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Show LOVE and MARRIED LIFEjl ' btj, the noted author i Idah MSGlone Gibson 1 THE MISTRESS OF THE HOUSE I do not know how long John stayed own Btaira wiih his mother 1 only .enow that after 1 had wept until It seemed to me I hud no inon tears left, and had sobbed until my throat felt as though some ono was drawing a noose tighter and tighter about It, I must have dropped asleep. It was dark when John awaki Di d me He mui have been standing by tht l' d looking at me for some moments, mo-ments, because when I opened my ho leaned over me with such a kind and sympathetic look that J reached out my anus to him like r little child. For a moment I was not quite con scious of all that happened since 1 had reached his mother's house 1 onlj knew that John was there and that he loved me and I loved him The moment my husband spoke, everything every-thing came back to me in a flood cf bit 1 erness "You dear child " he said soothiuc ;l "I have made it ;ill ri-ht .Mother knows v. ho is the head of this house and sin- understands that you an-,.inc an-,.inc in run it in the future." "Oh, John, John, 1 couldn't do that! ' Vuu don't know what vow are asking Of me. 1 cannot come into your mother's moth-er's house which she has managed for years and simply take the reins of government away from her 11 would be too dreadful! She would hate me worse than she does now !" "Never you mind about that " John blustered 'I am e,,ng to be master 111 1 1 1 own house and my wife Is its mistress "Hut. John, I can't do It! You must not .isk me to!" "Are you going to spoil everything now that I have it all arranged?" "John, I caunot, even lor you, put myself in a position which will cause constant irritation and misunderstand jlng. If you thing it is absolute!) nec essary that 1 should live in your I mother's house for a while, 1 will do I so. but ii must be us her guesl I j shall have nothing to say about the in. 1 aagemenl " "But I have made all the arrange jnifnts and mother understands. I cannot can-not go to her now and s.iy ihat ou have backed out. Desldes, I did it for you. I thoughl it was the square thing to do to make her fully realize that 1 was married and thai she would 1 have to take second place." "oh. John," I said, "your poor 1 mother' Can't you understand how it must hae humiliated her" Surely you cannot love your mother as I do mine and subject her to this, even for me." "Un you mean to tell me." t xeluiuied John, veering quickly, "thai you wouldn't turn down your parents or anyone else in the world for me in the same wav I have been doing for you?" "No. John, I couldn't do it for you or any one else, and although your turning down' as you call it, has h. en kindly meant 1 am afraid you have made it impossible for your mother and me ever to be friends." "Well, I'll be d . I have thought for the last three weeks that l was getting a Woman Who was quite different dif-ferent from anj other woman 1 have ever known, and I find her Just like all the rest of them always conjuring con-juring up some bugaboo on how she would treat some one or some one should treal her Here 1 have been trying to arrange things for your comfort com-fort for the last two or three hours' I have never known mother to be so stubborn as she was about this little matter. And then, when after all my w'ork. persuasion and commands, 1 have brought her 'round, you inform in.- thai Mm will not play In her yard' Ye Godf ! What shall 1 do With Ihe two of you?" John looked so perturbed, unhappy j and altogether boyishly rueful, that my sense of humor got the beat ol me and I laughed 'I don't know what you are laughing at," he said, angry In an instant. "You 1 woudn't laugh If you had been with 1 moth, r ' "That's just it, John dear, don't vou 1 think it would b- better not to have interfered directly with this matter, and to ha e lei your mother and me work it out between ourselves?1' "Oh, yes! Yes, that would have bfen a grand idea, for all the time you were working it out :oii would have kept me on the griddle. I would have' been tailed upon to decide thing aj hundred times a day and whichever one I decided against would make me perfectly miserable until 1 turned my weight in the other direction'" 1 saw that it would be perfectly impossible im-possible to convince John of may side of the argument but I was fully determined de-termined that 1 would not usurp the place of mistr.-ss which belonged to Jils mother in this house. 1 was silent for a moment and John, too, seemed to feel that enough had been said on the subject for one time for he asked: "Do you feel able to go down to some restaurant to dinner? Mother has let the servants go out for the day " Again I smiled at mother's strategy for she had known we were coming. "Of course, John, I shall be glad to go." and started immediately to bathe my swollen eyes. "All right," he answered, "meet me down stairs in fifteen minutes." (Continued tomorrow.) |