Newspaper Page Text
lt!JMJAM.gn.jl J, f JUMg4WP!AS JJ1"4U" J JiJUM A?
CONFESSIONS OF A WIFE
(Copyright, 1915, by the Newspaper Enterprise Association)
"What's on your mind, Mollie?"
We were walking downtown yester
day morning when I-asked the ques
tion. "Tell me about yourself. We have
hardly had a real talk for months."
'Tat wants me to marry him," said
Mollie abruptly.
"That is not news to you, is it
dear? It certainly is not to me."
"Well, he never put his desire into
words until last week."
"What did you tell him?"
"I did not tell him anything. I only
exclaimed: 'Oh, Pat, why did you do
this' Now all our beautiful business
partnership will be at an end.'
" 'Can't you conceive of a partner
ship that will be much nicer than this
one?' wheedled Pat, in his Irish way.
" 'But, Pat, I love my work and it
means much to me, and if I should
marry you I know you would not
want me to continue with it'
" 'No, but you might turn your at
tention to writing stories.'
" 'There you go, calmly telling me
to give up the work I know how to
do and that in which I am successful
and do something that would be very
new to me, just for the sake of being
married.'
"Pat was silent for a moment, then
he said, 'You have answered me, Mot
lie. If you loved me you would not
stop to analyze anything. You would
come straight to my arms and allow
all the rest to adjust itself.'
"And this is true, Margie. I did not
think of anything when Chadwick
told me he loved me but of being with
him. I like dear old Pat immeasura
bly more than any other man I have
ever known. He rests me. I feel I
can depend upon him, but I have nev
er felt the surge of emotion that en
gulfed me when I looked into Chad
wick's eyes."
"Have you heard from him since
he went away?"
"Only through Pat, who told me he
had gone on a hunting expedition in
Africa. Pat also told me that Chad
wick's wife was not in as good health.
She has developed a suicidal mania
and has to be watched night and
day."
Little book, why do we try to keep
idiots and insane alive? Will there
not some time be a more merciful
way of treating them than in letting
them live on and on, making hell for
others and not realizing that they are
living themselves?
"Well, Mollie," I asked, "what are
you going to do now?"
"That is what I want to ask your
advice about, Margie. Did you ask
yourself when you were all goose
flesh from the touch of Dick's hand
if it was the real honest to. goodness
love? Would Dick make you love to
kiss him even after he had eaten a
garlic salad?"
I laughed, for although Molllie was
in deadly earnest, she was funny in
her comparison.
"No, dear, I did not," I said at last,
rather soberly. "Neither did I think
of what it would mean to accept
liquor laden kisses. I was just posi
tive that he was the right one."
" and now, Margie, what do
you say now?"
"I must say the same thing. Dick
is always the right one to me as long
as I am sure that I am the right one
to him. His faults are a part of him.
I took him for better and for worse.
Let me tell you something, Mollie.
Don't be persuaded into marrying
any man unless you feel that you can
not live without him. It is hard
enough to live with the man you ara
in love with, and I would find it im
possible to live with any man if I only
liked and respected him."
We walked along in silence for a
short time. When we got almost to
the hospital Mollie said, "I suppose I'll
have to give up my job."
(To Be Continued Monday.)
. .-azteL.- - a.i fc.fts.
