Evening Star Newspaper, June 18, 1925, Page 35

THE EVENING Romance and Sally Byrd BY ELLEN GLASGOW. (Copyright, 1925, by the Crowell Publishing Co.) One of a series of the year's best short stories. -1f41n(!n d from Yesterday's Star.) “Did you think that you were the only one?” she asked, softly. “The onl 2" Rooted to the spot, Sally Byrd stared at her, while the tears rolled in pearly drops down her woman Stanley was in There have been so many vou know, that I wondered wed, in her disp: woman in the who was_Kkilled he latest. He had o get a divorce, r 2 minute she hesi- he knew I would ed m cried Sally Byrd she groped toward the she did not go at once, if ak away before an- was said, she felt she to scream in the way reamed when poog, t she other should begin Aunt Vert they told he did ord en Mrs. K 1. impersonal, > stood still at round sure enton’s voice, arrested the door you won't stay to no. 1 back immedia must go. I must go back to Virginia and head with a gallant Byrd looked into the atching her. “Yes, Virginia and forget Lifting her gesture, Sally ves that were L go vack n Mrs. Kenton's face softened. old re you?" teen “How A Or I was when T came here.” The other is permanent and be happy." Ally Byrd shook her head. forget, but I shall not be happy. has broken my heart.” A wistful expression crossed the other e “No, your heart isn't broken—not so long as it hurts. When vour heart is really broken. it lies still and dead like mine. You can't imagine the rellef it 1" she added mpl. “to have your heart break at last an instant Sallr Byrd was awed into silence. Then she mur- mured, under her breath, as if she smiled. “At 19 nothing You will forget him “I shall It “After an experience like this I sup- pose you lose your sentiment about everything,” she concluded. Her gaze searched the block and dropped like a tired bird on a jeweler's shop tucked in between a green grocer and a flower shop, where the window was ablaze with yellow chrysanthe- mums. “I'l go in there,” she said, aloud; and, picking up her bag, walked reso- lutely across the street and through the small open door. Once inside she realized that it was a place where elderly man in big spectacles popped out of a box at the back she held out the locket. “I wonder if you would be willing to lend me some money on this?" He looked first at her face and then at the locket, shaking his head all the time, as if he regretted what he had to say. ‘“No, we don’t lend money. Our work 1s repairing watches. I'm sorry. “Is there any place near?” Her voice trembled. “Could you tell me of any place where they would take it?"" “There’s a pawnshop near here. You might try there. Just a little way around the corner.” “Yes, I'll go there.” She hestitated and looked at him wistfully. “Would you mind taking the picture out for me? I don't want to leave the pic- ture."” He held out his hand, and when she had given him the locket, opened it and pried out the miniature with a pointed instrument. How lovely the face looked lying there in the palm of his hand! “It's very like you,” sald the jew- eler, handing it back to her. *That must be your mother."” “Yes, it is my mother.” As she said the words the realization came to her that her mother would have felt dlsgraced if she had known. Poor, soft, delicate, lovely mother, to be taken out of her case like that in a shop in Lexington avenue! Thanking the man hurriedly, she went out, carrying her bag with an effort, because her arms ached, and started down the side street in the direction of the pawnshop. there it was round the corner. She could see the gold balls, and, as she drew nearer, the window filled with a_queer collection of rusty trinkets. She shrank from leaving her locket among the tawdry-looking ornaments, watches were repaired, but when an | Yes, | but, after all, it would be only for a few days. In a week at most, even if she had to take the money out of the ginger jar, she would send back to redeem (it. ‘Within the shop, which was satu- rated with the odors of beer and stale fish, & grimy old man, with a yellow skin and hooked nose, who reminded her of Shylock fallen on evil days, took the locket in his hand and exemined it through a magnifying glass, which he wore attached by a black cord to his alpaca coat. “If you could lend me $20 on th she sald, nervously, After examining it, he laid it down on a strip of dirty red velvet and muttered that he would give her $10.!,nq Sally Byrd jumped again. “But that wouldn't buy my ticket. Though she struggled to appear con posed, the words burst out in a strangled sob. Oh, was any girl ever placed in such a dreadful situation before? “As soon as I get home I'll send back to redeem it. Really and truly, 1 will send back.” In reply to this appeal he merely grumbled that “they all said that” and he “was obliged