As Gloria went up the front steps of her house, the mother of the
Donberg twins came across her front lawn toward her.
"There was a policeman at your house a while ago," she said,
pleasantly. "What crime have you been committing?"
She carried her mending basket in her hands. Gloria could see that
she was primed for a neighborly chat. But she didn't want to be
neighborly with Mrs. Donberg. She was the type of woman for whom
Gloria had no use ... the home body who talked of nothing but
marmalade, marketing, and moth-marbles.
"We had burglars last night," Gloria said, without a smile, "and I've
been so excited all day that I haven't done a bit of housework. I've
got to get busy now and do it before my husband comes home."
She went into the house, and closed the door behind her.
There was a musty smell in the rooms. The house needed a thorough
airing, as well as a good cleaning.
Gloria threw the windows wide open and went upstairs. She took off
her hat and went to work.
All the soiled linen came off the beds. She made them up fresh and
smooth. She hung a neat row of towels in the bathroom, and scoured
the tub.
She began to enjoy her job. It was rather fun to dash around from
room to room banging the ashes from the tray on Dick's bedside table,
slapping up the pillows on the window seat in the room from which
Dick had banished her.
Well, she wouldn't stay in banishment, much longer, Gloria made up
her mind.
She would show Dick that she really did mean to be a good wife to him
... and he would take her back into his heart, again.
It was perfectly silly for them to live apart this way, under the
same roof. And unnatural, besides.
"And if Dick ever brings up Stan Wayburn again, I'll accuse him of
being in love with Miss Briggs," Gloria said to herself. "I'll tell
him she would never have fallen for him if he hadn't made love to
her, first. That'll shut him up, quick enough!"
The more she thought about Miss Briggs the more firmly Gloria decided
to tell Dick he'd have to send her packing. To have a secretary
around who was in love with Dick was just throwing temptation in his
way.... Few men could resist a woman who was crazy about them. She
appealed to their love of flattery.
And no man was deaf and blind to flattery ... not even the
level-headed Dick. Yes, he'd have to get rid of Miss Briggs. That
was all there was to it....
Gloria ran downstairs. She heated the water in the kitchen tank and
washed up the dishes in the sink. She scoured it out, and mopped the
floor. It didn't look much better when she had finished than when
she began ... but it had the strong, pungent smell of a good
cleaning, anyway. That was something. At least Dick could tell that
she had been at work on it! He could see that she was trying her
best to be a housekeeper.
That, if anything, ought to melt him!
At five o'clock Gloria ran upstairs and bathed.
At six she looked like anything but a woman who had spent the
afternoon cleaning up a house.
She was herself, again ... a creature of beauty charged with
elegance. Her hair was like molten copper. Her skin was sweet in
its sheer cleanness. And all around her hung the old fragrance of
mimosa-flower that had always turned Dick's head.
She was Gloria at her loveliest ... her most alluring.
When she heard Dick's key in the lock she ran downstairs to him, on
winged feet.
"I was just going out to buy some things for our supper," she said to
him with an adorable smile. "I've been so busy all day that I forgot
to phone the grocer."
Her voice was as natural and sweet as if it had never uttered a cruel
word. It implied that she and Dick were the best friends in the
world.
"The stores are all closed at this time of night, and you know it,"
Dick said to her. "Don't stall.... What do you want to do? Go
downtown and eat? Gosh, I'm getting tired of eating in restaurants,
though! Try to have something cooked to-morrow night when I get
home, will you?"
"You know I will," Gloria answered. "I'll even get supper here
to-night if you'll drive me over to the delicatessen.... Let's get
some ham and eggs and you can show me how to fry them. That'll be
fun!"
"No," Dick said wearily. "I'm too tired to fuss around. I didn't
have a wink of sleep last night.... You heard about John Seymour, of
course?"
Gloria nodded. The feeling of horror that she had every time she
thought of Dr. John's suicide closed down over her like black wings.
"Oh, Dick," she breathed. "Wasn't it awful? ... I've just been sick
about it all day!"
She waited for him to put his arms around her, to comfort her--as he
would have done a few weeks ago. But he made no move toward her.
