South Bend News-Times, Volume 36, Number 123, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 3 May 1919 — Page 4

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SS NN I V IT s not to be infe Iiimilton Burke, Jinmy ty those i to be inferred that James letter known a? who were admitted into the affectionate, wholly diresretful intimacy denoted bv the diminutive, wis a battered old worldlin? with a purple complexion, round reKions below the waist, and flashy apparel. Not at all. Jimmy Burke was thrr" years hot of thirtv and was lender of wain and hip äs John of Bf.h.ena's .Morcun-. while tlie clrar palIjr of his kin gave no hint of the num ber of highhalls iind cocktails he was wont to consume in the course of twenty-four fiours. lie was an individual, not a tailor's model, and wore his clothes with a w xll-roomcd carele ssness not to be acquired by all. But Jimmy had been "a lobster palace kid' before the exprescive slang was coined, and had crowded enough rapid living into the lat ten years to give him as liberal an education as is possible. Chorus girls, artists' models, gay society dames, he had, as he expressed it, "gone through the whole outfit." and with a whimsicality not wholly unexpected to those who knew Jimmy best, suddenly, at sight, to ihr his own expression arain. hau fallen" for little Cicily Day in all the unsophistication of her nineteen years and her hrt visit to New York. Though too clever a woman to openly voice her satisfaction, Mrs. Burke took to herself all the credit of the match. For had she not discovered Cicily, the daughter of an old school friend, in her flying visit to a staid little Connecticut town the summer before? And had she not insisted that Cicily must come to her that winter for a taste of New York? She had watched the girl's blue eyes grow almost tearful and her checks turn to rose as she discoursed to her upon the wonders in store the theaters, dances, and gay dinner, and had nodded amusedly when Cicily supplemented: "And music and pictures! Dear Mrs. Burke, shall I really hear Caruso and see Basticn Le Page's 'Jeanne D'Arc'r" "Yes, indeed, you quaint little BlueStocking 1" Genuine liking for her pretty iirotre mingled with Mrs. Burke's amusement, hveryone goes to the opera,

of course, and, though I hud the Metro- Tfie easiest reply for Jimmy to make politan terribly tiresome, certainly you was to raise his head and bestow upon shall go there, too if there's where you her one of those kisses. mean. And then in compliance with an Cicily had beei-. imported at the eternal demand of Cicily's that in all psychic moment Two years ago her the things of which he had knowledge he presence in the family circle would should be the teacher, he took her one have been a distinct bore to Jimmy, who night to a little downtown restaurant, for would probably have spent most of his dinner. For Cicily had discovered that time in other haunts, for two years ago Jimmy knew what she designated as Boll; had been at the height of his infatua- hernia, and had insisted that he stralgiittion for Merry Nickcrsun, a perplexing, way make with her a pilgrimage thcrcimpctuous studio favorite, who loved to. him for a novel quality she had discov- Cicily's idea of Bohemia was vague, ercd under his hghtne, and innate dc- and had become vaguer since she had

cency answering to something in herself which had cried out for underStanding from other men, and in vain. But now the learnings of gossip which had furnished much of Mrs. Burke's knowledge of her son's doings, together with marked changes in his goings and coming-., indicated, beyond a doubt, that he was in one of the transitional periods between two atfairs, and why shouldn't

;o along had qualified for the reverse of a mollycoddle with complete success, and she was conscious of an ardent wish that he would content himself with the laurels he had won and retire from the game. It Cicily Day had been the inmate of any home save the Burke's it is probable she would have heard stories concerning the son of her hostess which would have shocked her so completely that she would have tied his attentions as she would a pestilence. But, is it was, she immediately invested him with I r. ;. - A 'I T, '.'uk .... v i.u

Ins next venture bo along legitimate elusion that the real Bohemian was a lines. ' person less ocupied with the outward. For months Mrs. Burke had entertain- visible signs she encountered everywhere ed a secret thought that it was time than he is with the inward fundamentals Jimmy rcfoxmcd. Not that she had ever of independence of thought and action, been "strong on reformation. She dc- After the flash of her dazzlcmcnt had spUcd a molly-coddle and would have subsided, Cicily began to comprehend been ashamed of a son of the Sir Gala- that these women were free-and-easy had or Sir Percival type. But even to bccaue it was fashionable to be freeone of lu r liberal views, Jimmy's career and-easy. Their astonishing costumes of late had been a tritlc terrifying. He were astonishing because fashion de