to make a living.” Then, after haggling over the sum, he agreed to lend her $15 and crept nolselessly away in his carpet slippers to the back of the shop. When he returned he counted out 15 greasy $1 notes on the strip of velvet. Then he handed her the pawn ticket and one of his cards, which was as yellow as his face. Cramming the meney and ticket into her purse, she picked up her travel- ing bag and ran out into the air. In the streets she took out her hand- kerchief and vigorously rubbed her face. Would she ever feel clean again? Would she ever get that horrible smell out of her clothes? ‘Well, at least she could go home. She would walk back to Fifth avenue and take the bus that had brought her from the station. Only two hours ago! It seemed a lifetime, but it was, in reality, only two hours ago. At the station she found that there was a train leaving immediately, and, after buying her ticket, she went into the day coach because she could not afford to travel in the chair car. She was so tired she felt dazed and numb, and there was what grandmother described as “‘a gone feeling” inside of her. By the time the conductor came by she had grown so weak that' {actly like, she told herself despond- | her and went out, and a young man watching him. | THURSDAY, seen you somewhere before. You don't act in the movies, do you?” In a rush her courage returned to her. *“Oh, no, but I go to see them ‘whenever I get the chance.” They talked a little while, and she discovered presently that he lived in her city, only a few blocks away from her home. She must have passed him often in the street, if she had only remembered. And he knew Abble Dance, a teacher in one of the higher grades of the public school. “How very strange!” she exclaimed when he told her. And it seemed strange to him, also, strange as well as profoundly original and significant. The kind of -thing that had never happened to any one else. When she went back to the d. coach he brought her a magazine and told her that he was stopping at Philadelphia to keep a business ap- pointment. “But we'll be sure to meet again. Tl arrange that,” he observed in his boyish way. which she found so attractive. e was really much better looking than Stan- ley, she reflected after he had gone, and so much younger. For the first time it occurred to her that Stanley was—well, not exactly old, but middle- aged. Yes, certainly middle-aged. Of course she had been foolish to let her heart be broken by a man who was both married and middle-aged; but since it had happened the only sen- sible thing was to make the best she could out of what remained to her. Romance, of course, was over for. ever, but there were many useful vir- tues in which she might learn in time to excel. All day, while the train was bearing her home, she sat turn- ing the pages of the magazine and STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, she asked him if she could get some- thing to eat on the train, and, observ- ing her plight, he helped her back to the dining car. “Be sure to take this sick lady's order at once,” he said to the walter as she went back. She ordered tea and toast and an egg, because that was what Aunt Loulsa took when she was In the worst twinges: of neuralgia, and after she had eaten the egg and sipped the tea she began to feel bet- ter. An elderly woman in youthful black sat opposite to her at the be- ginning of her meal, and when she made an unexpected remark Sally Byrd jumped as she did when the train jolted. Her courage and self- respect had oozed out of her under the pressure of disappointment. She felt not only tired and faint, but dreadfully humble and inferior, ex- ently, the poor relation of the world. Then the elderly woman nodded to with blue eves came in and took the opposite place. Presently, after he had written his order, he made a re- mark just as the woman had done, ““Have you been il1?"" he asked in a ympathetic tone. “You look as if you might have toothache—or some- thing.” She shook her head while her eves brimmed over with tears. To think of looking as if she had toothache! “No, but I'm in great trouble,” she answered. “I'm sorry for that.” He looked as if he meant it. “Is there anything I can do? Do you know I had an impression when I came in that I'd 80 rounoTRir TICKETS GOOD 16 DAYS PECIAL TRAIN 1Lv. Washingten. . Ar. Wiagava Falle. 