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Show It llOVE and MARRED MFEl! I-1 I Jmj. the noted author I j Mali Wl&iQne Qihson j i I JOHN'S VIEWS. "Have it that way if you will," said John, as he grinned wryly at ray bitter bit-ter remark about wives and respectability. respecta-bility. , , "But you were not born yesterday, Kalherine. You must know that a man is more or less polygamous. One of your sex has said. 'Man was made by the Creator to insure his scheme of thincs working out against any odds; therefore, there Is no use of arguing about it' " "I didn't know, John, that you believed be-lieved in the double standard." "Why, of course I do,' every man does. And so does every woman in her heart, but she won't qwn it!" "No, John, you are mistaken. 1 think it is just as wrong for you to bo untrue to me as for me to be untrue to you, And for that reason I wan! to tell you that so long as you receive Robert Gaylord, ask him to luncheon and are a hail fellow well met with him, I shall feel at perfect liberty to j ' keep the bond of my friendship with Helen." l "What!" "Yes, I mean just that! You remember re-member the night that we ran away and married? In the morning when I called up Helen, even before I told her that we had been married the day before, be-fore, she said: 'I am coming right to you!' There wasn't a question about our friendship under any circum-I circum-I stances." No Idea of Morals. I "That only strengthens me." said John gruffly, "in my belief that Helen Van Ness hasn't a proper conception of morals." "John, 1 will not let you talk that way about Helen!" "I'm sorry it displeases you, but it's the way I feel about that woman. She shall never cross the threshold of my house." "Then Robert Gaylord shall never cross it, either." 1 answered with quite f as much finality. m. "Oh, you needn't bother about that," fV" said John easily. "I've asked him and ff he declined, and I think it wns be-' be-' cause I had to make it clear to him that mother would not receive Helen. He had lunched with me two or three times before that, but since then he has eeemcd to avoid me." I could not help but laugh, although I knew the think was not comedy it was real tragedy. John's assumption that Bob Gaylord would not resent a slight put upon his 1 R wife, even though his marriage had i i I i.r .bi a . . ...nim HP ninim-lwTXTrT.-y 'boon somewhat irregular, was irresistibly irresis-tibly runny. I Whafre you laughing about?" John asked impatiently. "Why. dear, don't you understand that if a man cared enough for a wo-mau wo-mau to sacrifice not only his wife and; children, but almost his good name forj her sake, he certainly would resent any affront paid to her," i "Well, if a man had any sense tin-1 der these circumstances, he'd know J , he'd get many an affront. There tire; some things no man can do, an.1 one I1 of them is that he mustn't taku thel whole world into his confidence when,1 he goes philandering." j; ! "I don't think ycu practice what you'J preach, John." I1 J Sorry for Her Words. , . , , 1 J I was sorry the words were out of f my mouth. . . -. j "What do you mean now?" he asked, j' "Nothing except that Alice has evi-jj dently. been running across you and;1 Elizabeth Moreland many limes since;' I have been sick." j( I "Alice makes mc tired! Just because!1 she has happened to see mc with KHz-;"' abeth Mortland dining at the club or in a restaurant onco or twice she has , put her own construction on tho inci-,J dents. I want you to understand I;j 'am no Robert Gaylord. I wouldn't give" you up for anyone on earth. You don't seem to realiz-3, Katherine, that Bessl Moreland and I have grown up to-!' !gether. She seems to understand, nic ' ' 'better than any. other person. Some- .times she seems to voice my real thoughts even before I am cognizant ; of them myself." I turned my face to the window. A 1 leafless tendril .from an overhanging!1 vine had been loosened by the winds, and was sadly tapping against the pane. Clinging Woman Lost. So forlorn was the sound that the illustration il-lustration impressed me. Tho clinging vine kind of woman is lost when she is separated from the thing to which she has learned to cling. Bess More-land More-land had wound her tendrils around John's habit of thought so closely in the years that the yhad been together that now that she had been forcibly separated from him she was persistently persist-ently tapping, tapping at his heart, hoping to be able to find some place where again she might cling. Was she just fulfilling the unwritten unwrit-ten law of woman? Was I by my sturdy stur-dy independence of thought and action breaking that law9 Tomorrow What a Man Never Knows |