"I tried to get you on the phone last night when Lola Hough phoned me
to go to Seymours', but Central said you didn't answer. I guess you
were asleep," Dick said. "Come on, let's go."
"I was not asleep!" Gloria answered. "The telephone wires were cut.
There was a burglar in this house last night while you were out! He
was near enough to me to touch me.... I even saw him in the
dining-room!"
Dick stared at her, with his hand on the open door of the hall.
"What did he take?" he asked.
"All the forks and knives and spoons that your mother gave us for a
wedding present," Gloria said. "But that's not the point. The
terrible part of it was that I was frightened out of my wits,
almost.... And I'll never stay in this house alone, again, so long
as I live. See?"
Gloria followed Dick out to the garage.
She couldn't help noticing how his shoulders drooped and his step
lagged when he walked.
"Rikky," she said, using the old nickname, "I'm sorry as the dickens
that I didn't have dinner ready for you to-night. I can see that
you're dead tired. How much sleep did you have last night?"
"Not a wink," Dick answered. "How could I sleep when my best friend
had just killed himself because of his utterly worthless wife? I
can't figure out why John cared so much for a good-for-nothing
creature like May.... He should never have married her in the first
place! That was his big mistake."
Gloria bit her lip. She wondered if Dick thought she was any better
than May. Perhaps he was sorry that he had married her....
Well, she wouldn't let him be sorry! She had turned over a new leaf.
"Where are we going?" she asked as the car turned the corner.
"We're going to invite ourselves to Mother's for a meal," Dick
answered grimly. "I'm sick of restaurant food. I'm fed up on it."
Neither of them said another word until they swung into the broad
driveway of the Gregory homestead.
It looked so peaceful and welcoming to-night, with its lights
streaming out from the windows ... its rose bushes blooming beyond
the sweep of lawn.
Mother and Father Gregory were just sitting down to dinner, when Dick
and Gloria walked in.
"Well, isn't this a fine surprise!" Mother Gregory cried. She got up
and put her arms around Dick, while Father Gregory beamed at them
over his horn-rimmed spectacles. Gloria felt left out in the cold.
"How did you know we were going to have strawberry shortcake for
supper?" Mother Gregory asked. She turned to Gloria and gave her the
briefest of kisses.
"I smelled it!" Dick answered, laughing. "Blocks and blocks away I
smelled it ... above the rich perfume of gasoline that scents our
town! And it drew me, like a magnet!"
He looked like a boy as he sat down at the table ... carefree and
happy, in his old home. Gloria watched him with narrowed eyes. She
hadn't seen him like this for weeks.
Mother Gregory bustled around the room, getting out plates from the
china cabinet, and napkins from the sideboard.
"Leg of lamb, to-night--and fresh peas. I shelled them myself, and
they were a job!" she said. But there was no complaint in her voice.
She was a born housekeeper, and she loved hard work ... really
enjoyed it!
Gloria looked around the room. She couldn't help thinking how
different it was from her own dining-room at home!
There the silver was tarnished, and the chairs were dusty.
Here there were fresh roses in the center of the snowy cloth.
Everything ... glasses, forks and furniture ... that could be made to
shine, was agleam. There wasn't a speck of dirt anywhere.
The salad was crisply cold, and the things that should be hot were
hot. The meal was delicious.
"Mother Gregory," Gloria said, on a sudden impulse. "You're
wonderful! If I could keep house just half as well as you I'd be
satisfied! And, by jinks, I'm going to learn how to do it!"
Mother Gregory laid down her fork. She gave Gloria a searching look.
"My dear child!" she said. "That's the most sensible thing I've ever
heard you say! And if you need any help, come to me for it."
"Give her your recipe for strawberry short-cake," Dick suggested.
"You said you were going to have short-cake, didn't you?"
Mother Gregory laughed.
"As Gloria would say, 'we are going to have nothing else but'," she
answered. "Gloria, you carry out the plates while I cut the
short-cake. It's Maggie's night out."
Gloria picked up the platter and took it out into the big, clean
kitchen.
"I've been thinking over what you told me this morning," Mother
Gregory said to her, quietly. "About you and Dick living apart....
I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. It will turn out all
right, after a while. Dick's pride's hurt ... and I can't say I
blame him."
