my own for it?
house from attic to cellar.
except that I suspect the Lord has a use
ven for Jealousy."
"Jealous, is he? He that's had my soul
and body for fifteen years! Not a sliver
of flesh nor a scrap of soul did I hold back.
I've saved for him and slaved for him, and
now It's over. What has he ever done for
me but take what 1 gave?"
Maxsee was silent.
"It's true he built me my house, and
he built it as I wanted it, down to the last
naiL I gTant him that. Does he aim to
rtake my house away?"
'r- "Jjb It In your name, Sarah V
"Why should it be, when I liked his
name so much the best that I rave away
But he knows it's my
I'U not be
leaving: that house."
"It's community property," mused
Judge Maxsee. "There should be a divi
sion, of course. Tom won't be mean. But
If he chooses to keep the house and give
you its equivalent in money I don't know
but you'll have to put up with that, Sarah.
It's usually done that way."
The woman rose. She seemed to tower
above him. Her color had paled a little,
and she put j back her disheveled hair,
squaring her strong shoulders.
"I'm going home to get my supper," she
said. "Divorce is what one makes of it.
What's It got to do with folks that's been
bone of each other's bone for fifteen years?
Give me-back my girlhood, Judge, and give
me back my mother. Give me the pink
cheeks and bright eyes, and the heart that
Jumped about in me at 17 and you may
have Tom Diljey! You may even have my
house. But you sha'n't have 'em unless
you give me back the price I paid!"
"Marriage is what one makes of it,
Sarah, but divorce is divorce."
"We'll see about that. Judge," she said.
"But as for me, I know there ain't any
such a thing T'
With that! Sarah Dilley drew on her
gloves, smoothed her copper-colored hair
again, and turned to leave the lawyer's
office. She no longer looked an avenging
fury, only a jvery tired and very resolute
woman.
' Judge Maxsee held up an arresting
hand.
; "Sarah, ope minute! Tom may think
won a faithless wife; I don't. But I want
ko ask you this why, in the name of all
that's' holy, i did you let Joe Darner fool
uround youTT'
She eyed him up and down with a
glance that all his knowledge of human
nature did not help him read.
"There's jno answer for that question
due to the lawyer who railroaded me into
a divorce," she said. "I might tell, an old
friend, but lj haven't the time tonight I'd
'surely tell Tom Dilley, if he ever asked me
but he didn't!"
:.X r
I III.
ONE morning six weeks later, as Max
. see entered his offices, a tall, lean
man with a Southern drawl lifted himself
nip slowly from the most comfortable chair
and offered! his hand.
"Ho wdyj. Judge ?"
,:"How are you, Tom?"
'"Well, I; have been better. I'm power
ful glad ypu ain't out o' town. I come
early so's to make certain of you. Thinks
I, Til just set till he gets here, for I've
sure got to counsel with him."
"Come lfito this room, Tom, and tell me
all about i."
. Tom Dilley followed awkwardly to the
inner office and sat down by the big desk.
He leaned his elbows upon it, rubbing his
soft- hair: reflectively, while Maxsee
pondered, 'not for the first time, on the
difference between this good-looking rath
er weak, yet. definitely obstinate face and
Sarah Dilley's intense, clear-cut visage.
Just such icontrasts, he had noticed, often
make for marital happiness that unstable
chemical compound for whose mixing we
have no dependable formula.
; "Poor Sarah I" thought Judge Maxsee,
and braced himself a little apprehensively
THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, MAY 14, 1916.
the way to become a laughln'-Btock for know I did build XhaJL bouse for Sarah;
'em. I don't like that; so I thought I'd and when it comes to dividing the property
best drop In and get counsel, Mebbe you I always meant to let her have It an' go
can make her hear to reason. I declare to live with my sister. But, of course, I ain't
goodness I can't!" going to be drove out of it this way. It
"Something about Sarah, is it? I've ain't dignified. Judge, what in thunder
been thinking you'd be in to see me about shall I do to get her out? You know
dividing the property." Sarah. I put it up to you."
Tom Dilley grinned shamefacedly. Maxsee reflected,
f "Tom!"
"Judge fact is, Sarah won't go away!" "Yes, judge?"
"What? What's that?"
"She clum into the wagon with me that
night we got our divorce and drove home an she won't!"
If I were you I'd let her stay."
But, judge why, she'd ought to go,
with me, same as usual. I couldn't throw
her out, could I? 'Twould 'a been 'sault
and battery or somethin'. She knew I
couldn't throw her out. Fact is, I don't any harm
"Isn't doing any harm there, is she?"
"No."
"Well, let her stay, if she isn't doing
anow as me aog an- tne nosses would 'a
stood for it. So everybody saw us joggin
home along Sinjun road, side by side, same
as if we were comin' from Sunday school.
