.

MARIE TAKES A DESPERATE CHANCE.
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 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.