California -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Sisters -- Fiction; Women -- Fiction
"Sure! She was married six years before I ever saw her. Uncle Chess
says he heard it, and then forgot it, you know the way you do? I've
been to Portland and Uncle Chess was bully. His old lawyer, whom he
consulted at the time I left there, was dead, but we dug up the license
bureau and found what we were after. She had been married all right and
her husband's still living. We found him in the Home for Incurables up
there; been there fifteen years. I got a copy of her marriage license
from the Registrar and if Mrs. Golda White Ferguson ever turns up again
we'll see who does the talking about bigamy! The she-devil! And I told
you about meeting Dawson?"
"Oh, God, I thank Thee--I thank Thee!" Martie was breathing to herself,
her eyes closed. "Dawson?" she asked, when he repeated the name.
Wallace had straightened up; it was quite in his old manner that he
said:
"I--would--rather work for Emory Dawson than for any man I know of in
New York!"
"Oh, a manager?"
"The coming manager--you mark what I say!"
"And you met him?" Martie was asking the dutiful questions; but her
face rested against her husband's as she talked, and she was crying a
little, in joy and relief.
For answer Wallace gently dislodged her, so that he might take from his
pocket a letter, the friendly letter that the manager had dashed off.
"He swears he'll book me!" Wallace said, refolding the letter. "He said
he needs me, and I need him. I borrowed two hundred from Uncle Chess,
and now it's us to the bright lights, Baby!"
"And nothing but happiness--happiness--happiness!" Martie said,
returning his handkerchief, and finishing the talk with one of her
eager kisses and with a child's long sigh.
"I was afraid you might be a little sorry about--November, Wallie,"
said she, after a while. "You are glad, a little; aren't you?"
"Sure!" he answered good-naturedly. "You can't help it!"
Martie looked at him strangely, as if she were puzzled or surprised.
Was it her fault? Were women to be blamed for bearing? But she rested
her case there, and presently Sally came in, wheeling the baby, and
there was a disorderly dinner of sausages and fresh bread and
strawberries, with everybody jumping up and sitting down incessantly.
Wallace was a great addition to the little group; they were all young
enough to like the pose of lovers, to flush and dimple over the new
possessives, over the odd readjustment of relationships. The four went
to see the moving pictures in the evening, and came home strewing
peanut-shells on the sidewalk, laughing and talking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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