Show the th aff AV BEGINNER us A novel log by henry webster copyright ty by the bobba merrill co service I 1 A A A A i AA A A A SYNOPSIS acting in perfectly rood good faith in an of t fo tort rt tp to aid IL a neighbor ruth ingrah In Braham ll la I a baner buBl neim 0 way edward Patter patterson Pat tenon pon cannier anal or of the th C chicaro cago agency of a ufa life aeura c sa ca iriny I 1 suspected by his wife ull of I 1 CHAPTER I 1 continued 2 ruth had been a revolutionary phenomenon to him from the beginning shed let him see bee made him believe anyhow that she admired him had long admired him as a man she soon began confiding to him matters that were entirely out of the range of her business affairs she told him how unhappy shed been with her husband how hed neglected her and been unfaithful to her she said that at the time of his death shed been upon the point of leaving him she told him these things desperately forlornly under the stress of what he had believed to be a profound emotion she put him under tile the seal of confidence ile he to tell anybody she say in so many words that he to tell his wife but he knew that was what she meant it had thrilled him to be trusted with intimacies cies cles like that enormously it set him up in his own estimation he roust must bo be something more than it a dull middle aged failure when this charming rather worldly young woman could turn to him as her friend the time came when on wishing him good night she held up her face for a kiss as simply as a child been something almost unbelievable lie vable to him about all this that to him married and forty six years old it should come unsought ills response to her caresses was a passionately made promise to himself that he be would not betray her trust in him that she should never find him anything but the faithful high minded friend she took him for might the thing have worked out better had he been less high minded about it if hed been simply a predatory male taking its as much as he could get rather than thad a quixotically chivalrous fool As far as his present rel relation atlon with tulla julia was concerned hed be no worse oft off now he grimly reflected had the episode with ruth taken its natural course there were gusty furious moments when he ha wished it had worked out that way A straightforward masculine sin would be a preferable thing to feel guilty about if he must feel guilty with that on his conscience he could go back to julia and tell her he was sorry he would be borry sorry all right hed feel no doubt like the very devil but as a sort of background to his repentance there be a comforting sense not of achievement exactly but of regularity anyhow he be obliged to think of ruth laughing at him now 0 whatever buoyancy hed found in the act of running away the sense of adventure of truancy evaporated when he got on the train to go home again it did no good to run away he reflected unless one could keep on running lie ile ile he had to turn around and come back there was his job hla his stale unprofitable job waiting tor for him at the end of the trip ruth euth thank god be waiting shed have gone by now having made the discovery that he quite the abject thing she had taken him for there was some satisfaction in that lie he rubbed his eyes and wondered why hed tortured himself about her so long but julia with the children would be waiting for him ile he tried to imagine her a repentant julia ed on going back to buttermilk brook would have told her that ruth had sold her house and was going away and that hla his father known of the plan that would have convinced her that the she had done him a gross injustice he imagined her passionately regretting that she had bad written that savage letter ile he had bad answered it an hour before he took the train to california and had felt at the time of writing pretty well satisfied with what he said hed told her he was taking a little run out to california by way of a vacation and he expect to get home until a few days after she did the substance of her letter he dealt with in a single sentence pretty carefully and he felt thought out have learned no doubt from ed that the ground for your objection to returning to lakeside no longer exists that was dignified he felt and sufficient fici ent julia had told him not to try to justify himself and hed refrained from doing so it what she wanted of course she wanted him to grovel to promise her that he ha would get rid of ruth whether hed have done that if ruth of her own record packed up and gone away was sin an academic question she had done it and his cifes grievance was left so 0 o tar mr as ho he could see without a log leg to stand on but ills his thoughts during the last day of f ills his trip were not so comfortable the moment of hai ino meeting etIng with julia tomorrow obsessed win him how would she took look what would she say what would she do the logic of his position was all right it but logic was waa no panacea for the trials ot of marriage hed found that out long ago should have found it out at least julia would never have written him that letter except in an agony of humiliation and despair whatever the rights righta and wrongs of the case night might be she had boen been sorely wounded and his reply cold curt contemptuous had rubbed salt