Well, how could I help it? What's a man
"Judge, you're the lawyer; but Where's
the sense in that?"
"Tom, this is a difficult situation to
handle. As you say, it isn't regular. If
you trust your counsel at all, you must
to do, when a divorced woman ain't got trust him completely. My advice for the
no more decency than that? We had no
talk together on the way home. I did say
once, 'Sarah, this ain't usin' me right,' but
she didn't make no kind of answer.
'Twa'n't dignified for me to say no more;
so I didn't.
"Come along home, she got out and
went upstairs. She moved all her things
present is just this you let her stay!'
Tom Dilley picked himself up slowly
and held out his hand to Maxsee, who
wrung it hard.
"I always have took your counsel, judge.
I won't stop now, even if it don't make
sense."
"One thing more, Tom. Did you ever
o " ------ o ----' -" V J VU CI
into the spare room at the head of the ask Sarah why she didn't send Joe Damer
rrom siairs. ine room her n me always about his business when he began to hang
had was where the back stairs come up. around?"
"Shucks, no! Why should I
ask a
that?
an' I always used that pair anyhow, so
that left her the front stairs. Well, she woman a fool question like
went and hunted up a piece of chalk she'd Twouldn't be dignified."
kep with little Tom's blackboard ever "Tom, you take my advice about this
since he died, an' she drew a line across one thing more. Go home and put that
the kitchen floor, to divide it up between
us She took the oil stove and left me the
range. She took the screen porch an the
meat-safe an' laundry-trays, and moved
question to Sarah as fast as the lxrd will
let you!"
4
IV.
the refrigerator on the other porch, for npOM DILLEY spent the day doing ra
ni. I will say I think she eive mn th I
best of it. Hanged if she didn't get the one thing, he looked at a vacuum cleaner,
plumber next day an' fix up another sink If there was any easy way to keep a house
ior iierseu, cuio as you pieasei Oh, she dusted, he needed to know it. Hang the
divided it up fair an' right! On her side
she chalked up in big letters, 'A Place of
Peace. What do you think about that?
Of course, she keeps her half spick an'
span. Mine gets piggy dirty. She's plump-
ex pen se!
Late in the afternoon he started home
by trolley. It took him an hour to get
there in the crowded, slow-moving cars,
and he spent the time mulling over Judge
in up, too, since she ain't so much work Maxsee's advice. To Tom t m fi
to do. I ain't dared have a woman come ish counsel, but obviously there is no use
in to clean up for me, because I can't have, paying for high-class - legal talent unless
the whole neighborhood talkin' about that you mean to be guided by It
'Place of Peace.' Judge, I don't call it He walked from the end of the car line
livin!" to the house with heavy feet. There was
"This is rather a serious matter, Tom. still supper to get when he reached home.
Have you talked to Sarah about it?" Bread and milk would do, yet that was
"Sure! I remonstrated with her a good cold comfort for a man who had been
deal at first. Said I, 'Sarah, this ain't no tramping the city all day. He frowned
way to treat a husband.' It was only when impatiently.
she lifted her eyebrows and stared, like, There were two west windows In the
that I -remembered I wasn't no husband o' big kitchen. Tom's window lighted a scene
hers any more. So I says, 'Sarah, this of unwashed breakfast dishes, broken egg-
ain't no way to treat a man;' and by gum, shells, crumbs, and dust. By Sarah's win-
If she didn't raise them eyebrows an' bug dow stood a small, white-spread table, Im-
out her eyes, Inquirin'Hke, just the same, maculate and inviting. There was a dish
It made me hot all over. 'Woman,' says of grated maple sugar on the table, and
I, 'this is my house! You get out of it! cne of broken butternut meats. Tom en-
And, judge, if you'll believe me, she Just viously recognized these as symptoms of
shrugged her shoulders an' patted the cop- one of Sarah's delectable suppers 'of hot
per boiler like it was a kitten she was pet- cakes.
ting. Yes, I remonstrated with her.
don't see what more a man could say."
Maxsee sternly repressed a curly feel
ing at the corners of his mouth.
"Well, well," he said somewhat Inade-
The griddle was already smoking.
Sarah, in a fresh, brown gingham and a
cover-all white apron, was moving leisure
ly about her kingdom. Tom stood in the
middle of his half-kitchen, looking about
quately; "so that is Sarah's idea of a di- There was not even hot water to boil the
vorce?"
'I've been eating canned things mostly
inevitable egg!
