| Show Confessions Confession I J L Of Ofa a Bride My Rival Is in My Power but I Hesitate Hesi Hesi- tate to Use It Any woman woman with an ounce of f imagination ImI im Im- I wo would ld have wept over oYeI Den Ben Benjie's Jle's jie's letter I wept for Benjie and and forthe for forthe forthe L the baby but baby but not for the unknown mother It wasn't that I I. I as a good woman was hard on a woman who had sinned It was simply because the girl had refused refused refused- I to mother her own child had cast Cst it off oft to save her pride and pride and to insure herself herselt doubtless doubtless doubt doubt- less a respectable marriage B Benjie had been the wayward one one- of the Lorimer boys but in spite of his sins as I read his letter I felt that he had accomplished what many a good goad man fails falls to do he do-he he had discovered dIscovered discovered ered his own soul saul before he died Through the thought of his child he had arrived at one big meaning of life In this que queer r reversal of ot the common cammon com cam mon moo tragedy the man had assumed all the odium and responsibility for the childs child's welfare while the unwed mother was shielded by him to the last I Nobody could even guess at her name though the Lorimer fl fiction that Benjie had married in n Canada didn't pass with everybody The gossips had their say about Benjie but Benjie-but but never a word about the girl To me in that last pathetic confes confession confes- confes oleo sion written perhaps with a premonition premo premo- prema- prema of his fate that day Benjie had haa said Maybe you'll think me mea a a cad Janie Janle for telling telling telling- No Whatever others may call him himI I dont don't consider him a cad and didn't even with the last line of ot his last letter fresh in my mind I am still glad I refused to marry her herI I think it took a lot of courage fo for far r him to add that after atter he had come to realize the tho sin sm against his his' child and had resolved to atone for far It I knew from Bob that Benjie had maintained all along that the girl was equally to t I blame with himself In this conviction n ho he apparently remained firm to th the e last I set the sealed envelope containing g the name of the unwed mother against a corner of my desk des It hypnotized me and sent me off Into an hour o of f meditation I Ce Certainly Benjie hadn't read th the e books bOOk of Ellen Ke Key or Charlotte Perkins Perkins Perkins Per Per- kins Gilman Oilman And yet in his own ow n thinking thinking up ap p in the clouds clouds apparent apparent ly he had aligned himself with what wha t some of the cleverest feminists of ot th the te e day have been saying Only he really acted right to the end In accordance e with his radical convictions Bobs Bob's verdict at the time he hunted hunte d I 1 up the child and brought braught It home t tb b j I Mother Lorimer had been Benji q I never loved the girl and she didn't didn t j love him Marriage couldn't dignify an ignoble passion And then BoB in his severest style had declaimed about the too sophisticated flirt wh who likes to call herself herselt th the modern girl girland girland I and who uses every feminine wile t to catch a husband under pretense o of af Innocence venturing dangerously close clos e I to the edge of temptation Yet surely in the matter of ot per per- l all girls know right t from wrong instinctively They ma may y not always be able to distinguish between be be- tween Impulse and love but surel surely y they know which way honor lies Barbaras Barbara's Bar Bar- baras bara's mother must have known I 1 J picked up the small envelope which h held her card Now that I had in my own heart hear t and mind accused Katherine Miller i iwas It t was only right for me to read th the e name on the card I discovered what I had expected My rival was In my power But Iwas I Iwas was depressed rather than exalted d. d My first move was to go In search o of f Baby Barbara To be continued |