Gloria shook her pretty head.
"No," she said. "It goes deeper than that. Dick doesn't care for me
any more.... I saw it in his face to-night. And it isn't that he
hates me. He's just indifferent to me. He's through with me!"
She went into the dining-room and came back with a pile of plates,
and a vegetable dish.
"Then, whom is he in love with?" Mother Gregory asked. "If he's not
in love with you ... depend upon it, a man of Dick's age is always in
love with somebody. That's Nature."
Gloria stood silent for a moment, watching Dick's mother pile whipped
cream on the short-cake.
"Yum, yum! Doesn't that look deluscious!" she said childishly. Then
she sobered. "I told you this morning that I think he's fallen in
love with Miss Briggs. And I do think so!"
"Nonsense!" Mother Gregory said sharply. "Dick likes you just as
well as he ever did! You just settle down and be a good wife to him,
and he'll be tickled to death with you."
She nodded vigorously, so that all the beads on her black dress
sparkled.
"I really haven't been a good wife, have I?" Gloria asked humbly.
Afterward she wished she hadn't said that.
Mother Gregory was the soul of frankness always. She opened her
lips, now, and let Gloria have the truth about her wifehood ... or at
least what she considered the truth.
"You never were any kind of a wife at all to Dick!" she said. "You
were a drag and a worry to him ... a pretty toy. And any toy becomes
tiresome, after a while."
She put her hands on the girl's slim shoulders, and looked at her
gravely.
"Months ago I told you married life wasn't a game, but a business,
didn't I?" she asked. Gloria nodded.
"You believe me now, don't you?" Mother Gregory went on. "And I'm
going to tell you something else. Nothing ties a man to a woman like
a child. You take my advice, and give Dick a son or two ... and a
couple of daughters...."
Tears smarted in Gloria's eyes. It was too late now, for that wise
advice. Dick no longer loved her.... He didn't want her to be the
mother of his children. She was sure of that.
She winked away her tears, and helped Mother Gregory serve the
short-cake.
There was a chill in the air when Dick and Gloria left the Gregory
homestead at ten that night.
Gloria shivered in her thin silk frock. She cuddled up against Dick
in the machine, and laid her head down on his shoulder.
But he paid no attention to her. He might have been a man of iron as
he sat at the wheel.
"Move over, Gloria," he said finally. "You're in my way. I can't
reach the brake."
"You don't need the brake. There's no traffic," Gloria said crossly.
But she moved away from him. She had a wild desire to cry.
"You just don't want me near you!" she said, her voice trembling. "I
know--I know."
Dick said nothing.
In silence that seemed to crackle all around them ... so electric it
was ... they drove into the garage, and walked around to the front of
the house.
"Well, I wonder how many burglars will visit us to-night!" Dick said
as he turned the key in the lock. They went in.
"It's a shame about that silver ... although we were insured," Gloria
answered. "I went down to the office to-day, and had Miss Briggs
look it up."
Dick frowned. "I wish you wouldn't come down there and give her
orders," he said. "When I got back from lunch to-day, she was gone.
Her mother called up to say she'd been taken sick. I suppose her
feelings were hurt because of something you said to her.... You were
rude enough to her last night! ... Now you promise you'll stay away
from my office!"
Gloria tossed her head willfully.
"She wasn't sick because of anything I said to her!" she exclaimed.
"It was something she said to me that made her sick, I'll bet you!"
Dick sat down in his armchair and filled his pipe.
"Well, what did she say?"
"Told me what a crush she has on you," Gloria answered calmly.
Dick leaped to his feet. "What!" he almost shouted.
"Sure she did," Gloria said. "She told me she's been in love with
you for years and years. She said that right up to the time you
married me she hoped you'd fall in love with her.... That's why she
hates me so! She thinks I came between you."
Gloria stood in front of him, watching to see how he took it.
He took it, unwillingly. He didn't want to believe this thing that
Gloria had just told him, although he must have guessed it.
"Are you telling me the truth, Gloria?" he asked at last.
Gloria threw out both her little hands and grabbed the lapels of his
coat. "Why should I tell you a lie?" she asked.
"I don't know," Dick answered. "But you've told me a good many of
them, you know, in the last few months."