Page:To-morrow Morning (1927).pdf/203

 She rolled over, pushing her hair up from her forehead with shaking hands. She who had always been so honest, she who had always felt such scorn for poking and prying

Oh, the comfort if she could ask him to forgive her as he had once confessed and asked to be forgiven when he was little.

"I'm trying—to earn enough for us and for mother too. I know you understand about her"

Oh, Joe, how could you, how could you, to a stranger?

"—the torture of another summer like this empty one"

The summer that had been bliss to her and torture to her child.

Well, summer is over. The leaves of the trees are brighter than ever before—but bright with vermilion and yellow; they fall

She heard the doorbell ringing. Joe had forgotten his key again. She ran into the bathroom and washed her eyes with cold water, tipped some of his talcum powder into her hand and dipped in her nose, turning it into a mulberry. Then down to the door. And there was J. Hartley Harrison. She simply couldn't say anything, but Hartley could.

"Good evening, Mrs. Green! How's the lady? May I come in for a little visit with you? . . . Thanks. I don't want to get snow on that very pretty chintz of yours. Funny, Aunt Martha Ellsworth, dad's