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THE' CONFESSIONS OF A WIFE
MY SOCIAL STOCK GOES UP
Chapter CVI.
I could see that my social stock
had gone up above par when I enter
ed the dining room with Eliene Sy
mone last night. I could almost hear
one woman asking another: "Where
do you suppose Dick Waverly's wife
became acquainted with the richest
and most fashionable woman in
town?"
Sirs. Merton, who up until now had
ignored my existence, sent the waiter girls to the show."
very helpless woman whose capabili
ties were not as great as her aspira
tions, but she is lovable in her very
helplessness and I am going to try
to make her get out of thinking of
herself and do something.
Just as Eliene and I got upstairs
the telephone rang and Harry's gay
voice came over the wire: "Hello,
Madge, is Eliene with you?"
I answered, "Yes," and he called
"Well, I'm coming up to take you
over with a note to my table saying
if I "was to be at home this evening
she would call."
Eliene said as I read it: "Don't
mind me, Madge, if you wish to make
any other engagement." '
"It is just what I don't want to
do," I answered as I scribbled on the
back of Mrs. Mertonrs note: "Mrs.
Waverly has an engagement with
Mrs. Symone this evening. Sorry."
After I had sent it over I thought I
was just as snobbish as Mrs. Merton
in bringing Ehene's name in, but I
could not help letting her know that I
understood she really wanted to meet
Mrs. Symone instead of "that school
teacher Dick Waverly married."
I had told a deliberate lie, however,
in the word "sorry," for I was more
than glad that I could refuse to see
Mrs. Merton, and I knew. also that
she would know I had told an un
truth. In reality I was very glad that I was
able to "get back at her" for the way
she had ignored my existence up to
the time she wrote the note. She
was the only woman in the hotel who
had not called on me.
I sometimes grow sick as I see this
worship of money and of those who
have it by many people in this coun
try. Evemsl, who rail against it, was
delighted to show Eliene to the peo
ple in the hotel as my friend, and yet
if one should take Eliene's money
away from her one would only find a
"All right; we'll be ready," was my
reply.
"Who was it?" asked Eliene.
"Your husband, madame, and I
told him we'd go to the theater with ,
him."
"Now what do you suppose made ,
Harry dp that?" questioned' Eliene. ,
"He has not asked me in months
to go to a play except in a party."
"Well, my dear, I've a notion he
intends to make a party of it, and
then you know I'm invited he asked
me, too."
Eliene looked at me rather curi- '
ously and sighed: "I'd give anything
in the world, Madge, if I could' get
the fun out of life that you do. Here '
you are with your husband out of
town all aquiver at the thought of
going with Harry and me to the the
ater. I expect to be bored to death."
"That's just it, my dear. I am
afraid you have let poor Harry see
that he has bored you, and there's
nnthiner a man resents so much as to
have a woman particularly his wife
whom he can't get away from show
tnat sne is oorea m nis company.
"One thing you must learn, my
dear, if you wish to be happy, and
that is boredom is more deadly than
sorrow, as, once allowed to enter
your mind, it feeds on everybody and
everything about you."
(To Be Continued Tomorrow.)
(Popyright, 1914, by the Newspaper
Enterprise Association.) '
