boy!"

He caressed her weakly, like a man whose strength has been drained from
him.

"You ain't mad at me because I kicked up at supper, are you, Charley?
You know I don't mean what I say when I'm out of sorts--you know there
ain't nobody like my boy!"

[Illustration: "I WENT OVER TO LOO's, AND WE STAYED UP AND TALKED SO
LATE--I DIDN'T KNOW--"]

He kissed her.

"No; I ain't sore, honey."

"Here's your milk in the ice-box. You must have just got in before me.
An' let me fix you a sardine sandwich, lovey."

"I--I ain't hungry, Lil. I--I can't eat nothin'--honest."

"I want you to, Charley--you've had a hard day."

"Yes, a hard day!" he repeated, smiling.

She prepared him a sandwich. At the sink her foot struck a small, square
package bearing a jeweler's stamp. It might have dropped there from
nerveless fingers or been wilfully hurled.

She picked it up wonderingly. It was neatly tied with blue cord.

"What's this?"

Her husband started.

"That? Oh, that's the little surprise I was tellin' you 'bout. I started
to fix it fer to-morrow; but--but--" His voice died in his throat.

She opened it with trembling fingers.

"It's the silver bracelet!" she cried. "It's the silver bracelet!"

The unshed tears sprang to her eyes.

"Oh, Charley dear, you ain't--you ain't--" The tears came like an
avalanche down an incline and choked off her speech.

He folded her to him.

"No, dear; I ain't!" he soothed.

THE END

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Just Around the Corner, by Fannie Hurst

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUST AROUND THE CORNER ***

***** This file should be named 33118.txt or 33118.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/1/1/33118/

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sharon Skidmore and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
G