<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</SPAN></span></p>
<h3 class="p6">CHAPTER V<br/> A QUEEN AMONG WOMEN</h3>
<p class="p2">Miss Anne Gattle, seated in Mrs. Jimmie Wellington's
seat, had not heard Mr. Jimmie Wellington's
sketch of his wife. But she needed hardly
more than a glance to satisfy herself that she and
Mrs. Jimmie were as hopelessly antipathetic as only
two polite women can be.</p>
<p>Mrs. Jimmie was accounted something of a snob
in Chicago society, but perhaps the missionary was
a trifle the snobbisher of the two when they met.</p>
<p>Miss Gattle could overlook a hundred vices in a
Zulu queen more easily than a few in a fellow countrywoman.
She did not like Mrs. Jimmie, and she
was proud of it.</p>
<p>When the porter said, "I'm afraid you got this
lady's seat," Miss Gattle shot one glance at the intruder
and rose stiffly. "Then I suppose I'll have
to——"</p>
<p>"Oh, please don't go, there's plenty of room,"
Mrs. Wellington insisted, pressing her to remain.
This nettled Miss Gattle still more, but she sank
back, while the porter piled up expensive traveling-bags
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</SPAN></span>
and hat boxes till there was hardly a place to
sit. But even at that Mrs. Jimmie felt called on to
apologize:</p>
<p>"I haven't brought much luggage. How I'll ever
live four days with this, I can't imagine. It will
be such a relief to get my trunks at Reno."</p>
<p>"Reno?" echoed Miss Gattle. "Do you live
there?"</p>
<p>"Well, theoretically, yes."</p>
<p>"I don't understand you."</p>
<p>"I've got to live there to get it."</p>
<p>"To get it? Oh!" A look of sudden and dreadful
realization came over the missionary. Mrs.
Wellington interpreted it with a smile of gay defiance:</p>
<p>"Do you believe in divorces?"</p>
<p>Anne Gattle stuck to her guns. "I must say I
don't. I think a law ought to be passed stopping
them."</p>
<p>"So do I," Mrs. Wellington amiably agreed, "and
I hope they'll pass just such a law—after I get
mine." Then she ventured a little shaft of her own.
"You don't believe in divorces. I judge you've never
been married."</p>
<p>"Not once!" The spinster drew herself up, but
Mrs. Wellington disarmed her with an unexpected
bouquet:</p>
<p>"Oh, lucky woman! Don't let any heartless man
delude you into taking the fatal step."
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</SPAN></span></p>
<p>Anne Gattle was nothing if not honest. She confessed
frankly: "I must say that nobody has made
any violent efforts to compel me to. That's why
I'm going to China."</p>
<p>"To China!" Mrs. Wellington gasped, hardly
believing her ears. "My dear! You don't intend
to marry a laundryman?"</p>
<p>"The idea! I'm going as a missionary."</p>
<p>"A missionary? Why leave Chicago?" Mrs.
Wellington's eye softened more or less convincingly:
"Oh, lovely! How I should dote upon being a missionary.
I really think that after I get my divorce
I might have a try at it. I had thought of a convent,
but being a missionary must be much more exciting."
She dismissed the dream with an abrupt shake of
the head. "Excuse me, but do you happen to have
any matches?"</p>
<p>"Matches! I never carry them!"</p>
<p>"They never have matches in the women's room,
and I've used my last one."</p>
<p>Miss Gattle took another reef in her tight lips.
"Do you smoke cigarettes?"</p>
<p>Mrs. Wellington's echoed disgust with disgust:
"Oh, no, indeed. I loathe them. I have the most
dainty little cigars. Did you ever try one?"</p>
<p>Miss Gattle stiffened into one exclamation point:
"Cigars! Me!"</p>
<p>Mrs. Jimmie was so well used to being disapproved
of that it never disturbed her. She went on
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</SPAN></span>
as if the face opposite were not alive with horror:
"I should think that cigars might be a great consolation
to a lady missionary in the long lone hours
of—what do missionaries do when they're not missionarying?"</p>
<p>"That depends."</p>
<p>There was something almost spiritual in Mrs.
Jimmie's beatific look: "I can't tell you what consolation
my cigars have given me in my troubles.
Mr. Wellington objected—but then Mr. Wellington
objected to nearly everything I did. That's why I
am forced to this dreadful step."</p>
<p>"Cigars?"</p>
<p>"Divorces."</p>
<p>"Divorces!"</p>
<p>"Well, this will be only my second—my other was
such a nuisance. I got that from Jimmie, too. But
it didn't take. Then we made up and remarried.
Rather odd, having a second honeymoon with one's
first husband. But remarriage didn't succeed any
better. Jimmie fell off the water-wagon with an
awful splash, and he quite misunderstood my purely
platonic interest in Sammy Whitcomb, a nice young
fellow with a fool of a wife. Did you ever meet
Mrs. Sammy Whitcomb—no? Oh, but you are a
lucky woman! Indeed you are! Well, when Jimmie
got jealous, I just gave him up entirely. I'm running
away to Reno. I sent a note to my husband's
club, saying that I had gone to Europe, and he
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</SPAN></span>
needn't try to find me. Poor fellow, he will. He'll
hunt the continent high and low for me, but all the
while I'll be in Nevada. Rather good joke on little
Jimmie, eh?"</p>
<p>"Excruciating!"</p>
<p>"But now I must go. Now I must go. I've really
become quite addicted to them."</p>
<p>"Divorces?"</p>
<p>"Cigars. Do stay here till I come back. I have
so much to say to you."</p>
<p>Miss Gattle shook her head in despair. She could
understand a dozen heathen dialects better than the
speech of so utter a foreigner as her fellow-countrywoman.
Mrs. Jimmie hastened away, rather
pleased at the shocks she had administered. She
enjoyed her own electricity.</p>
<p>In the corridor she administered another thrill—this
time to a tall young man—a stranger, as alert
for flirtation as a weasel for mischief. He huddled
himself and his suitcases into as flat a space as possible,
murmuring:</p>
<p>"These corridors are so narrow, aren't they?"</p>
<p>"Aren't they?" said Mrs. Jimmie. "So sorry
to trouble you."</p>
<p>"Don't mention it."</p>
<p>She passed on, their glances fencing like playful
foils. Then she paused:</p>
<p>"Excuse me. Could you lend me a match? They
never have matches in the Women's Room."
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</SPAN></span></p>
<p>He succeeded in producing a box after much shifting
of burdens, and he was rewarded with a look
and a phrase:</p>
<p>"You have saved my life."</p>
<p>He started to repeat his "Don't mention it," but
it seemed inappropriate, so he said nothing, and she
vanished behind a door. He turned away, saying to
himself that it promised to be a pleasant journey.
He was halted by another voice—another woman's
voice:</p>
<p>"Pardon me, but is this the car for Reno?"</p>
<p>He turned to smile, "I believe so!" Then his
eyes widened as he recognized the speaker.</p>
<p>"Mrs. Sammy Whitcomb!"</p>
<p>It promised to be a curious journey.
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