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r-r igia?ftffsiai .gfJjKywg,JH'yt 'gfway'yy ;f- 'WJ 't ' " "r-B -Hr r THE CONfrLSSiONS OF A WIFE MY LETTER TO KITTY Chapter CXXXIII. (Copyright, 1914, by the Newspaper Enterprise Association.) I was awfully glad to get your let ter, my dear girl, and I am sure you realize that I am very, very happy to know that you have found not only peace, but happiness and love, and that you are looking forward to a great content. Of course, it may not be good taste for me to say: "I told you so," but you will remember that when you came to me in tears and sobs and de clared that your whole life was bound up in the more or less- checkered ex istence of Bill Tenney I sajd to you: "My dear, it is only a case qf propin quity, after alL that you are so sure is affinity." The more I see of life the more I understand that we, all of us, have capacity for great good and great evil, and ofttimes we lie to ourselves and soothe our consciences by soph istries. You probably did not realize that there is always a pleasurable sensation about being a little naughty. Playing with fire is one of humanity's most exciting joys. I presume you told yourself of all those other women who made great sacrifices for love and imagined that George Eliot, Mary'Wollenscroft and Heloise paid no more dearly for their lives which have made history than you were doing. But you forget, dear, that where four or five big women stand out in history as giving all for love and, in spite of it, gaining the es teem of posterity thousands and thousands of poor, patfietic women have sunk under the load of shame which their sacrifice entailed and went down under the cruel verdict of the world and were never heard of more. But I must stop moralizing, dear (,Dick would call it talking "in my school-teacher manner) and answer your question about telling your preacher lover of your episode with Bill Tenney. I don't think I should say any thing if I were you. I do not think any man has any right to your past any more than you. have to his. Your only covenant is for the present and future. He has fallen in love with your personality and character as it is today, and if this is tlver character and personality he decides are the ones he admires most he should find no fault with the way they were acquired. I think, my dear girl, that, while I would not advise every girl to seek your way of obtaining it, you. are much better able to cope with your coming duties as a minister's wife, because you personally know of the many temptations that can come to a girl. And, whatever the wonderful virtues of your "preacher man," you are now worthy of him in every, par ticular. , Don't overdo the matter by being too good, however. Remember, dear, you are somewhat a creature of con tradictions and extremes. You are apt to be like the little girl with the little curl very good or horrid. Be honest with yourself, my dear. Re member no human being can be an gelic all the time any more than he can be devilish every minute. What you wrote me about your ministerial lover makes me think I wIIFfTke him very much. He seems, from your description, a man of real red blood who is not a vapid creature made up from precept, but one who has been hammered into something big and strong by practice. It does seem strange, Kitty, dear, to think of you settling down into a preacher's wife, but, knowing yqur boundless sympathy and great big heart, I know you are not only going to make that corner"of the world your preacher huuband will look upon as ' .&. J, tr- &iSJ&&