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CONFESSIONS OF A WIFE
WILL MOLLIE'S CHOICE OF A HUSBAND MAKE HER HAPPIER?
(Copyright, 1915, by the Newspaper Enterprise Association.)
It was Pat instead of Mollie who
told me who she was-going to marry.
I walked out toward the hotel where
she and Mother Waverly were staying
as I could not get Mollie on the phone
and rather to my surprise I saw Pat
leaving the drive.
"Can it be that Mollie has accepted
Pat?" I asked myself.
Even when I got closer to him and
looked in his eyes I could not tell.
His face held either the glory of a
great renunciation or the satisfac
tion of a great desire. Don't say, lit
tle book, these expressions cannot be
the same. They are both but the
record of a great love.
"Is Mollie in?" I asked.
"No," he answered, "did you want
to see her this morning? If you do
I think you will find her over at the
hospital. She and Mr.-Edie started
over there a minute ago to see Mrs.
Waverly, Jr."
"Then it is Jim after all," I thought
as I turned to go down the street
"Can I set you down anywhere,
Margie?" he asked.
"If you are going down town I am
going to Dick's office and would be
very glad if you would drop me there.
A motor beats a street car all hollow.
Without a word Pat helped me into
the car and for a few moments we
rode in silence and then Pat sighed
and made the bromidic observation,
"It's a queer world."
"What has struck you as queer
about it just at this time, Pat?"
He did not answer for a few min
utes and then he asked, "Margie, I
wonder if you, too, are a fatalist?"
"Of course I am, Pat You know
that I am Irish on my mother's side
and you never knew a person who
had a drop of Irish blood in his veins
who was not more or less of a fatal
ist. "That is what makes the Irishman
ra humorist and a philosopher. He
must either laugh at or stoically bear
whatever is sent him, for down deep
in his heart he knows that it is mighty
little he has to do with it"
Pat turned round so quickly that
the machine veered. With a short
laugh he brought it back into the
road again.
"This is the time, Margie, when I
shall not allow Fate the pleasure of
spilling us into the roadway."
"Don't worry, I believe in my star.
It is not time for me to shuffle off
quite yet," I answered quite gaily.
Again we rode in silence and then
Pat said with a smile: "You are right,
Margie, about the Irish being able to
laugh even when Fate plays her
worst practical joke. It is a queer
thing how Chad's life and mine have
been interwoven ana the queerest
thing about it all is that hoth of us
should have loved the same woman
the two times we fell in love. And
that I should have lost them both,
although one of them loved me, is
still stranger."
"Then Mollie is going to marry Mr.
Hatton?"
"Yes."
"This time, my dear Pat," the lady
in the case is not giving up the man
she loves for the richer man. Last
night I received a love rhapsody from
Mollie, but in her lyrical and love ex
citement she forgot to mention the
name of her lover. I came over this
morning to have her tell it to me and
it is you who has answered my un
spoken question."
"I drove over as soon as Chad told
me to see if I could catch Mollie and
tell her not to tell Chad that I had
asked her to be my wife. You see,
Margie, poor Chad felt so dreadfully
when his first marriage broke up our
friendship that I determined nothing
should come between us again. I
think he knows that I have been very,
much interested in Mollie, but I don't.
! )
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