into the wound hed known it at the time it was what he had meant to do hed been hurt and angry indignant rather under an accusation that was outrageously unjust hed got to remember that ile he go crawling back and ask to be for forgiven iven shed never believe in his innocence it if he did that ile he might have told her though tn in that letter that he seen ruth ingraham in weeks and never expected to see her again that have compromised his pride too much and would have been restorative stora tive to jullas julias As things stood now shed keep her grievance alive to balance his an arid hopeless sort of way of living that would be for two people who had to share the same house the same children the same bedl bed I 1 how long iong would it go on like that ile he see any end to it ills home would be a dead thing g just as ills his job was ile he had telegraphed julia that he was getting home sunday morning but told her the exact hour or the name of the train they could figure vils out of ourse it if they wanted to from the sending point of his telegram but it likely that this would occur to any of them there was a possibility that hed be met but the chances were against it on the whole he was rather relieved when he found that he lie ile have labeled his feeling either as dread or anticipation whatever it was it turned him limp and breathless it occur to him that anyone but julia might open the door hed forgotten he had any children but it was his seventeen year old daughter edith flushed and bright eyed with excitement prettier and more grownup grown up looking that shed been when held hed last seen her in june who came flying down tile the stairs to meet him she cried out daill dad I 1 I 1 knew it was you I 1 and hugged him there was warm reassurance in that hug however julia felt about him she had not he be decided given anything away to the children lie he said well its good to be home again it are you glad to be she said she was but bit he felt sure that there was something more than a mere welcome on her mind does it seem natural he persisted everything all right about the house and so on oh yes she said sure weve beca here quite a long time you know since thursday morning ile he felt his throat stiffen as he asked the next nest question wheres your mother ashes at home she oil oh ashes here edith told him but ashes gone to church ed took C f dad she asked why did you go to california you really did go there you the car about ten minutes ago to meet her and bring her home be here any minute embarrassment was piling up between them thicker and thicker she went to the window and looked out to see it if tile the car was in sight it but there was quite a long moment before she turned again end faced him dad she asked blurting out the words as if they had burst from her why did you go to california you really did go there you of course I 1 did he said 1 I dont know why exactly mostly for the ride on the cars I 1 guess what made you ask if I 1 really went oh I 1 dont know she said uneasily 1 I mean anything in particular only it seemed sort of funny well he h said eald after another silence 1 I guess I 1 look an aa if id spent the last three days on the train I 1 think ill take my bag upstairs and freshen up a little before bur mother gets home lie ile had said it for the sake of saying something doing something breaking the tee ice which he reminded himself always formed after the first mb moment of greeting but she take it with tile the relief hed expected she gave him an odd quick look started to say something but checked herself lie ile waited an instant then turned away and picked up ills his bag ile he was standing with it at the foot of the stairs when for the second time sho she burst out find your trunk and the rest of your things in the spare room she said she turned away quickly under his stare but he knew shed been looking at him when she said it with that same excited curious expression hed noted in her face a moment earlier lie ile felt his own face growing hot he doubt but the girl knew what it meant ile he managed the words thank you edith and with his bag started up the stairs here they are she cried mother and ed back from church she flung open the front door and cried out mother dads come home ile he descended the stairs again and set down the bag lie ile could see ills his wife and his son coming up tile the walk the resultant of the conflicting forces playing upon him was precisely nothing at all the things he wanted to do contradicted each other good G d why had he come home to a me mess q s I 1 like I 1 ke th this IS ile he supposed because he had nowhere else to go ile he had nothing but his home and ills his job nothing I 1 CHAPTER II 11 edith of course a birthday was just like any other day it was a silly little girl idea that you woke up that morning different older and bigger edith sat up and craned around for a look out the window of course it really matter what kind of a day it was since her birthday treat depend upon the weather she and her mother were going to a matinee to see a play that sounded rather jolly captain applejack the original idea dads for the celebration of her birthday had been a dinner party tour four couples they could coula play cards afterward or dance it had bad tempted her it was so