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Show hi"""' ILOVE and MMffl) 1IFEI Jhj. "the noted, author j ' j Idah HCSlone Gibson j Thoughts of Karl. I While I was preparing for the read- H ing of my mother's will I was not H thinking of what John had said about H taking my business affairs, and con- M sequently" my income. Into his own H hands. I was thinking about tho let- H ter I had read from Karl Shepard and wishing that I had not torn it up. H Although every word in Karl's letter I stood engraved on the tablets of my H memory, yet, womanlike, I wa3 almost , afmid that I was misinterpreting some I could not deny to myself the fact H ' that Karl Shepard loved me, or at least his interests had been aroused to H such an extent by his knowledge of : the liaison between John and Eliza- fck beth Morclaud, that he called the emo- J tion thus engendered love. F' Then, as always, my vagrant mind H i meandered about on a new trial. I H I wondered just what was the emotion that Karl Shepard designated in his HI own mind as love. I He had never attempted to caress me. Ho had never, but once, even kissed my hand, and that was the time at tho club just after my severe Illness, Ill-ness, when John became so unreasonably unreason-ably jealous. No Caressing Cadence. Even when Karl snatched me back from tho storm darkened waters of the Atlantic his voice held no carees-ing carees-ing cadence. Indeed, that was the only time he had spoken brusquely to me during our acquaintance. And yet. to uic, that short quick sentence: "Don't be a fool," held perhaps the greatest love token he had ever given me, because be-cause the words wore so full of the terror from which he had saved me. And blende'd with the horror in his voice was another note a love note 4 which indicated the anguish ho would feel at my loss. Even the letter from him that I had just received and destroyed did not J tell me so much of his feelings as that quick decisive exclamation, combined with his hard grasp on my arm a3 he pulled me back. Although, when a woman's heart is lorn and bleeding from real or fancied neglect of her husband, there is a sweet solace in the fact that some ' other man believes her to bo desirable above all others, yet 1 am not sure this I knowledge is at all productive of peace of mind. I almost wish that Karl had not sent me that letter, it was something some-thing that I could not show to John even if I had kept it. It was the first thing that had happened since I was married that I had the least desire to keep from hini, and because it was really so comforting to me it made me feel as though I had actually done something wrong. Determine to Tell. I determined to tell Alffce about it, because after what I had heard of her conversation with John it seemed to episode from a common-senso viewpoint, view-point, at least. I knew that I could not ask Helen about it, because, notwithstanding notwith-standing she had not found the path she had taken most desirable, I knew that she would counsel me to immediately imme-diately separate from John if I felt that in our married life must be always al-ways a straining of the cords of matrimony. mat-rimony. Of one thing, however, I was determined, deter-mined, and that was that whatever Uohn would say, nowover angry or nun he should feel, I would insist upon the economic Independence that my mother's moth-er's bequest would give me. I almost smiled' to myself as I thought how like John it was to have settled the entire business of my little patrimony without asking mc any-j thing about it. "Are you quite sure you are fully able to go through with the business tills afternoon." said my nurse as she ; helped me to 'dress. "I certainly am." I answered. "I am feeling perfectly well again; in fact, I feel better than I did any time at Atlantic City." Too Much Thinking ; Yes, Mrs. Gordon. I think you do," observed my nurso quietly. "I have noticed since I have been with you that you are the kind of woman who Imust have an engrossing interest toj 'be perfectly well, otherwise you arc! 'verv apt to think too much of your-j self. j "Forgive me. won't you, for saying this. Perhaps by doing so I am over-1 stepping the bounds between patient, and nurse, but I have not been with 'you these few weeks without feeling i ,'that a now interest in lifo would be 'the best medicine that could be given ;you." Tomorrow A Woman's Mind. j i |