na nein wji -ieiK iuc oiu-iasn- sct tor them the two reserving cnairs ioned lines where ideals arc fostered, which leaned against the table, he fiatand from whom the murky truths that trrrd himself that he had chosen the

under he the s.ci.d structure are carefully concealed. Had she been less genuinely innocent, the conversation of Mis. Burke's gay circle of friends would have done much to enlighten her concerning "things as hey arc." She listened to their laughing allusions and watched their andeasv intercourse with a somewhat lewildered admiration cf their cleverness, mixed with an equally bewildered sense of uneasiness. An ingrained quality of gamcness made it possible for her to conceal her incredulous dismay at beholding women, cu::g and old. drinking cocictaiis, mokmg cigarettes ana playing cards for money, lut, while Mrs. Burke's carelessly good-natured set received Cicily v. itii the superficial cordiality of their kind, quite unknown to them, and equally immaterial had known, Cicilv was receiving them they with reservations. There was r.cthir.g killJoV III he attitude and her wonder at the world It.H.t WKhm her Clear eyes ics. w r.en one is uwng a niirauf, ail lessr rhmomcna c.ase to be disturbing. To Jimmy, a love-affair could hardly contain i!.e elements which go to make up the miraculous, t he found thc ens whh-h la e was embarked replete with atiens 1 emotions which surprised htm c tn to the point of wishing he rai t" 11 a I :t oiflerent in tin rast. io libi ycurse.l h ,Ked bp tas a being

5v 4 ccm?.inin? the wisdom of a god with the saucy charm of a Beau Krümmel was i . . loucinn2 wiien it wan t embarrassing. j ,cll.v i. there was nothing worth knowing tnat Jimmy Burke did not know, nothing worth doinp: that Jimni3 Burke had not -done. He was to ",cr t!lf epitome of all the wonder of York. Jut as its buildings rcachInt? lJl( clouds thrilled her as did mr'ntains, only more warmly, pcronallv ''cauec those skvard soaring hivrs teemed with men and women working and lovin;; just as its spanning bridges with their rumbling of freight and their views of the hurry and chug and whistle of the craft on the proocllcr-cut wa7 I'Clow "ilea her w ith a choking sense of the misrhtv noetrv of commerce, so did she, from Jimmy Burke's deceptively guileless lace and self-possessed New York manner, build a romance in which hc played the proud part of the only love of a gay Prince Charming. "I can't see how it came to happen that you. who know so many eirls. should care for iust little me!' 'flic adoring humilitv in her face went jccp rfown into jimmy$ heart and touched that sense ot decency which all his experiences had not killed. He was perched on the arm of her chair and, with a boyish gesture, he bent and hid his face on her shoulder. "It's because you arc just 'Little You'." It was easier to whisper to her with his face hidden. "But you know lots of girls, don't you ?" "Some bunch, I should say!" "And you've never cared for any of them?" A slight pause, and then he whispered assurance, the conviction ot everyone in love, "No, not really cared, you know. I may have thought I did. You're the only girl I ever wanted to marry." Cicily put her arms around his neck and held him tightly. She gave a little sigh. "I'm glad. 1 want to feel that 1 am the first, the very first girl you ever kissed the way you kiss me just as you to me arc the first man, the very first. If I didn't think that, it would spoil rvrrvthimr " made acquaintance with Mrs. Burke's set. She had imagined that Bohemia was a state of being wherein women smoked and drank and were informal of manner, but all these things prevailed among the people with whom she rami in contact daily. Assuredly, .Mr. Burke's fashionable friends did not constitute Bohemia. Groping in her mind for the reason. Cicily came to the concreed that astonishment should reign. She was very near grasping the truth that these women were as conventional in their unconvcntionalitv as her mothcr 's friends were in their old-fashioned circumspection, Jimmy Burke had been a little hesitant in his acquiescence to take her for a giimpse of the real,, thing, the reason of which was that, in any of these haunts, it, was highly probable he might be confronted with some of his whilom intimates. AS ne escor ea ncr to ineir piac- in ijjC paucry anu nie tiae luiii.iii auei rendezvous with discretion. Even at this early hour, the !it:!c restaurant was well filled. What few places were left were reserved and waiting, and the chatter of conversation mingled with the clatter of dishes from the kitchen in f ror.t ; the smoke of tobacco permeated the spicy odor of Italian cooking. While the little waiter sei for them the ante pasta of anchovies and dressed crcumbers and asked if they would have white wmc or red, Licily was pulling off her eager eyes, striving vainly to f.nd the typo she had come hither to discover, Then she turned to Jimmy. "But I .!.,..' I I.. -.t - t . oou 1 sec ui) iKjuy ,vno 100KS the least sounded "Onlv the bit Bohemian!" Her voice a distinct disappointment. are smoking and the

women don't even look New Yorky! wnilcd mechanically in response to MerLook at that one down there with the ry Nickcrson's mocking bow. Thc face red bow on her hat and the black hirt- V. Mrr.rd ta Cicily lor once was flushed.

