She said she was almost as sorry for Emma
as she was for herself. When Lucy got through
with me, Tom, I looked like thirty cents and felt
like twenty-five of that was plugged.
"I didn't have sense enough to know that it was
most of it grief over her grandfather, and nerves and
hysteria, and the fact that she was only eighteen
years old and lonely, and that being a bride had a
certain amount to do with it. She had told me that
I was a beast, and made me feel like one; and I
took the whole thing hard and believed her. I
made a fine, five-act tragedy out of a jealous fit
I might have softened into comedy if I had had
the wit.
"I wasn't so very old myself, and I hadn't ever
been married before. I should have kept my mouth
shut until it was all over, and then when she began
to cry I should have coaxed her up and made her
feel like I was the only solid thing to hang on to
in the whole world.
"But the bottom had dropped out of the uni-
verse for me. She had said she hated me. I was
fool enough to believe her. I went downtown and
began to drink. I come home late that night.
The poor girl had been waiting up for me--waiting
for hours, and becoming more and more frightened
when I didn't show up. She was over her jealous
fit, I suppose. If I had come home in good shape,
or in anything like it, we would have made up then
and there.
Pages:
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285