Chapter 12
MARIE TAKES A DESPERATE CHANCEDomestic 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 work would permit he made it a
point to meet her. He went about it with beautiful directness. He
made bold to call her up on "long 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 miles of telephone wire. Enough of it seeped to
Joe's ears to make him twist his mustache quite furiously when he
came out of the tele
