Show 4 I v i. i 1 f J. J i i j o to r t A JEALOUS WIFE By ADELE E E. E THOMPSON L CopyrIght Helen dear I have haTe something to tell you ou Yes Robert and though the l lip p trembled a little unseen by him the tho voice was bravely cheerful I think I can guess what It Is Can you and the happy look on the boyish face tace such a boyish f face ca castill still for tor all its 25 years grew still brighter Of course I 1 have written you jou ou about Lillian the dearest girl In the he world but it seems so wonderful to think that she loves me as dearly as I do her and I wanted you to bo be bothe bothe the first to lo hear It and Helen lis us- while he sang a lovers lover's praises and smiling hid the little pain In her heart that would come with the realization atlon that this only brother had found one nearer than herself There have always been two ofus of ofus ofus us he concluded you and I but now there will be three Lillian you I and I. I T No Robert she said even more cheerfully than thab before beCore there will be bo two still sUIl Lillian and you Nonsense Helen ho he protested hotly Nobody is ever going to crowd you out we wo have come too near each other for that When I come to tell Lillian all you have been to me mother and sister both andall andall and andall all I owe to you through these years I know that she will love you aswell aswell as aswell well as I 1 do Helen smiled a little dubiously she could not say to him that some one else would have opinions and a voice concerning the home and she had no desire by look or word to mar the few ew hours they were to have together after an absence of ot months Helen did not come for tor the wedding wed ding but after they were settled id lIt i iI iIi kS L What Has Come Between Us U. So their home yielding to Roberts Robert's repeated repeated re re- letters she went on for a visit Lillian received her with sweet frostiness frostiness frosti- frosti ness so subtle as to be felt rather thor than observed Robert had built such hopes on the results of this visit but someway if he began to talk to Helen of the days when they two were alone In the world together Lillian was apt to develop develop de de- a headache that shut her up In her room and if Helen petted him in her old loving way Lillian would show her displeasure by punishing I him hint with a cold If not sulky silence that made the household atmosphere i anything but cheering In time another guest came into the home Im sorry Lillian said weakly weak weak- ly as Robert bent over her and the theother theother 1 other the tiny Uny head that it isn't a boy bo They say that sometimes men love a daughter better than their wife wire but it would break my heart if 11 you jou ou should love Jove the baby best PromIse Prom Prom- ise me that you never will What a foolish Lillian he answered answered an of ot course I never will When it c came mo to naming the bab baby P he had his way There never can b be I but one Lillian to me rue me so Helen Ii It shall be and he wrote Aunt Helen wonderful stories of at the beauty and anc andI I brightness of Baby Daby Nellie I After a little he began to catch a note a something between the lines In Helens Helen's letters that vaguely troubled troubled troubled trou trou- bled him and one day there came camo a n aletter aletter letter in a hand so 50 changed he be hardly knew It U she was as sick would he ho come cometo to her Lillian was In her room with a cold and slight fever when ho carried the letter to her Surely you are not going to leave me tue here sick she ex ex- claimed How lIow can you be so cruel If Helen Is very very badly badly o off she could not have written herself herselt Well Voll If JC you von vou KO SO only wait walt till morning half bait a day won wont won't t make any difference Robert hesitated he ha felt impelled to go at once but if he be crossed Lillian LII Lil lian han It might make her so much worse that he could not go at all aiL allIn In Inthe In morning as he be was stepping on the train a telegram was handed him Helen Helen Is dying You are too late late he he felt the rebuking rebuking rebuking re re- re- re accent In the nurses nurse's tone tone tone- and she was so anxious to see you Lillian wrote him a letter full fun of ot love leve and sympathy she said to everyone everyone every every- one Dear Deer Helen how sad aad it is Atthe At Atthe Atthe the same time down In her bar heart there was a little feeling that she never put into words words' or even concrete thought Ii now now now he W wholly mine nut But not entirely hers there here was the little Helen And as the tho child grew beyond the years ears when she sho could conveniently be put to sleep o or r sent seat to the nursery loving lovable always ready to spring Into her fathers father's tather's fa fa- ther's arms the baneful root In Lillians Lillian's heart took a fresh tresh start Every caress be he gave to Nellie NelUe she alie he felt herself defrauded of or every ery font fond word a robbing of ot her right to her her- said she could not bear it It that I her own child should come between