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Show KATHLEEN NORRIS People Don't Commit Sins Now JiHE UNUSUAL and painful situa- tion into which one Percy Field, of San Antonio, Tex., has gotten himself, is described to jme in an agitated letter from his mother. She does not say that it was sin that brought about this tangle, because be-cause like most persons today she evidently doesn't believe in sin. The word has gone almost completely com-pletely out of the language. People don't commit sins, nowadays, they are the victims of reactions to unfortunate un-fortunate early influences, traumas, inhibitions, fixations, phobias and other influences beyond their control. raise little girls. I have come to feel deeply sorry for Alma, who married to give Lucia a protector, and was widowed in 1948. I believe her aunt is taking her little boy. "What I am asking you." concludes con-cludes this agitated letter, "Is to give me some argument to use with Kathryn. Surely she can't refuse re-fuse Percy the joy of providing for his own daughter. Surely there is some way to show her how simple and harmonious such an arrangement arrange-ment would be. She swears that if Lucia comes to my home she will never enter it, or allow Jacqueline, her own child, to pntpr it " impossible Background What Percy did was fall in love with a girl- in a five-and-ten. Her years were 24 to his 20, and his mother writes that she was impossible. impossi-ble. Her background also was impossible. im-possible. Percy's mother met Alma, Al-ma, and descended promptly into that special Purgatory reserved for the mothers of impressionable only sons. Alma was beautiful, ungram-matical, ungram-matical, uneducated, not only without with-out culture, as old Mrs. Field then saw culture, but unaware that there was any such thing. "Right or wrong," Percy's mother writes, "I prevented their marriage. mar-riage. My boy was willing to give this girl's child his name, but I could not I simply couldn't agree. "Isn't it inhuman for her to refuse re-fuse a dying woman?" Well, Louise, you have changed. Perhaps Kathryn will. No mother can entirely blame you for shutting shut-ting off so unsuitable a marriage for a boy of 20, but you didn't show much concern for the baby, and the casual way you observe that you believe the younger child of poor wrecked Alma is to be provided pro-vided for, shows that your feeling is still stronger for Lucia as your granddaughter than as a small precious human being, with rights of her own. I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd forget for-get Kathryn for the moment. I'd take Lucia, and I'd take the smaller small-er baby too, ana give both those youngsters the sort of joyous childhood child-hood that only Granny can give. Little Jacqueline will soon find her way across the garden, and if you will be patient, and tactful, and remember that the most telling argument ar-gument of all is silence, time will do the rest. It isn't often that so involved an affair comes out so well. Two children will be happy, an unlucky girl will die content, with so much in order. ". . . mother met Alma . . ." Marriage then would have interrupted inter-rupted his college career, for I told him that if he married, he would have to work to support his wife. I told him I would not help, and sometimes I have felt since that this was pretty severe. But things you do at one time of your life look strange at some later time. Percy's sister was on the eve of a fine marriage and Percy's father had held a fine position in the Pennsylvania town where we lived then. J j.uc war came along ana Percy went to the South Seas, earning more than one medal for bravery. On condition that she would never trouble him I sent Alma a check every month for three years. I saw Lucia, the baby, infrequently. Percy came home, married, and we moved to Texas. His business interests took him back frequently to Ger-mantown, Ger-mantown, and I learned much later that he saw Alma and little Lucia then. He and his wife have a daughter, now 5. Afraid of Scandal "Now Alma, who is tubercular, j has moved to a sanitarium a few miles away from where we live. I have seen her, and the beautiful child. Percy is devoted to this older daughter, and wants to adopt her. But his wife, Kathryn, objects. She says it will jeopardize the future of her own daughter, cause scandal, and that she simply will not consent con-sent to co-operate in what she calls an old disgrace. I have, of course, suggested that I take Lucia, but Kathryn will not hear of it. Our homes are joined by a lovely garden, gar-den, an ideal place in which to |