THE CLIMBERS



that have cherished her, made her life, and gives

her whole self, her love, her body, and even her

soul sometimes - for love, often overwhelms us

women -to the man who, she believes, wants,

starves, for her gifts. All that a woman who

marries for love feels at the altar I tell you a man

can't understand ! You treated this gift of mine,

Dick, like a child does a Santa Claus plaything -

for a while you were never happy away from it,

then you grew accustomed to it, then you broke

it, and now you have even lost the broken pieces!

  STERLING. [Comes to her, growing more and more

determined.] I will find them, and put them

together again.

  BLANCHE. [Again smiles sadly and shakes her

head.] First we made of every Tuesday a festival -

our wedding anniversary. After a while we kept

the twenty-eighth cf every month ! The second



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