Evening Star Newspaper, June 7, 1937, Page 27

PRESENT TENSE By Glenn Reilly. HENRY PAT- TERSON trusted his wife, even when he re- alized that she was a sprightly, 25- year-old eye-filler, g while he himself wasn't any too far from that stage : where he would begin to get just a F bit thin around the edges. And | that says a lot for & any husband's character, Henry himself ¢ ‘was such a steady, honest sort of per- son that he nat- urally expeeted his % wife to be the same way, espe- cially after five years of unmar- red marital felic- 5 ity. He never $hiny sedan. found any proofs to the contrary, so | he didn't bother to think of a possi- | bility of Jane's being other than she seemed—a devoted and thoroughly competent woman and an excellent wife. In fact, it had more than once oc- curred to him, after hearing the tales | of some of the other suburbanite hus- bands about the connubial impasses they seemed to encounter periodically, that indeed he must be singularly fortunate in his choice of & help- mate. He could count on his fingers the times they had had more than | & few lukewarm words about any dis- putable subject. Even when he grumbled, as hus- | bands are prone to do every once in a while, about the long, slow trip to the city on the accommodation train in the morning and back home again in the evening. Jane said nothing. | Maybe it was because she was the one who wanted to live so far away | from the city. Anyway, she even | commiserated. RN * ¥ ¥ x T WAS nearly their fifth wedding anniversary when Jane began going | out every afternoon without men- | tioning the fact to Henry. Of course, | he was ordinarily uninterested in the way she put in her time away from | him. He supposed she followed the | ordinary routine of a suburban wife— housework in the mornings, and shop- | ping or bridge or a club meeting in the afternoon. And then one after-| noon he saw something that started bin. to thinking. | It so happened that he had inter- | viewed a prospect and finished when | it was too late to get back to the office by closing time. The earlier | train saved him 20 minutes, and as he turned into his street he stopped in surprise. Jane was being escorted | from a shiny sedan to the front door by a rather handsome young man. Henry watched while the stranger drove away smiling, and then went into the house unconcernedly. He said nothing, but began thinking. * X ok % JANE had made a happy marriage; " there was no doubt of that. True, Henry was 15 years older than she was, but it didn't matter. Having taken care of an aging father hadn't | left her much time to get used to! the company of younger people, and #0 when she met Henry at a church social after her father's death the disparity of their ages wasn't espe- cially noticed by her. Henry had proved to be an ideal husband for Jane, and she was glad. He had a fairly good job, wasn't quar- | “Jane was being escorted from a ,HE CARRIED out his plan to the acceded to her wishes and moved to the neat little house in the sub-| %" urbs, at his own inconvenience, Jane found that her afternoons were becoming in- creasingly difficult to keep occupied, since the neces- sary household du- | ties took little time. And so she | got herself a job working several hours daily at & near-by real estate office keeping their ‘books. .o . i HE didn't tell Henry. He, would feel injured, as though he was, not making enough money, and his wife had to work. Besides, she had planned to get him a present for their | fifth anniversary. She usually got home an hour or so | before she expected her husband and had dinner well on the way when he came in the door, so he would suspect nothing about her harmless decep- tion. Shé was home one afternoon when a salesman rang her doorbell. When he had stated his mission, she was about to close the door when she looked at him queerly and invited | him in. | The neighbors, of course, saw the | little tableau, and also saw the hand- some young *man drive up a little earlier the next afternoon and stay longer. And when for several days in a row the two of them were ob- served starting out in the morning in the young man's highly-polished au- tomobile and staying away for sev- eral hours, the tongues began to wag with a vengeance! LI HENRY failed utterly to note the looks of combined pity and won- | derment accorded to men who are being unwittingly deceived. Even his | familiar crowd on the train kept sed- ulously apart from any overt men- tion of the fact. And so Henry was | entirely unsuspecting until the eve- | ning when he chanced to return home | early . .. ! He worried and fretted about the | matter. Naturally he had been foolish | to think that a young, vital person like Jane found it easy to live with a mid- dle-aged husband like himself. He | was fair enough to admit the plausi- bility of her case, but still . . . it hurt! | He was in love with Jane and what- | | ever she did couldn't change that deep- rooted feeling. All he could do would be to offer her the best gift he had— her freedom. Mature reflection decided him upon his course. He had already bought her, as an anniyersary present, the emerald dinner ring she had long ago been fascinated by in a downtown Jeweler's window. He would return home on the afternoon of their anni- versary. The gift would give him an excuse. * ok ok % letter. Arriving home in mid- afternoon, he gave Jane her ring. He noticed that she was unnaturally ex- cited about something. And a half hour later the same young man he had observed that day stopped his car in front of the house and came jaunt- ily up the walk. Henry struggled to keep his hands from trembling as Jane flushed and | introduced them. “This is Mr. Hen- derson, Henry,” she said. “He has just relsome, and had no major faults| delivered your anniversary present. that she had been able to discover.| And I've learnedto drive so I can take Bhe early found that underneath his | you in to the city in the morning!” calmness there lurked an all abiding | Henry gulped down a big lump in his love and affection, and she was warm | in the knowledge. She demanded no | fervid displays of affection in her | Lusband. She knew, and that was enough for Jane. After nearly five years of this ideal existence, during which Henry had | throat and*felt suddenly foolish. “Thanks, Jane dear,” he managed to get out. He looked out the window at the shiny sedan, and hugged Jan “I guess we'll take a lot of drives to- | gether from now on!” | (Copyright. 1937.) | Czechs Try Door-to-Door. Government railways of Czechoslo- vakia will introduce the door-to-door | freight transportation plan. They have ordered containers of metal and wood which may be transported from shipper to addressee without loading and unloading at railway yards. If the plan is successful the service will | be enlarged. I HUSBAND TO BLAME? Margaret's friends pity her—think marriage has made her an awful drudge—a reg times they blame her husband. Actually, Margaret does no mere housework or dish- washing than many of her friends: [She could easily have hands as soft and white as theirs, if she used their gentle Lux. It Lux is very different from harmful alkali to irritate and dry the skin. That's why it leaves hands so soft and lovely. pure, rich Lux flakes do your dishpan work. They're faster—and so much kinder to the hands/ Let th PSYCHIC MESSAGE COUNCIL 1100 12th St. N.W. Cor. of 12th and L CIRCLES: 2 and 7 P.M. DAILY $1 Private Interviews from 11 a.m. GRACE GRAY DELONG—Reader Telephone: MELt. 5234 vlar “dishpen slave.” Some- costs less than If a day. many soaps. It contains no THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MONDAY, JUNE il 1937; phot® D\s" . Avoid Dissappointment! Order Yours Now! CASH'S WOVEN NAMES ~*All camps require that children's clothes be marked. “Cash’s names are clear and distinct. They will not wash off, and they’re reasonably priced. 12 doz. for $3.00 6 doz. for $2.00 3 doz. for $1.50 Notions—Kann's—Air-Cooled Street Floor. Room Size SUMMER RUCS Last Year’s Patterns —Heavy basket-weave fibre rugs with splashy, bright-colored designs stenciled on green, blue, brown and tan grounds. Every rug perfect and a value that will be hard to beat! Come early, the quan- tities are somewhat limited. $4.49 4xT ft., $3.49 3x6 ft., $1.99 27x54 in., $1.19 Kann's—Air-Cooled Third Floor. 6x9 ft. for Only ECRU LACE Table Cloths Regularly —Ideal covers for a Summer table . .. 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