Waist. That's illSt the kind nf tH?rc re local dressmaker and milliner at home produces. And thc two men with her! Thc cue with the mop of black and winte nair it reaily is just striped, isn't it, Jimmy? looks clever, but the other one looks exactly like a nice pink rig. 1 .:ey seem to be having a good time, though." Jimmy laughed. Die woman is Jane Marks, bile s just written a nlav that's going to be put on next month. She's

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worked all her life getting out bits of drivel for the woman's sheet of the paI'rs hated it. tool But now she sure arriving, lhc thin man is Kay .Nash, thc cartoonist, and the little fat one is tor ot a socialist newspaper, There's one thing you're dead right about, Kid, they arc having a good time,

1 he crowd here is what I call the real irarnca in tne smooth, straight banos ot thing. They're poor, and they come be- her black hair under thc small leopardcause they've discovered you can get a kin hat with its flashing jet buckle and square meal with wine "for sixty-five its dusky Paradise plume spoke to the cents. But they do their own thinking, g-rl of infinite alurcmcntv, of illimitable

and don't care a hang whether anyone agrees witn tnem or not. ilieyve got hrains t d j lh ; belfries instead of bats "To do vour own thinking!" Cicily's adoring gaze was fastened upon Jimmy's face. "I like that." Then, as her eyes traveled across the room to the oppo site gallery, a sudden animation brightened her. She leaned toward Jimmy and touched his arm. "Look! Back of you on the other side. That's thc kind I meant. Not now, though. She's looking at us. Wait until she begins to talk with the man 4(,4m. vii, jii.imj, 3 luuij. .sUe nas on the most wonderful hat, and she's going to smoke a cigarette. I wonder Nrhy she stares so. I think she must Cold chills begnn to run down Tim my's irreproachaUe back. Something balcfully hypnotic in thc air made him tum in spite ot naiv s warning, ana fond himself confronted bv the nair 0f eves which of all feminine orbs he wa most anxiotts to avoid. Then he Cl 'trri' cVi dnc tms.i t ' Tf ?he beautiful? No, not that perhaps hnt something, something better and difterent and oueer! I don't know what you'd call it, but, anyway, it s what I meant." Gcily's cmestiorung blue eyes fed themselves in a rapturous consummation uron Woman opposite. Though it was her shoulder?, her arms, and the rxrmisitelv delicate curve of her bin; that caused artists to rave, it was her

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tu n acc that enthralled Cicilly. The wi n inclr weary shadows, the lull with their hint ot dark down, the small, straight nose and firm, square chin, all mysteries. She turned to Jimmy almost mpanentiy. Why don t you tell mc who she is." Thc unusual grimncss upon Jimmy's cJiarrair.g face was not lost upon Cicily. Her name is Merry Ntckerson. She's an artist s model. To anv girl brought up in Jimmy's set the explanation would have opened yistas of impossibilities, but Cicily's ideas were built upon a foundation of things as thc poets saw them. To lend a beauty like that to the making of picturcs, was it not like being a glorious handmaiden to the consecrated high iic'u ui .v. ...... .. . broueht out bv thc grimncss of Jimmy's

face a puzzled groping to understand Jimmy, released from immediate danits significance. gcr. became hilarious, but

"Do you know her well? That Cicilv should know how well was the fear that was shrivelling Jimmy, but he had regained something of his aenonair mamcrencc. em. fairlv well. "Well enough to introduce me to her? I'd so love to meet a woman like that!" The grimncss was returning to Jimh.y's face. "No, I don't know her well enough for that." There was a definite n-1itv in t.ic J rfitv "Then I suppose I'll h ave to content mvsclf with looking at her. How glad I am I haven't vour seat!" Half way through the chicken and salad Cicily interrupted Jimmy in thc middle of one of his gaet stories. "I know she thinks I'm horriblv rude to stare like this, but reaily, Jimmy, she's staring quite as much at me. Oh, denr' he'e rr tin c im to ro now Thcv are coming around this side of the gal-