There swept across him again a wave
for Tom's
"Well,
recitals
judge, Hain't . very much and
then again 'tis. The thing Is Hain't reg
ular. An jit puts me in a bad light with
my neighbors. You might say I was in
o T3 cjjv uusa mm again a wave
and eggs. I've eat so many eggs I can't of the insane anger that had flooded him
mo, a nen in me lace, une day 1 come in when he saw Joe Damer steal that kiss,
and there was a fresh lemon pie, all me- Well, she had made the rent in their lives
ringued up, sittin on my sink shelf, she. not he! He hoped she had suffered
Judge, mebbe it was compoundin' a fel- for it. He had meant her to, and his
ony, or the like of that, but I eat that pie wrath and his obstinacy had their way.
In about two bites. And I ain't really He and Sarah were now two, who had
regretted doing it either. Do you reckon been one.
there's anything in that to to disrupt that Yet now that his blood had cooled, he
divorce?" could wonder about that kiss. When you
"Oh, no, Tom! You needn't worry came to think of it a common intrigue
about the pie. But this letting Sarah stay under her own roof was not' like Sarah. It
under your roof that's another matter." was as little like her as slime is like flame.
"But judge, she allows Tm staying un- Sarah was not an angel, but she did things
der her'n. She ain't said so In words, be- In the open.
cause she won't speak to me, but I can see He looked across at herr-a clean, at
It stickin out all over her. Evenings shell tractive figure as she stepped easily about
sit and sing, and recite pieces to herself He rubbed his eyes and looked at her
Home, Sweet Home,' and such like. You again.
In a flash, he did not know how, he
seemed to see clearly, to see with his own
eyes again, for the first time since that
black hour. The coil of anger, disgust and
hate fell from off him as though a hand
had unlocked his chains. Sarah couldn't
have been faithless, contemptible! Sarah
was Sarah, just as bread is bread or iron
is iron. Unseemly things had no part in
her.
Ah, more than that was true of Sarah!
Had her diligence ever failed him through
their long, hard years? Or her high spir
its? Or that tart, piquant flavor she Im
parted to all their level days? She had
been forever fresh, forever wonderful to
him. The Irish dearness of her! The ways
she had!
Tom trembled suddenly, shaken with a
great sense of the unspeakable sweetness
of that house of life which he had fulled
down about their heads. He looked down
at his quivering hand. He saw that it was
the hand of a foci who had pushrd away
from himself the one perfect thing that he
had owned. He opened his lips, but words
would not come.
Sarah, sel repossessed and unobservlng,
had just transferred three especially de
lectable, fluffy pancakes, delicately brown,
with crisp, lacy edges, from the griddle to
her plate. She sprinkled them with maple
sugar and sat down to eat. Tom, abrupt
ly approaching, saw them and veered
away.
"It would be a mean thing to put any
leadin' questions till she's eat them
cakes," said Tom to himself.
He went to his west window and stood
there, ignoring his own hunger. It was
perhaps the first time he had ever consid
ered her probable pleasure in a small mat
ter. When Sarah rose to go back to the stove
he turned and faced her. Something that
she had never seen there before was strug
gling In his face.
"Sarah, see here! There's a thing I've
got to ask you."
She halted and turned her head slight
ly toward her shoulder, presenting an im
patient profile, a disdainful ear.
It's Just this why in time did you let
htm kiss you?"
She turned full on him then with sud
denly blazing eyes.
"You never asked me that before!" she
cried. "Not a word did you say, Tom Dil
ley! If you'd asked me then, I'd have teld
you it was you that drove me to it. For I
thought of it day and night and I was
sure then that that was the truth. But
now I don't know whether it's true or
not!"
drove " he stammered. "Sarah,
are you crazy?"
"Not mef But I'm a woman. Why
can't & man see into a woman's mind? Is
it any use to be telling you?"
He stared at her open-mouthed.
"If you talk sense," he ventured.
"Sense! Sense! Who knows what's
sense and what isn't? Tom Dilley, this is
the way of it. When two have been wed
as long as you and me, life had pot to bo
lived just heart to heart; or. else there
comes an awful gap, and such deep, sore
places that there's no healing them. You
and me, we'd work all day, and ccme eve
ning we were tired. We'd drowse here in
our chairs, and then go up to bed, some
times without a word to each other from
before supper till next morning. We for
got to tell what we were thinking. We
forgot to keep close. And that's when life
gets, too dull forf a woman, Tom! You
never kissed me! You never said, 'Sarah
DiUsy, you're the smartest woman this
side the river, and worth your weight in
gold: I tell you, Tom Dilley, a man must
be paying a woman the wages that she
works for. Praise and petting is more to
her than oats to a horse. Young things
encourage one another with their kissing
to go on living and enduring; but you
you'd stopped giving me encouragement!
"Was all this mis'ry Just along of a
frame of mind?" demanded Tom, quite
stupefied; but Sarah swept on with ber
story, unheeding.
"It got so I couldn't stand the grayness
that was over the world. Blue skies waa