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Show It. ! LOW andMRRIED LIFEl ; v ! the' noted author J 'l jj THE MONEY VALUE OF AFFEC- 4 TION. . ;. Notwithstanding I went to sleep) Xw ' rather depressed, I wakened the next ;W y morning feeling much improved both! V J In health and spirits. Sleep had done more than "knit the , raveled sleeve TP y of care." for I, began to, feel the Invig- orated life blood coursing through ray . i veins, yjl 1 "After your bath and your brcak- I fast," said my nurao, "I am going to rn I let you road your letters. Your friends vJS il "av"2 sure'v been solicitous for your welfare, Mrs. Gordon." ( The promise of letters intrigued rayi 1 W curiosity and I was In a very happy , ' mood when John came in. "My, but you're looking fine this' morning!" he ejaculated. "I thought : f ' : you were a wild rose yesterday in your -'.so pink contraptions, but I am not sure jfcfj i ' thai this peculiar hlue is not more bc- ;J coming to you! I think, my dear, that ' Vl ' 't 1 am inS t0 insIst that you shall -j s' ; wear your hair short. It's so becom- if&s ing." r&j ' "It looks all right in bed, John," I i said, "but you would be the first one to A j find fault with it when I got out among kWi i :1 vnnr friends. You know vou have al-! '.t ways criticized my disregard of con- ' ; ventional modes." Nothing Could Be Prettier. "Perhaps I shouldn't like it," he said, jjBf '-' but nothing could be prettier than your , w , f short curls and that childish blue rib- d 1,011 uantl and nerkv bow. 1 almnst fcel i f, as though you were a big doll that has - been given me to play with." v, i "That's it. John. I've often thought -:- that men, because they were denied ( J dolls when they were boys, hoped to j f satisfy their longing for that pretty Ml ' toy when they married. So many men BJ r seem to want their wives to be dainty; j dolls that they can 'play "with whom Wi i they wish. And when they tired of J these dolls they can put them away in ' H T a drawor and go about their business, I H or play with other toys their fancy H might suggesL And all the while, in I) j some compartment of their brains re-j 'I poses the pleasant consciousness that : whenever they wish they can go back' and take their own little doll out of 23E '1 its drawer and play with it again." -' I "Look here, Katherine, you're not )N I beginning to give me sarcastic philosophy philos-ophy already, arc you?" "Is that sarcasm, John? 1 thought it just a fanciful philosophy." Great Basket of Notes, "What have we here?" he asked, dropping the subject as the nurse placed i great basket of notes and letters let-ters on my bed. "I thought, Mr. Gordon, that it would make the day seem shorter for Mrs. Gordon if she could read some of the kind wishes of her friends." John picked up a huge handful of letters, ran through them quickly, and grunted or cuckled as he recognized the superscription on some of them. I was still eating my breakfast, so I paid little attention to him for a moment mo-ment or two. Then I became aware that he had begun to lay the letters In neat little piles on the coverlet- "What are you doing?" I asked curiously. cu-riously. "Well, I'm putting the ones that I am not going to let you rend over there," pointing to a number of business-looking documents. "Well, I like that," I answered. "They are my letters, aren't they?" And I shot out my hand for -the proscribed pro-scribed missives. He quickly pushed them out of reach. "It's nonsense for you to read them all," he said. "There's one of them; they're probably all alike. I know now why Shepard lost that account ac-count to me last week There are compensations," he asid as he grinned, "in having a business competitor Interested Inter-ested In your wife." Written by Karl Shepard. For a moment I did not get the real import of John's words. I was too indignant in-dignant over the fact that he was still holding the half-dozen letters that had evidently been written mo by Karl Shepard. Then all at once I got a new angle on my husband's character. "Do you mean to tell me," I asked breathlessly, "that you would condone an undue interest in your wife by your best friend, provided you made money by the operation?" "Well, as long as my best friend confines his undue interest to letter writing, and the wife of my bosom is immured in a hospital so ill that she can see neither him nor anyone else, I think I am safe in accepting the business busi-ness that his defection sends my way," John replied, still grinning. Of course, he treated the matter as i a joke, but the idea was too serious for line to joko about However, I said no I moro, but opened the , letter in my ! hand. j Tomorrow Astonishing News. i . nn |