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lcry. She'll have to pass rieht by my chair!" He watched her threading among and then to turn her laughing face over her shoulder to her escort, who plodded heavily behind her laden with h?r furs. Only two tables now between her and Cialy s chair. Graceful, romance cxhaling, steeped in effrontery, she rested one ungloved hand on thc "back of Cicilv's chair ar.d offered the other across the table to Jimmy. "Congratulations, Jimmv, dear," he said lightly as he took hi r hand. Tor closed. ..ivtl ievci son, i;ic incident was fallen upon Cicily's radiance. II , - -- 1 ne t took t t Shrewdness of observation th; thc rlacc of worldlv wisdom 1:1 her thoughtful brain found itself transfixed upon thc disturbing knowledge thit Jimmy, her Jimmy, the acme of even-thing desirable, had told a lie. And the mcmory of a finger that trembled as it touched her, of something starved and hopeless in thc enchanting es, was flooding her with an illumination that hurt and blinded like the flashing of sun upon a mirror. The quaint surroundings and chattering diners' ceaed to intercst her. Th? queer Italian dishe lost their flavor. But it was not until they were being rushed along the caylylighted streets that she put her doubts into words. 'What made von tell that vou hardlv knew her? She called ou 'limrv H. -.r ' AAJimmy was grateful for the darkness.

the little tables, storni-.tr now sZi&r ., -,S,

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thins; at:t Ciciliv' iiircctnrs tli.it he always four.il diffiv-i:H to rr.cct. tried to take her hands, but she onlv clasped them to gether more tightly in her big chinchilla mutt. It was not tor Jimmy to know how they wanted to fly into his. "It was all a bluff. I thought that was the easiest way to prevent you meeting her." Jimmy, cattcht in a trap, had resolved to be honest. "But if she isn't thc kind of woman I ought to know, why was she your "riend ?" Here was Jimmy confronted with the eternal i'logic of the double standard. He had no answer ready save the old assertion: "Men arc different, you know, dear." "I don't see why." Jimmy quirm-.-d'. Women, the kind men married, never understood. He chanced upon excuses. "A man brought up in little old New York is none the worse for going the pace a hit. After all, Merry's a pretty good sort." Something in his easy Mimming up of the dark woman's character aroused in ( icily that sex antagonism which runs beneath the rivalry ot women and points them at times in a passionate partisanship. "A pretty good sort! She's, perfectly lovely. And I do think the worse of you l can t help it. but it wit so much because yon got mixed up with her, as you call it, it's because you broke away. For h. Jimmy, Jimmy, something that I sav ri allv Th. in her eyes made me sure she loves you still." M rry Nickerson cared for him as much, he as-naged a certain uneasy sense ot unfairness by maintainira, "as, a woman like that could'' was not news to Jimmy. If Cicily could be made to understand in seme gentle way suited to her youth and innocrnre thc real facts of the case she would cease to take it so seriously. Thc hands inside the warmly sheltering mutT were hurting each other. "And I suppose you think you understand me ?' Thc childish dignity of the question touched something half langhing, half tearful in Timmy. "N'o." he aid geutlv "I don't know that I thc purest thing that do. You're about ever breathed. I can t unoerstariu, but I can see the difference." "And you can't see that the only real difTercnrc between her and me is" (sh hesitated a moment) "the longing to live'"

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Jimmy's arms went round hr with a suJth-n wish to protect her ag.i:nt something, against kn.-w!ed?e. aga:nt life, against oh, mt of all against bimelf, that baser, tmworthv srif that