satisfactorily grownup grown up and dignified it would have been perfectly slick it if things had been right at home or even not so horribly wrong there was nothing to show from the outside that anything was wrong except for eds being away at college there was nothing about the household to make it look different to an outsider from what it had always been but if she brought any of her friends home with her she was sure guess even it if dad and mother refrained ns as they probably would at a party from getting into one of thew their terrible rows just the way things felt would give everything away she sha even be sure that the girls going upstairs to lay aside their wraps discover that nil all dads things acre in the spare room and that mother was living alone in the room that had always been theirs draw their own conclusions from that most likely but what would those conclusions clu be the intolerable thing was that edith be sure she bran able to draw any herself and she even have tallied talked to her best friend agatha willard Wll lard about that she was almost glad that agatha had gone away to boarding school in the east it made it easier somehow to keep up the bluff only what was the use oh dear nhat what was the use of anything she felt her throat getting stiff and abruptly she turned beat up her pillow and lay down again it was nowhere near time to get up she had better go back to sleep if possible iler her mothers voice called to her from the next room the communicating door stood open as it usually did those these days you awake edith happy new year I 1 come come in and give me a kiss edith sprang out of bed and without stopping abr bathrobe or slippers for the cold floor door felt good under her feet and the chill air delicious as it bathed her body padded into her mothers room after the kiss edith sat for a moment stroking her mothers firm smooth arms but at the question how does it feel to be seventeen she desisted resisted des isted 1 I dont know she said 1 I was just thinking about that of course ive been practically seventeen tor for quite a long time and im not sure that that nicer having it to look forward to I 1 mean because what ive got to look forward to now Is eighteen and that Is not so thrilling I 1 mean this Is practically the end of well of growing crowing up mother it be nice if you could pick tile the age you wanted and just at stop p there what age would you pick to go back to you mean yours I 1 guess some change in the quality of the voice caught the girl girls a ear then she turned a puzzled look on her mother but if stopped then id never have been born would I 1 1 I say eay I 1 wanted to go back her mother reminded her then briskly she added see that big box over on the window seat go and open it and see inside it was an enormous green box Mo mother therl it for me mel the girl cried as she struggled with the string but I 1 thought the matinee was my birthday present she pulled the cover oft off the box and caught a glimpse of tan color it was a lovely neecy fleecy polo coat with a satin lining light as a feather all and warm as toast almost exactly like one shed envied corinne baldwin the possession of up at the brook last summer yet as she shook out the folds of it and slid her cold bare arms into its sleeves she was in terror lest she should cry mother how bow perfectly darling I 1 she hoped her voice sounded all right its just exactly the its the only thing in the world I 1 wanted mother she lew flew back to the bedside for a kiss then turned back for a look at ant t herself in the long mirror already the spasm of disappointment was passing from her heart this thing was real and it was really hers it did look lovely on her too the girl slipped out of her coat laid it across the back of a chair where it be lost to view and crept in beside her mother it if its a nice day I 1 can wear it to the theater this afternoon she said 1 I think going to be perfectly great the show I 1 mean dont you mother arent you glad were going she he thought her mother mean to answer the question hardly called for it certainly for nothing more than an all inarticulate murmur of assent she was startled when at the end of a pretty long silence her mother said im glad it if you are but are you sure you rather have had the birthday party of course ini sure id lots lota rather go to the show somehow she felt she quite leave it at that and she added 1 I care about the party particularly she had bad tried to make that sound indifferent and casual but she knew she brought it off ner her voice had betrayed her she was getting frightened after the silence had bad spun itself out a while she asked why not because she wanted to but because the bhe help it why did you ask ak mother 1 I dont know it was just an idea of mine you and agatha willard had been such a pair of inseparables Inse parables and had cared so little about anyone else I 1 thought perhaps with her away you might be feeling rather lonesome oh of course I 1 miss her horribly edith admitted and I 1 miss ed too pont dont you mother do you remember how he used to come in mornings like this when we were all lying here talking and sit up on the footboard balancing with his arms around his bis knees so we were always afraid he would go over backward of course I 1 do her mother |