Margaret Busbee Shipp

“ Griswold met her at the station, his face aglow with pleasure and welcome. For a moment memories of like meetings swept poignantly over them both; but the man recovered himself first.
“ It’s corking of you to come, Cecil,” he said, as he helped her into his car. “ I’m afraid the trip has tired you. You’re pret- tier than ever, but aren’t you thinner?”
“ It’s you who are fatter,” she retorted. “And sunburnt! Why, Nick, you’re burned to a crisp.”
“ Out here one basks in the sunshine like a lizard. It’s the popular outdoor sport for the idle rich.” ”

“ Many men had made the same promise to dearly loved wives and had broken it; she smiled mirthlessly to think how small was the chance of faithfulness to a divorced wife.
“ And no publicity,” she said abruptly. “ No head-lines, no reporters, no gossip; above all, no advice from your family or mine.”
“ Then we’ll have to keep it a secret until the divorce is about to be granted,” he re- flected.
“ I thought you had already mapped out a model working plan?”
“ In a way, I have. It takes a year’s residence in New Mexico, and then divorce is about as easy to obtain as it is in Nevada. ”

“ Cecily would stay with him; she could not lose out of her life the eager wel- -come in his eyes and the ripple of content m his voice when he greeted her.
No doubt Nick would help her to have her way about Jimmy. Even married to another woman, it was impossible to con- ceive of him as not helping her to have her wish about anything. And she deserved something from him, for she had been a “ good sport ” through this idiotic plan of his. They were having things decent and wholesome at the end — no recriminations, no advice, no publicity — altogether a model divorce. ”

“ MacDowell and Griswold had sprung up one of the silent, profound friendships of men. There was rarely a morning that Nick did not spend at the sanatorium, as he said that a talk and a smoke and the doctor’s laboratory made the most satisfactory combination he could find. Nick talked a great deal of Jimmy Ames, a little fellow who had developed tubercu- losis, and whose sister had scraped together the money to bring him out West to the eminent doctor. ”

“ MacDowell walked rapidly away. Cecily came forward in the moonlight and knelt by her husband’s bed, her arms around him, her face against his.
“ Cecil! My wife, my darling, are you real? Are you here?”
“ I motored back from Deming. I’ll ex- plain everything to-morrow 7 , but to-night I can’t tell you anything except that I love you — that I have always loved you,” she cried in a sobbing breath, “ It’s the only really important thing, the only thing which matters in our lives. Oh, Nick, why didn’t you tell me? ”

“ She’s true grit and pure gold, if that does sound paradoxical. Bert Welles is a lawyer who developed tuberculosis; tried to fight it out back home, but the bug beat in every round, in a way it has of doing. Then his wife took charge. They must sell their home and go West; she would live in the Pecos Valley, on a ranch twenty miles from a neighbor; she’d camp in the mountains, she’d bring the children or leave them with her mother — nothing was mate- rial in comparison with Bert’s getting well. ”

“ Reno is for poor people who can’t afford to take longer than six months to be divorced in, or for those whose speed-limit urges them not to wait longer than six months and half a day be- fore making a change of partners. Above everything, the really dignified divorce must be unhurried. ”

“ We’ll have a good time right up to the last, and teach the world a new trick. Of course, a lifetime isn’t long enough for me to be sorry in about the motor accident — ”
She put out a protesting hand to ward off the words.
“ You couldn’t help it, Nick. It was the drunken driver of the other car. Please don’t go back to it again! You know I’ve never blamed you for it half an instant, but — but I can’t talk about it. Let’s talk about our— our divorce instead. Are you really in earnest about New Mexico?”
II
Six months later Cecily was on her way to join her husband. ”

“ The next few weeks proved that there was no doubt as to the place Cecily had made with Griswold s friends.
“ Hit? Why, you’ve bowled ’em over!” Nick exulted. “ My compliments on your adaptability! At home you fit into the sur- roundings like an orchid in a conservatory, and here you bloom like the yucca, which is the desert’s prettiest daughter.”
Cecily had just come in from a ride with Vinton to the Earles’ ranch. She had for- gotten her vexation at Nick’s laziness in not accompanying them. ”

“ She felt him tremble as he held her hand against his cheek, and with an effort which seemed to wrench her she recovered herself.
“Good night — happy dreams!” she ended quickly, and went into her room, clos- ing the door.
She lay awake, restless and unhappy, lis- tening to him walking up and down in the patio. The place was a blaze of flowers now; soon the frost would have them, but she, too, would be gone. Nick had wanted the divorce; he would have Emmy to con- sole him. She must have Jimmy! ”

“ There’s a lot out here besides climate. We’ll motor out to the biggest surface cop- per-mine in the world, and I’ll show you turquoise-mines, zinc-mines, copper, gold, silver, and all the fifty-seven varieties. ”

“ Facing separation made us realize how 7 beautiful marriage can be. This is the day on which I was to take the first steps in that model divorce of ours — and the beginning day finds you close against my heart!” Nick’s face w r as as contented as a child’s. ”