10100 ¥. M. stera: o > ‘e ing vallers. BT JUNE 18, trying to adjust her future to the pro- cession of useful virtues which filed through her mind. ‘When she reached the city, day had drawn to a close and a mournful twilight filled the strect as she de- scended from the car at the corner of her block. How dejected everything looked! How gloomy and de- pressed seemed the people who hur- ried past her on their way home from work! How sad the falling leaves! How ugly and harsh the houses ap- peared under the yellow-brown of the sky! Well, she had had her adven- ture, and she would have to spend the rest of her life paying for it, she sup- posed. Romance was over. Nothing remained to her now except school teaching or church work, until she grew as old and stringy as Aunt Ma tilda and Aunt Louisa. Then she won dered how she could ever explain to them. They would never, of course, as long as they lived, understand. Look- ing ahead as she passed, limping with ifatigue, down the street, she saw the future as a gray, deserted road strewn with dead leaves, and she saw herself, a small shrunken figure, toiling to the end of it. Yes, she had finished with romance forever. Then, suddenly, out of nothing, there flashed into her mind the image of the young man she had met on the train. Would she ever see him again, she wondered. How 1925. s a IC ( d | smooth and glossy his hair was! How ' didna have any acrobat: blue and sparkling his eyes! Why, he lived in this street, and she might pass him any morning on her way to teach gray the moment before, became faint- ly suffused with color. dust and the dingy houses, the inde. again. Yes, it was quite possible that There were withered leaves on the front porch. window. lesson. “Never again!" she went up the steps and entered | From the Kansas City Star an evening at a friend's house listen- strumentalists, a talk on blue bottles, opera, news and dance music—all for nothing."” chool. The world, which had been so | In this very treet, amid, the falling leaves and the tructible fllusion was springing up ny day she might meet him. Her home was reached at last A light shone in the Well, she had learned her It seemed to her now that ife had nothing more to teach her. she said softly, as he house. Copyright, 1925, by Crowell Publishing Co.) Can You Beat It? MacTavish had been invited to spend | ng to & wireless prosram. | At its conclusion the host said, | ‘Well, Mac, what could a Scotsman desire better than that? Singing, in. “Aye,” sald MacTavish, “but we SEE ANNOUNCEMENT TUESDAY'S AND SATURDAY'S STA Avoid hot weather ailments by sensible eating Learn to eat lighdy in summer aod you will save yourself many hours of stomach can assimilate it easily. The in is already ially predi i were at church or a funeral with the deeper realities, “I'm so sorry. I'm =0 v. I didn’t kno She longed desperately to escape, but she could not go, she could not even move while those eyes, which had seen evervthing, were fixed on her. The older woman opened the door. “Don't let it happen again, dear,” she =aid, “but, if it ever does, re- member the wife. It is worth while to remember the wife, because, when all is said and done, the last word s usually hers.” Then she smiled and turned away, while Sally Byrd ran out of the rtment and into_the elevator. ,wn the street she walked rapidly v from the building in the aimless, =d flight with which people run away from a burning house or an carthquake. Not until she was breath- Jess and ready to drop with fatigue did she pause long enough to look up and read the name Lexington avenue. Well, it did not make any difference. From the way she felt she would as soon be on Lexington avenue as any- Where else in the world. She was tired and stiff, and the bag was 8o |i heavy that she could scarcely carry it. Yet it had seemed very light when she ran with it down into the dining room at_home. must go straight back to the statlon,” she thought. *T must take the next train home.” For the first time, while she looked help- Jessly around in search of a policeman, it occurred to her that she had only $4 left of the money she had taken out of the ginger jar. Not enough even to buy @ ticket. Why $4 wouldn't take her much farther, she supposed, than somewhere in New Jersey. The practical difficulty eased the pain in her heart, after the way of practical difficnlties, and she began to worry less about her unhappy love and more about the problem of getting back to “If 1 could only sell my “I wonder it discomfort. You will look better and foel fresher. Yet sunmer food must be nourish- ing sad sustaining— and above all, That's why Borden's, the Improved Malted Milk, makes such s very satis- factory hot weather food. A glass of Borden’s has the nutritive value of a light meal Its high food value comes from the fact that it is richer in milk content than other kinds. Yet Bor- dea’s is so digestible that s delicace and it has no pauseating sweetness. Jes flavor is delicious. Make your lunch of Borden’s Miatred Milk. If the children get hungry between meals, give them Borden’s. If you want 2 snack at bedtime, Bor- den’s is cool and satisfying. Ideal for it with water and you have a nourish- ing drink to take the place of milk. 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