Show J GE A fhe rho new fable of the two unfettered birds and how far they flew once there was a girl with a gleam ing new hampshire forehead who used to exchange helpful books with a studious young man who hai had a an intellect of high voltage it will not be necessary to namia these books as you never beard heard oi of them laura and edgar were comrades in a way they met under the student lamp and talked about and walter pater but the aff affair air never got beyond that point it was not even warm enough to be called pla ria tonic it carried about as much romantic suggestion as a cold hot water bottle there grew up between them merely a fellowship of the super mind or what a wimp wearing tortoise shell spectacles would call Cosma Cos bogany having cleared away tha the underbrush we will now proceed with the narra tive like every other member ot of tha the tribe of 0 mansard mentalities they re carded with much contempt the school of popular fiction do you they would stand for or any of that old style guff about sir ralph getting the hammer lock on dorothy just outside the loggia not on your thought laveal they regarded the article commonly called love as a lingering symptom Sym of some primeval longing tor for parlor eu en s C it was agreed that each soji soil was free and independent and had a right to run on its own p avata time tab a e laura said she was as going to live her lite life in her own way and that no wal lopus in striped trousers could leave herto nf in fat at m vord ng under b beales e ate braes s edgar did not choose to carry over weight while working cut his career and grew faint at the very thoa h t 0 of f shouldering a lot of domestic ties marriage was an institution devised tor for strap straphangers hangers who anted to get their names into the paper it wl w asa l childish refuge for alo e mho ho lac e sd d courage to forsake the tea bea en on paths and strike out tor for the figh spots it will be seen that they v sere ere some what advanced As far back as 1890 they were living in the century laura went in far club dvork vv ork and cold baths and card indexing she felt sorry for the married won wo n en they ra alaa 1 s fussed up over ever getting a Laub drea qs or telling about new cases of scarlet paci or siso also phoning the office to make eura sure that the breadwinner vs at 1 tha des desk and behaving himself when she let down I 1 er hair at night she did not riot have to do any checking up or put the bottle of squalls on the radiator bae was free and ard happy A little lonesome lo on rainy days but the fre fro eat est thing you ever saw and she had a books edgar looked about I 1 tin and saw the slave slaves of matrimony Nat batching ching the clock and getting ready to duck at 11 p in and he rejoiced inwardly he ile could land in at hia his little arde pen dence hall at 3 2 g in and tun turn en cn all the lights and drape hia his V wardrobe over the ru rugs s and light cigarettes and there was not n ot a voice to break the celestial silence he figured that children rn t be a an n am ful worry he brooded over the kid proposition so much that eoon after he vas as 30 isears years aw UE to zo Q around und and as ean IN do uia take them to the circus and buy ex pensive presents for them and upset tha the household rules occasionally he would take a new book dealing mith the higher things ot of life up to his old friend laura and he would find her feeding the birds with the cat asleep in the corner lorner and an imported dog with man curls preempting the principal chair they would discuss prison reform and kipling and other subjects in no way related to the awakening of the maternal instinct when he owned up to 40 and sha she had stopped talking about it the read ing habit was no longer a novelty with him so merely to kill time he was acting on the visiting board of 0 an orphan asylum ana was a director of the fresh air fund and was put ting the office boy through a busl dust ness college about the same time laura was made th the G v victim I 1 caim of a conspiracy A designing day laborer and his wife deliberately up and died leaving a chick of a daughter all helpless and alone laura simply had to go over and grab the young one and play mother to her because it all happened hardly a mile from her own door step she had been dodging these common place and old fashioned ties all her lite life and now cruel circum stances compelled her to spend hours in servile attentions to a stray sped men of course ehe she had expert advice of her old friend edgar who made out the adoption papers and sent a lot of merchandise up to the house out of the of a bicad and general sentiment of pity for the unfortunate even when hen they stood up to be mar ried they were still stringing them selves he ile was bald and grizzled and she was a little droopy around the shout ders and had net been able to massa massage e away the more important wrinkles they scouted the Sag suggestion that it was a love match it seemed that ehe she needed a night watchman and he was mas afraid to be alone in the dark with the hen men of the past I 1 MORAL after you pa pis pas s forty you must take charge of boething Bom thing hu man even if it la Is only a calu catu beur |