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Domestic wrecks may be a subject taboo in polite conversation, but Joe

De Barr was not excessively polite, and he had, moreover, a very likely

hope that Marie would yet choose to regard him with more favor than she

had shown in the past He did not chance to see her at once, but as soon

as his ould permit he made it a point to meet her He went about

it with beautiful directness He

distance" from San Francisco, told her that he would be in San Jose that

night, and invited her to a show

Marie accepted without enthusiasm--and her listlessness was not lost

over forty h of it seeped to Joe's ears

to make him twist his mustache quite furiously when he came out of the

telephone booth If she was still stuck on that fellow Bud, and couldn't

see anybody else, it was high tis about hi on to soular fellows didn't stand any show--unless

they played what cards happened to fall their way Joe, warned by her

indifference, set hi his

cards to the best advantage

He went into a flower store--disdaining the banked loveliness upon the

corners--and bought Marie a dozen great, heavy-headed chrysanthemums,

whose color he could not nao at that They were not pink, and they were not sweet--Joe held