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I GOODWIN' S WEEKLY. 13 H mE MEETING By Charles Louis Philippe (This story is selected from the 'Contes du Matin," published in Paris by the "Nouvelle Revue Francaise." ' It was translated for the Now York Evening Post.) nE passed her. Then he had the foolish thought that if ho stop ped before a shop window she would come and stand near him. She did nothing of the kind and kept on her way. Then he made up his mind to speak to her. She was as disagreeable as she had been in the last days they had spent together. She pretended astonishment and exclaimed: "Goodness! They told me you were dead!" At that he became horribly vexed. If he had been dead she would have gone on living as if nothing had hap pened. She was very well dressed. He could not have said whether the coat she had on was in beaver, or rabbit skin, or astrakhan. He did not even know the names of the garments she put on her back. He was half sorry he had spoken to her, and suddenly felt himself very small beside her. He tried to take a joking tone. "Well! well! You look as if busi ness was good!" She answered: ""Yes, indeed! You had a fine idea when you sued for a divorce. It's turned out well for me." For a little while he walked along beside her like a niny. She gave him no encouragement, and he looked as if he was following her he looked like a man who forces his company on a woman he has just met on the l- street. And when he asked her, "What are you doing now?" she kept straight ahead, saying: "What you T faee. I'm walking." Thus they reached the Place do la Bastille. He would have to cross to the right from the middle of the side his train. He turned to go that way She waved her hand to the left and walk so as to get to the station for said: "I'm going up here." She stopped out of politeness as she was leaving him. She showed him rather ostentatiously that she had good manners. He did not know how to say goodbye to her. She would be able to say that he had run after her and that she had repulsed him. Thero was a cafe in front of them, and to take from her the chance of any such , boast, he suggested: "If you're not in a great hurry, sup pose W3 go in here." She burst out laughing, thought it over for a moment, and then exclaim ed: "I don't mind. Thqt will be rather funny." They went' in. They sat down op posite each other. They waited to bo served. A waiter brought their drinks. Then a strange phenomenon hap pened. The woman, especially, never expected it. The man suddenly found on his tongue the words ho used to employ when they lived together. It had been a habit of his when ho came home every evening at G o'clock after spending the afternoon at the office to say as soon as he saw her: "Well?"' That meant: "Well, has anything hap pened while I was away?" Eight years had passed since they had seen each other. When he opened his mouth a word came out: "Well?" Never in ordinary circumstances did he speak thus to any other wo man. She could not help smiling and mak ing a little sign with her head as she recognized the familiar word. Something of the same kind hap pened to her. She had always made a point of inspecting him from head to foot before he went out and set ting right any negligence in his clothes. He would always have look ed as if he had been sleeping in his clothes if sjie had not taken care to do this. In spite of herself she glanc ed over him and said: "I see that you haven't yet learned how to tie a tie. Listen just bend over the table a little. I'm going to straigliten your tie for you." He laughed. It was true; he wore his tie anyhow. He leaned forward and she tied it very carefully,. When she had finished he looked at himself in the mirror of the cafe, and she added, laughing: "Yes, it's really funny. It still makes me uncomfortable to see you not dressed right." Neither of them had any longer the least feeling of embarassment. He told her all that had happened to him during the last eight years, just as he used to tell her formerly what had happened to him during the afternoon. Ho had married again a year after the divorce. He had two children, two little girls. The eldest was six years old and the second was five He was still in the same office. He lived at Saint-Mande. When he had met her he was going to the Vin cennes station to take his train. When he had told that much ho had told all his life. He became silent. All the same, it was curious. The more he looked at her the more he lealized that he had never seen her properly. From the time they were married he had always believed that her eyes were blue. Since the di vorce, whenever he thought of her he always imagined for some reason or other that she had gray eyes, clear gray fine eyeb and no mistake! which showed you that she wasn't dark. He told her what he had ob served. She laughed and said: "There, "you see! You have nevei understood me." She showed interest in everything that had happened' to him. To got a still clearer idea of his life she asked him: "And what is your wife like?" Ho hesitated before he answered: "Do you know what's the truth, Alice? A man has only one wife; that's the first one. Afterwards a man marries for someone to keep house, or to havo a family." How sad he was after ho had said these words! How happy they might have been if she had only wished it! He spoke of this to her. Ho said: "Oh, why didn't you stick to me?" Singularly enough, as it seemed to him who knew her and had noticed in the last days of their life together with what obstinacy she followed her questionable courses and how she al ways insisted that she was right, she now replied, softly and frankly: "Yes, there it is. I was eight years younger than I am today. A person is silly when she is young." She was very nice, as she was in the early times of their marriage, when she had a very good heart and one could always persuade her by ap pealing to her best side. He said to H H "You haven't told me what you H have been doing during xthe last eight H years." M She answered: H "My poor, dear man, you wouldn't iH want me to tell you. You know well JH enough what thero is for a divorced H woman to do." H Then he said to her: H "It's some consolation for me, Alice, H that you aren't in abject poverty." H Thoy were two good friends, very H saddened on each side of a table in a H cafe. She excused herself to him: H "You must'nt think hard of mo be- H cause I didn't welcome you when you H spoke to me. I played the haughty. H And indeed it would have been much H better if I hadn't answered you. You H can see yourself you were wrong. H Now we're going to be happy thinking jH of each other." JH But they had not the time to talk H at any length. The clock of the cafe H Ijl Too much rain is ruinous fl I if and so is too little - 18 I lii flET rain is necessary for all vegetable and i H 11 -StM animal life. Moderate rainfall at regular inter Ig H Hi sGJEr s -q ea concfaion. Extremes of every g H J! a I lfl"'""""'dl land always go wrong. Justice and Eight are g M i in the balancing of forces. Thus it is with Prohibition-, being H lii an extreme- ft is unjust, dictatorial and un-American. 1 i H 11 r y1"5 we ave hnestty brewed BUDWEISER1 j HI the drink of moderation. It is a mild brew of the finest jj III Barley-Malt grown in America, and the rarest Saazer Hi I Hops grown in old Bohemia. When used within reason, 1 1 H 11 lt awaens luridly fellowship, and is as wholesome and H 1111 healthful as its flavor is distinctive and delicious H llii ever-and-always-the-same eood old BUDWEISER. H lB ANHEUSER-BUSCH f ST. LOUIS, USA fl III H E Visitors to St, Louis are courteously invited to inspect our plant covers 142 acres. 3 H I H 1 1 I Geo. Olson &- Son I lllli Distributors Salt Lake City, Utah H