The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, December 24, 1928, Page 12

Te | INEUEAUURU UT a ih MN AUT cS NL HTT ea Illustrations By PAUL ING GOULD was convinced that he ¢ should never have married, and Elaine Craddock understood. King, in amazement, wondered how he knew so well that Elaine under- stood so well, for so little had been said. She had just looked at him with pity and exaspera- tion in her eyes, and then he had started to talk, telling her about the studio that he had fixed up in the garage and how he had always wanted to be an illustrator— “Not just the stuff I do now, pretty girls in silk stockings and showing all their rs for hosiery and tooth paste ads. But real stuff, you now— He had paused a little, not quite sure yet to what extent he dared bare his soul, and Elaine had quietly said, “Yes, I know, and then you got married, didn’t you?” He had nodded decisively, digging deeper into the glass of jelly, his hand gripping the knife handle too hard as he clumsily spread the stuff on slices of bread which he considered altogether \ too thin. Elaine's eyes were watching his hand, and he heard her low, “I ki that, doesn’t it?” é King had really looked at her then and seen that here was a woman who wouldn't get a man trapped because soft eyes and arms and hair sud- denly made him forget the things that endured. T was Mrs. King Gould who had dispatched Elaine to the kitchen to help King make sand- wiches. Mrs. Gould had a knack of pairing off the right people. King, her husband, had heard people say that, but he had never before appreciated how right they were. Somehow this very rightness of his wife's ap- palled him a little now. There’ was something incongruous in having mentally to thank a wife for giving him a half hour or so with a wide~ eyed woman who uhderstood so well that he was a man who should never have married. King remembered now that his wife had once described Elaine most accurately. “Straight as a string,” she had said, but at that time King had not seen Elaine in an orange colored smock, her brown head gold-flecked under a kitchen lamp, her eyes soft as rainwet marigolds, her mouth all pity and understanding. It was one thing to hear a wife acclaim another woman with words of com- mendation. It was something different to under- stand himself what the words meant. “This marriage business is so funny, isn’t it?” Elaine mused, groping for olives with the ice pick. ‘I know I’m queer; I have such now. Life gets like —and Elaine had | quietly said, “Yes, | I know, and then. you got married didn’t you?” Wy, M , © 1928, NEA MAGAZINE 6 OT Un ice oe ~ LUI LLL KROESEN funny ideas on marriage. I'm not quite sane nor ieee He iin -maybe it’s ; complex a, a ing back to ly impressions | got as a But—oh, I can’t explain it! It all seems so funny—so all wrong somehow—" Elaine looked at him then, a childish expres- sion in her eyes, questioning whether she dare go on. XN ING was spellbound. He had been wait- be He talk like this. “Go on,” he or 5 * “Oh, I don’t quite know how to say it, only I never could quite see how a girl could love a man and marry him. It means that she puts him in a cage, gets possessive, holds the key, tells him when he can come out and when he must go in. She makes him buy her bread and butter and shoes and rouge and limousines and player pianos. Oh, I'm not saying what I mean and feel at all—" 4 “Yes you are! on!” ordered King again. “Well, there isn’t much more, only I could never marry anyone I loved because I'd love him too much to want to limit his life. Freedom is so precious. How can a woman say she loves a man and then preceed to take away from him free- dom—the dearest thing in life? No, you can't love and marry, and that’s that!” .. ‘ »+ As Elaine finished her speech, they ended their sandwich making, but King was not yet ready for the living room. He prolonged the drying of his hands on the kitchen towel to worship in silence Elaine of the orange smock, and to wonder what had become of the man she had loved too much to marry. cr ee a ‘What a straight shooter she was. Not a word had she said against his wife and the way his wife had slaughtered his ambition to draw some- thing better than illustrations for advertisements. No, Elaine was no cat. Straight as a string. ND 0, — eee was safevand a square ter and as straight as a string, and because a man perp with her and talk with her and drive with her and listen to her and know peace with her, King Gould and Elaine Craddock were seen everywhere to- gether. And people talked. . « s mead “But you don’t mind, do you, Elaine?” King asked her. “We can hardly expect the gossips to understand that a man and woman can enjoy one another without marriage bells in the offing, can ? Tad Elaine, “Of course I don’t mind.” People talked to King’s wife, too, and King’s wife casually mentioned the talk to King. “I STO TLU MII | TNA cA Short Story About *‘a Woman Who U. nderstood might worry, dear, if it were an; but Elaine 5 But she's aight’ a8 a Prec laine’s not like other women, you She's not out for mar- riage. She thinks it’s cruel to marry anyone you love—but then, you probably know all that, any- way. mo et & & LAINE'S wedding dress was a golden brown chiffon velvet that brought out the gold in” her hair and the copper in her eyes. She carried creamy yellow roses with a fragrance as heavy as cinnamon. Her hat was large and shadowed her eyes, and only the mouth that some people called scheming and hard was seen King as they walked up the aisle, followed by six bridesmaids in maize and corn and gold, and tulle hats of cream with bands of rich yellow ribbon around the crowns. + King never forgot, recalling his second wed- ding day, that one of the two things he thought of as they walked up the aisle was that day at lunch when Elaine had laughed with him at “‘the pagan barbarism of church weddings—the bride like a sacrificial ewe lamb being led to the altar—vulgac parade of having caught a man— indecent baring of a sacred moment before noth- ing but a rabble of curious onlookers.” i. The other thing that King afterward thought of and recalled about his vulgar parade back from the altar was his remembrance of seeing the first Mrs. King Gould in the crowd. Standing beside her was her own new husband, the man she had married just the week before. On her tender mouth and in her eyes was a smile that King had never seen before. He forgot the new wife for old. t did her smile mean? Had she planned it all? Did she have dreams, too, as ted as his own, dreams to which she saw an answer with someone else? Did she know Elaine. better, after all, than he himself knew, her? fe Then Elaine had’ whispered in his ear— “You didn’t kiss me long sete at the altar. After all, King, a woman's wedding day is a high spot in her life—something she always re- members. ‘You might have played your part a YY ELE, ese athe fun oti in the tal just last 3 tht Sot Mies ne: to do real stuff again. But Elaine yawned. 3 Yes, there was still the little old studio in the garage. a never seen before. b the new the old Ty wife for = => = 2 = = = = = = = = = 2 = = = = = EY = = cn UN ETUC a (ta ! i