be be- tween them and at times sho she almost almos t hated bated the child for fot it One day there was white crape on the door and a white casket was car ned ried out of ot their home Lillian shed many tears she felt the tho keen stress of grief but yet deep down far deeper than Helens Helen's death lay the tho thought that she would hardly have owned to herself but butas was as none the thu less present that now now for tor the first time Robert was hers alone no longer was there right or claim beside And yet impalpable as the thinnest breath of vapor not to be grasped or defined but none the less present and felt was the shadowy something that seemed to have come between her herand and Robert L In the hour when she could Claim mm DIm as tiers hers and h hers rs only At first she recognized this with an incredulous in in- credulous petulance that in turn gave place to a vague alarm Not that he was less tenderly kind or attentive attentIve- the more so If anything but he went his way as if no longer touched by her moods frequently he said he had writing to do and shut himself In the little room that had been Nellies Nellie's room play-room now made into a den It almost seemed but then it c could uld not be that he was living a life Ute of ot his own II anart apart from her At last one evening petulance and alarm flamed into speech and as he was leaving the room on the plea of ot writing a little while she threw herself her self before him Robert she cried holding him fast what Is It W What has come between us so What are you doing I am writing on the book you have havo often heard me speak of answering the last of her questions But Dut I dont don't want you t to write that book I hate it the tears beginning to gather You are so changed to tome tome me me and now for that to some Fome come In You have never been the same since Nellie died I 1 always knew you love loved her the best I wish f. f c could uld have died instead of her You never loved me me or you would not ma malro maie Q inc ice so mIserable miser mIser- able I Lillian and there was a note in his voice she had never heard before I UI married you because I loved you I have loved you always I love you now You You are sweet and true at heart Th The trouble has been that you wanted and exacted of me roe what I did not ask of you what no one has hasa a right to demand of another my whole and only love Love Is like a afountain afountain afountain fountain the more freely and in larger measure it flows the purer and fuller It is choke It U up and it either dimin dimin- diminIshes diminishes i or becomes unhealthy This your selfish Jealousy Jealousy forgive forgive me If It I speak plainly plainly has has done for both ofus of us Because of ot it you hardened your heart to Helen who would gladly have l loved oved you jou oti and loving whom would have made your own life Ufe the richer and led me to weakly fall fail in itt the gratitude gratl tude and devotion I lowed owed to her because because because be be- beI I cause of it you were an mother to Nellie you neither gave her your own love nor allowed me to show her mine for the lack of ot which her whole hole young life me was clouded I Do not think that I 1 blame you alone for this I blame myself even more that seeing it ft I weakly yielded that I was not strong enough clear clear- sighted enough to have crushed It for you as you jou OU would not for yourself but as It is It has spoiled my home and marred my happiness and filled my heart with remorseful memories You say that I have changed to you since Nellie died It Is because I have o thought of at these things since then as I never did before and have come to some conclusions that It were well for both of at us had bad I dono done J so long ago In the future I J shall shan give to you as I have always had Itin it itin in my heart to do the best of my lovo love and confidence and care but at tho the same time I shall remember that I have my own life to live JIve and give to Its Ha duties and claims what I feel teel they deserve You ask me me- Lillian what has come between us It Is the only thing that ever could have come come- yourself She had loosed her hold on him and dropped Into a chair he bent and gently gentl kl kissed ed her and left the room For once Lillians Lillian's usual Sow flow ol of words failed taIled her If IC there bad had be been beena n na a trace of ot passion in his tone but tone but there was none none It It was the tho pitiless calmness of his words that had chilled her heart as with an Icy touch Heavy draperies at the windows shut shot ourthe our otis ourthe the wintry storm outside in the grate grata the fire glowed red warmth and light were all aU about her bet but she shivered in 1 their midst And this WM wu her Robort Rob Rob- Robort I ort who had used his words with it seemed to her as aa little of ruth as an executioner his hll sword Listening she followed his steps as aa they pa passed ed up the stairs then the door of his hi study closed and its Ita sharp to her I echoed What has com mi between tween us It Is Is yourself i iI I |