruth nuth the thought of being deprived of it turned adrift for the next two weeks filled him with terror vane of course suspected nothing like that but lie he saw plainly enough that a valuable officer of the company was temporarily unfitted for business and heedless of edwards protests lip lie went ahead and arranged for his relief by friday noon it was all settled lie ile we went t out ostensibly for lunch though he knew he be able to eat in a state of complete demoralization sixteen days I 1 include ruths departure and julias juliaa return lie go to jull julia a and not after that letter shed written to him film and he misdoubted mis doubted tits his courage to stay away from ruth even though now in ills his mind he saw her for exactly what she was in his random walkin the search of a restaurant that would invite him in to lunch lie be had stopped automatically before the window of a downtown down town ticket office of one of the western railroads it was advertising a new limited train to los angeles hed 41 there never been out there it was a trip cabout lie ile and julia had talked about taking oft off and on for the last twenty years probably never do it but why lie do it alone now that would solve bohe the problem of his vacation with a vengeance it was a way of burning ills his bridges of course as far as huth was concerned but this vitant the main attraction it would show julia show her what lie ile dismissed the question impatiently what ever eier it was shed see those days cays on the train merethe were jhc thc best p part 1 art of ills his vacation they rave gave him a chance to think the thing that bewildered him most outraged his sense of justice was his conscience it playing fair with him film search as he might and he spent hours raking over the past he put tile the finger of memory upon an act of his that had been consciously wrong hed had plenty of chances to do wrong but hed successfully resisted temptation every time lie ile had bad remained through everything a faithful husband a loyal friend nn an industrious official and yet he now lie ha believed feel fee gulit guiltier ler more contemptible II if hed done every wicked thing that julia in her letter by word or implication had accused him of it the way a conscience was supposed to act edward ought to know lie ile was a ministers son though not at all the traditional one ills father had been pastor of a large evangelical church in new york city but edwards upbringing had not been handicapped by pietistic limitations ills start in business had been promising ills fathers brother had been one of the higher officials in the great i insurance company that edward Is still till worked for it was perhaps owing to this pull but not at all to an unjustifiable jus tillable exercise of it that edward find been taken in on the executive blie 1 de instead of having haling to start out as a solicitor peddling policies from door to door edward edvard would have loathed that the crude competitive hustle ot of life was congenitally distasteful to him luc idly for or him ills his uncle had been in a position to save him from all ali that edward had find gone to work the autumn after ho he graduated in the accounting department of the home office IT hed ed never neier minded long hours nor hard work not even dull work lie he mind anything as long as it came in a dignified way to him as long as he have hare to go out after it I 1 hed done his work well conspicuously well so tar far as it was possible for anything an tiling to be conspicuous in a great like that it been but two or three years before made him a traveling auditor ills his route took him through the upstate cities in n new york that wa was S how hed met julia julia nine nineteen te en years ears old at the time was a real beauty queenly the undergraduates used to call her |