lived within him ani had niled. "Oh. dear!" His voice sn.v.dcd a tb.oiTgh b.e were going to cry. "You dn't know what vou're saying You mu-n't talk like that !" "Why mus-'t I? Isn't it tri!"?" Shpushed l.ersrlf from Iiis embrace. "And that ii what makes it ro dreadful. I thought I belonged to you Veaue I wa the first, the very firt. and nw " Thunfinished sentence hrd hopeless drptr.s of disillusion. Jimmy did not strive to draw her nearer him again. He leaned forward m his place and looked rut upon the flash and darzlc of Nw York with an awakening vision. "Oh, my dear girl, he said sadly, "don't you know that not one man in a th"Uar.d rr.nrrirs the first?" The girl's white face looked pinched and old. 'Then it's true all the thirds you read in the paycr nil the things you sCc at the theater, all th? th:r., the very worst thine that people talk about? Of course I knew that some men arc unspeakable. Mabe I tock it for granted that mo-t men are. Hut what difference did it make to me, even if what vou say is true, that all but one in a thousand are, when I thought that yen were that one?" The ihing which had lain dormant in Jimmy stirred at the heartbreak of her cry, an untried, title! elf of which a few weeks ago he would have been adiamed, the better self which had been born in him as in us all. thc self which had gor.c out to Cicily's young purity with a love that was honest. "I wish to C.ol I had been! But I'll prove to you, no matter what I've been, it hasn't really hurt me. There arc two kinds of men one who goes the pace beforehand and cuts it out when he marries, and the other kind that goes the pace and marries and keeps it up. When you marry me you'll find that I'm not in that class anyway." The girl shook her head. "No, I shall not find it out not in that way, Jimmy." With all thc whiz and snort and disturbance common to its class, the taxi had come to a standstill at their curb and Cicily, not waiting for Jimmy's help, got out and ran betöre him up the steps. As they ascended in thc elevator her lace was turned from him, but when they stood alone in thc hallway of his mother's apartment she could not prevent his crushing her in Iiis arms The face above hers did not look like Jim-, nn's. All thc careless gaiety had left it. It was white and tense. And thc voice na not Jimmy's cither. It was hoarse and stammering. "You don't mean that you're going X' break with inc.' That you won't marry "l couldn't now. Kmthing spoiled. I'd always think that you icI'y belonged to someone cbc. I'd knuv.' I wasn't the nrt!M With a fierce satisfaction that she had made him suffer, she pulhd lursvlt fioi.i his relaxed arms and turned the handle of her door. Standing before the mirror upon her dainty dressing-table, she bean to take otf her things. 1-irt thc wide hat which Jimmy had iaughrd at but had said he loved, then the lurs ho had given her a an engagement present, then thc little tailored coat. Tomoriow she would go home. She would take the earliest tram. She would never -cc Jimmy Burke again. Let him go back to his old friends. Let him f;o back to that darkhaired, enchanting woman whu loved him. He would soon forget little Cicily Day for v. horn he had prt tended to care. It was better as it was. She could never hae taken her place in the NewYork pageant, its brilliant crowds, its duily soaring buiijings, had never lost for her the glamour ot thv unreal. She had moved m it for a season, but r.t of it. ,. All her inherited instincts, her old-fashioned training, set her apart from it. Serious, wistful-eyed, she was only a spectator who was beginning to understand but who could never play the game. It was better as it was. Jimmy did not belong to her. She turned toward the closet and began to take down her simple dresses, from thc hook. Half way in thc folding of a little pink evening frock she stopped, the memory of tin; white face that was not Jimmy's of that hoarse, stammering voice that was not his filling her with an unwilling pity. What was he doing now? She had net heard him pass her door. Yielding to the impulse, she went out into thc hall. The servants, were gor.c for thc evening. Mrs. Burke was keeping a theater engagement, to be followed later by a supper party. What was that slnrp, smothered sound that came from trie library? Her breath caught in her throat. Ihd men cry hke that? Hurrying down t! :c hall she stood bctween the portieres and looked in. S:tting at thc tao.e, bis lieu'l con up ,n hi-, arms his shoulders bent, sat Jimmy. And from that huddled, b':!i shape came those choking, racking soundsa sound unknown m ail Cicily's experience, a man's uncontrollable sobbing. With a cry, thc indescribable cry of the mother who-c sorrow for her chili's grief is quenched by the certainty of h-r i.urr to comfort. LiciiV kr.eit ov ins M sw'e ;n n :.red her I.iCC CiOC I J In Pbowed head. "Oil, poor boy. p-or bv-y ihe v hispered. "How imr-t iY.11 VI.,could I know it would it? I don't care who you belong to I don't care whether I'm first or not. You're mine, mine, mine!' One of Jimmy's arms went round htr and held her closely. She felt bow hi heart pound'. d and bapt. She felt the tears upon the click he pressed tr hers. For long minutes they clung together silent, while bttween them was l-orn an inincib!c tlung. thc love founded, net upon illusion, but upon a knowledge cf the truth. Then limmy spoke and hn 01ce "vibrated with a r.cw-found manhood. "I won't let it be spoiled, dear I swear it!"

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