Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-08-26
CONFESSIONS.

department oil a STORE, marie WaS u library
| attendant, while Louise was proud of a
little Office of her own and was working
hard toward the highest rank in the
s%tenographio profession. Each girl was
bright and handsome and possessing the
individuality that seemed best suited to
| the profession she had chosen.
Nothing had been further from their
thoughts than the idea that they should
rent a flat together and keep house, but
one evening after the lecture when they
were ~lounging in one of the pretty parlors
of the Noon Day Rest, Nina, yawning,
said:
ooh, l hate to go home. It's work hard
all day, and then go home at night to the
hall bedroom of a boarding house, with
nothing pleasant or cheerful.
"Or comfortable" added Louise. II
envy the girl with a home"
'"NNhy don't we leave the boarding
houses, then, and make a home for our
s%elyes?" asked Marie, the inventive n Of
the three.
Lets count u resources, and lot that
decide it., said practical Louise.
AS a result Of this evenings conference,
in less than a month Nina, Marie and
Louise had set up in housekeeping for
themselves.
One evening after dinner, as they were
sitting around the parlor table, Nina and
Louise engaged in some light needlework,
while Marie read aloud from Lillian Bells
"From a Girls Point Of View" the girls
jestingly interrupted the bright para
graphs to contrast their more fortunate
condition with the lot Of SO many unhappy
wives. But Nina seemed thoughtful, and
after awhile laid down her sewing and
turned to the piano. She played an old
fashioned love song, but suddenly the
music broke off, and she said impulsively:
"Girls, will you tell me why 1t is that
three young women, each handsome
enough and possessed of the average ao-
complishments and ability-why it is that
we should not be each the mistress of a
happy home, instead of cheating ourselves
into the belief that we ale happier as in
dependent bachelor girlsp"
The force and suddenness Of the ques-
ton startled her companions, while Nina
went on:
1 w liUU D0lloto llInu dIy SllA 1--WE All
til she is, say, 20 years old without having
some sort Of a love episode that at one
time promised to be the reality of her life.
Girls, l am going to tell you my love
story"
Marie let Miss Bells book fall into her
lap, while tho daisies and buttercups in
the centerpiece Louise was embroidering
grew faster and faster into their colors of
blue and gold.
"You know, l have not always been a
city girl, " said Nina, "but grew up in a
little country town. Ralph Hadley was
my earliest playmate. He was three years
older than l, but l kept up with him in
school-indeed, could have outstripped
him a little; but, like Whittier's little
maid, would not, because l loved him. l
was fond of music and was so proud when
l could play the organ in the village
church and Ralph led the choir. Then
Ralph went away to st. Louis to find em-
ployment. He wrote me such beautiful
letters of the new life in the city and how
different it was from the country, and how
l would enjoy it. Some one heard him
sing in a big church and became interested
in him, and then he wrote that he was
going abroad to cultivate his voice. The
next letter was postmarkod Berlin. After
that the letters were less often, and the
village seemed so little and lonely that l
could not bear it. I knew, too, that when
Ralph came home a grent singer he would
not find q congenial companion in an I'M
trained village maiden, SO ! determined to
come to the city, where l would improve
myself so much that he would not be
ashamed of me. That was my one idea, to
be a suitable wife for Ralph.
"In spite of my parents opposition
came to Chicago and found employment
as a clerk. l worked hard in the daytime
to please my employers, and III the even
ing ! studied music and French and Ger.
lectures. I watched eagerly the beautiful
ladies who came into the store and tried
to make my manners and speech as pleas.
ant as theirs. Oh, how hard l worked,
hoping that Ralph would be proud of me.
II had not had a letter from Ralph for
more than "a year, when one day I saw in
the paper a notice that he had sung before
a critical foreign audience with great suc-
cess and had signed an engagement to re.
turn to his W country. l watched and
waited, moved alternately with hope and
fear, and when at last his company was
announced to appear at the Auditorium ]
was i'll with excitement. l sent a little
note to the hotel, giving my address. The
answer came promptly. 1t read:
"DEAR FRIEND NINA-My wife and / arr
stopping at the Auditorium Annex. Would be
so pleased to have you call on my wife. Yours
sincerely, RALPH HApLEy.
"That is my love story" said Nina,
turning again to the piano.
Marie and Louise listened in sympa.
thetic silence as she softly touched the
keys. At last Louise said:
she was not worthy Of you, Nina, and
1t was very much like a man. Out Of
sight, out of mind about sums up
mans constancy."
you judge too harshly, Louise" said
Marie. GAN men are not like that"
"The most of them are," said Louise
emphatically. eyes, l loved a man once
and promised I would be true to him, but
when ! found out that he cared more for
another girl than he cared for me, why, !
put him out of my mind, and now l work
and work and work every day and never
think of him. There's as good fish in
the sea as has ever been caught"
Louise was nothing If not practical.
"And yet," said Marie, ''the woman
who is happily married Is best of. !
don't quite agree with Lillian Bell in OK.
pecting SO much of a husband. Because
in the stress Of business life a man forRets
some of the little attentions that marked
his courtship it does not signify he is not
just as true a lover and perhaps q very
much truer one. Indeed a husband and
wife should understand each other so well
and be SO sure Of one another that they
could say, with Mrs. Browning:
"The blame Of love is sweeter than all praise
Of those who love us not"
"You ought to have been married,
Marie, y said Louise bluntly.
"And l should have been, dear, except
for my pride and folly"
"You proud or foollishl' exclaimed both
her friends.