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THE CONFESSIONS OF AWIFE
THE GREAT FAMILY I MARRIED INTO
Chapter CXXV.
(Copyright, 1914, by the Newspaper
Enterprise .Association.)
After I had made the terrible
"break" of saying I had seen Mollie
in worse company than a chorus girl
Dick got near enough to me to say:
"Well, Margie, you've done it now."
And I answered, as I slipped my hand
in his: "On, Dick, I'm awfully sorry,
but your mother riles me so that I
do not know enough to keep my
mouth shut."
By this time we were upstairs and
Mother Waverly insisted that I had
insulted both Mojlie and herself and
that I must make some explanation.
"Oh, what's the use, mother," said
Dad, "of making such a fussbout it.
Probably Jack's little chorus girl is
all right. I have never thought that
the mere fact that a girl is in the
chorus of a comic opera brands her
with the scarlet letter, and I presume
Margie is right, for she has seen Mol
lie with almost any of the young men
she goes with, and the young men of
today are not angels of light."
Mollie came over and slipped her
hand around my shoulders, at which
Mother Waverly called her to do some
trivial thing for her.
"Well," I said, "I have rarely met
a girl I liked better than Mary Dun
lap, and I called upon her because
Jack told me that he wanted me to
and intimated that he was in love
with her." Mother Waverly groaned.
"Eliene Symone and I had her at tea
and dinner and we found her charm
ing, and as for me I think Jack might
go farther and fare worse."
. "I win write to Jack immediately
and tell him my opinion of this clan
destine affair," said mother, "and I
must say, Margaret" (whenever
Mother Waverly desires to put me
fully in my place she calls me Mar
garet), "that I think you overstepped
the bounds by abetting Jack in intro
ducing a girl of that kind into a fam
ily in which you are almost a stranger
yourself."
"Come, come, mother, you are let
ting your temper run away with you,"
said Dad.
"But think what it would mean if
we had to welcome a girl of that class
into our family! I would die of
shame."
Aunt Mary had said nothing, but
now she spoke up: "I am sure, Sallie,
that any young girl who is honest,
sincere and sweet can be welcomed
into any family."
Just as they were getting ready to
go home Mollie came over and whis
pered: "Margie, I'll not forgive you
for not letting me meet my future
sister-in-law."
"Hush, dear," I said, for I saw
Mother Waverly watching us. "Per
haps .Jack is not so much in love
with her as he thinks "he is and you
can't tell, maybe she will like some
other fellow better."
But Mollie, with a sister's loving
pride, was certain that no girl could
even look at another man when she
had a chance of falling in love with
her brothers.
"You never cared for anyone else,
did you, Madge?" she questioned.
"Of course, I did!" I said teasingly.
"Honest, Madge, isn't Dick your
first and only love?"
"Not by any manner oftmeans, my
dear. My first love was a little chap
in shorfc, trousers, and I had number
less others or more or less stability
before I met Dick."
Why is it that every one seems to
think that a woman must only love
once?
Heinrich Heine, one of the greatest
and most catholic of lovers, says: 'A
woman cannot love twice. Her na
ture ia.too tender to endure a second
time the terrific emotional earth
quake."
I think that both men and women
X
