Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1895-05-30

SllAl wv Nill HNhbifNNN'
"Oh, Rody, do not be hard upon me! !
have nobody in the world to come to but
YOU. How am / to get rid Of my hus-
band? Not harming hm-Ill not harm
him-only let me escape from him. VIII
do it, and I'm right your wife says So"
ROderick started.
ayes, she is quite right" said Silence,
not lifting her eyes, but speaking as her
husband knew she could speak sometimes,
with unmistakable decision.
"My wife is a during woman to say
such thing"
"AmIY
She looked up minute with quiyoring
lip, and did not attempt to put back her
hand, which he had let go, but folded her
fingers together, after way she had, MS
If TO give herself strength when she had
any difficult or painful thing to do,
"This is very strange advice for my
wife--I hope n happy wife--to give to
my sister. Your reasons"
"They are not easy to explain, but l
viii try" She stopped, then with firm,
clear voice went on again. "If Bella had
only herself to sacrifice she might do 1t,
though am not surf. 1t is sin against
heaven to condone sin, even in ones own
husband. But in this and similar cases
Voman does not sacrifice herself alone.
Therc are others upon whom the sins of
Tho father may descend, generation after
generation. She must think of them.
She is responsible to God for them. If |
were in Bela's place"-her voice sunk al
most TO a whisper; she turned deadly pale
and then flushed crimson all over her
afaCe-"if | were in your sisters place |
wOnld die rather than be mother to Il
. drunkard's children
There was total silence Bella, accus-
" Eomea to make self the standpoint of all
her opinions and acts, perhaps could
scarcely understand; but Roderck did.
Startled he might be, yet there was some
thing in his wife's stern righteousness
which he could not gainsay AS he looked
on that small, sweet face, so sweet, yet
SO strong, he saw in her for the first time
not merely his wife, but the woman, the
cOioint and yet separate existence, in
trusted by God and nature with far more
than her own petty life, inheriting-Nnd
conscious that she inherited-the destiny
which came to her from sacred Eve
80 mother of all living"
Nan as he was, with a mans natural
leaning to the masculine side with a
mans natural blindness to much that
women see by instinct, still his wife's
words smote him with certain respect
even awe. That she had strength to say
Shemaat all, she so timid, so shy, so reti-
cent, proved how deeply she must have
thought and felt on the matter.
~'Denr," he said, holding out his hand,
eff all women were like you-especially
IL all sons had mothers like you-there
would be fewer bad men in this world
she answered nothing; but her whole
face frightened in recognition of what is
TO women like her as sweet as being loved
--honored. And so, without more argu
ncnts, all three seemed tacitly to accept
the position which poor Bella had so
'fiercely insisted upon-that for her, mar
wied life, or rather that unholy travesty
of marriage which had been her self-in
flicted doom, was over and done forever.
-'Let her live as widow" Silence
said. "Her life is LOST know that-but
net the sacrifice end here, Let her not
submit to be the ruin of some other lives"
@'But she may be the ruin of her hus-
hands whom she took for better, for
worse How do you answer that"
Silence shrunk back, full of pain, ooh,
1T is difficult, so difficult, to see the right
worse, perhaps, to do it. Still, still No."
and again the strong, clear Abdiel look
came into her eyes-'nO, there can be
but one right and but one wrong alike for
men and for women. She must leave him.
Think, Roderick if the case was reversed,
IL You, or any other husband, were expect
ed to keep as mistress of your house, as
mother of your children, drunken wom-
an"
"God forbidw
<'Then men ought to forbid It, too.
Drunkenness, dissoluteness, anything by
which a man degrades himself and de-
stroys his children, gives his wife the
eight to save them and herself from him,
to cut adrift, like burning ship, and be
free. Poverty, cOntumely, loneliness-let
her endure all. Pity her lot, if you will,
hut to ignore it, to accept it, and submit
80 it, above all, to let the innocent suffer
from it-never! Bella tells me that the
aaw gives her possession of her child for
seven years. My advice is let her take
&c in her arms and hy-anywhere, so that
her husband cannot get her back, or make
the law follow her Nay, if were she,
vould defy the law; would hide myself
at the worlds end, change my name, earn
my bread as a common working woman,
but would save my child and CO."
AS Silence stood, holding close to her
breast the poor babe-she had fetched it,
aud was walking up and down the room
with it, for no one else seemed to have
patience with the miserable, sickly, wall
ing creature-she looked the very incarna-
fiOn of womanhood in its highest form
motherhood; absolutely calm, absolutely
fearless, as mothers ought to be.
Roderck touched with many new
thoughts which come crowding to a man
when he has ceased to be merely young
man, absorbed in himself alone, and begun
so look into the far future, the future OF
those who may yet bless or curse him fol
his part Observation-Disclosures caught her
arm as she passed and drew her to his
side.
perhaps you are right do not quite
know. We must take time to think. But
just at this moment you must give baby
90 its own mother and come and sit dOwI
by me. Remember, you are mine"
eyes"
She obeyed, apparently without
&c tbo outhOpitN