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Show Kathleen Norris Says: When You Call the. Tunc. Bell Syndicate WNU Features, t ! UK Helen begged him to help her get a divorce from Harry and legitimize her present position. Dick, newly made a lieutenant commander, would not hear of it. It might break into a scandal that would injure his career. By KATHLEEN NORRIS THE story of Helen van Dyne is a most unusual one. Like all the rest of us she has carefully made her own troubles; built her- self the cross she has to carry. car-ry. But in her case it wasn't the ignorance, stupidity or mere laziness that some of us can claim as an excuse; Helen Hel-en deliberately broke the law, and now she has to pay for it. ' Eighteen years ago she was i a beautiful woman of 22, married mar-ried to the wrong man. There j wasn't any question of his being the PAYING THE PIPER The "Helen van Dyne" of this letter called the tune 18 years ago, and now she is protesting pro-testing against the terrible price she must pay the piper. F or he will collect, whether she likes it or not . . . It's easy to say you are willing to take the consequences of an unconventional uncon-ventional act. It's not quite so simple as all that, because you can't decide what the consequences conse-quences are to be and when you are to be confronted with them. Sometimes they threaten threat-en the very happiness for which you once risked all. and woman ever felt themselves so truly man and wife as we did. We never thought of the irregularity of our relationship; we had decided once and for all that ours was a wrong man; he did not provide for J her, he drank, he annoyed and hu- W initiated her with what seemed ac tual pleasure, and he openly said he didn't like her. She had been married mar-ried three years when she met the man who, under happier circumstances, circum-stances, would have been the ideal husband for her. Dick had everything. Charm, gentleness, gen-tleness, manner, intelligence, success. suc-cess. He had been a young naval, officer in the last war, but had afterward after-ward resumed law studies and was a judge in a remarkably short time. Helen suffered all the agonies of frustrated love for a while, and then she and Dick left town, established themselves in a western state and prospered. They now have a boy of 16 and a girl two years younger. When an occasional old friend encountered en-countered her, Helen always said that she had divorced Harry and married Dick, but as a matter of fact there was no marriage. When she asked for it, Harry flatly refused re-fused to consent to a divorce, and as Helen had already left him and gone to place herself under Dick's protection, she couldn't with any dignity insist upon it. Happy Home and Children. Dick and Helen have a lovely home, friends, a prominent position in the small town where they live. The children go to high school and are preparing for college. Richard Junior happens to be a proud and dignified boy; he has literary ambitions ambi-tions and likes to refer to his ancestry, an-cestry, his good blood, his Americanism. Ameri-canism. Pamela is frail, fine, sensitive sen-sitive and both are devoted passionately passion-ately to their parents. truer marriage than hundreds that are approved every day. I suppose we always intended to straighten it out, but the years went so fast and were so happy that nothing seemed to be missing. Divorce Too Late. "Now, to go back to the old town, hunt up Harry, and make arrangements arrange-ments for a divorce without the children chil-dren suspecting that something extraordinary ex-traordinary was going on, is utterly out of the question. And even if I did, what would it accomplish since Dick is not within reach? The slightest slight-est suspicion of it would break Pam's heart, and shame my proud, handsome hand-some confident boy. They would lose faith in their mother forever. "When Dick and I first decided to take this step 18 years ago," the letter goes on, "we faced the consequences con-sequences or thought we did, squarely. We even spoke of a possible possi-ble child, and I remember saying that if we had one he or she would be a little gipsy who wouldn't worry about conventional oversights. We felt that we were strong enough to rise above the law, and to us both it seemed preposterous that an irresponsible, irre-sponsible, idle, impecunious and improvident im-provident man like Harry should have any power over our lives. "But Dick Junior is NOT an unconventional un-conventional gipsy type of boy, and my little Pamela is the clinging gentle gen-tle type, and I don't dare think of what the truth would mpnn to tlmm What is the right way out, one that will save us all?" I'm not answering this letter, because be-cause as far as I can see, there is no answer. When and if Dick Senior Sen-ior comes home after months, it might be possible for Helen to persuade per-suade him to make things as right as they can be made now. If he doesn't come back, perhaps Helen could confide in her mother-in-law, ask the old lady to make the children chil-dren of her son her heirs. Husband Always a Threat. To find Harry now wouldn't do much good because Helen, even if divorced, couldn't be married to Dick until Dick returns, and unless Harry has somewhat improved he might seriously threaten her peace of mind, snd betray her to her children. chil-dren. So that the only thing to do is go on this way for the present, and hope that time time that brings about so many unexpected solutions to our human mistakes and problemswill prob-lemswill offer an opportunity sooner soon-er or later to straighten out all this. It is one thing to call the tune at 22, and feel quite willing to face the consequences, and it is another to pay the piper when he comes around with his bill. Real consequences have a maddening way of being much more complicated I-ast February Dick quite suddenly sudden-ly rejoined the navy, and was sent overseas. Helen had little time to argue the situation with him before he left, but she did beg him to help her get a divorce from Harry, and legitimize her present position. Dick, newly made a lieutenant commander, command-er, would not hear of it. -It might break into a scandal that would injure in-jure his career. Rumors would reach their own town and, above all, it would hurt the children. The only thing to do was to go on as they were, until some day Harry died, when they could quietly be married. Helen has not heard from Dick since early in September. He is missing, perhaps dead, and if he doesn't come back her affairs will be hopelessly complicated. For there is a rich old grandmother, as proud as Richard Junior, who is presently going to leave a good deal of money to Dick's children. But Helen is still Harry's wife under the law. Should Harry turn up he could wreck their lives. Helen knows it and agonizes over it. "I have not had one moment's peace of mind for months," she writes. "We had drifted along comfortably com-fortably for so long without ever suspecting that anything would bring ip this old trouble; no man |