Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-01-28
But in reality it was Marpcrx xzhn

volved. she cared great deal for
the success of the author, and she
was shrewd enough to arrive quickly
at double conclusion; that Girls.
void was well able to write a sue
cessful book; and that. left to him
self, he would assuredly spoil it with
his theories. So she labored faith
fully to keep him in a broader road
and not without a goodly measure
of success.
But, Margery,"-(they were well
past the "Mr." and Miss" by this
time)-"I can't do that he said
one morning when they had been re-
working the plot through one of tie
coy sitting-room talks.
Don't you see it begs the entire
question of labor and capital?"
Il see that you can't help doing il
unless you are deliberately false to
your art" retorted the literary ora
Gle.
"You have put these people on the
stage, giving them certain characters.
and they must go on and do the
things that are consistent"
Not if the consistent things are
going to make the entire picture out
of drawing"
She laughed. "How impossible a
man can be-" she rejoined, sweetly.
How many times must we go bsck
to the original question. You must
choose between saying it all anil hav-
ing nobody read it and saying a lit
tie and having everybody read it.
your theory-it's lovely. But unless
you make it good story, first. last
and all the time, you will never get a
hearing"
Then I may as well give it up"
Griswold confessed. eff I may not
preach little 1 have no excuse for
saying anything at ALL
"Oh. you may preach little. But
in this particular instance you must
make Rathbone stern and infiexible,
cruel, if need be. You needn't be
afraid of its effect upon the girl.
She will condone anything he may
have to dots way girls have"
He looked at her narrowly and
then the film of abstraction came
between.
II wonder if you really mean that?
Are women so ready to condone?"
Her laugh was hooking. You
make me blush for YOU" she said.
Isn't an author supposed to know
more about US than we know about
| ourselves?"
81 don't know about the SUPPOSE
ton. But the man who knows the
heart of one woman"
She stopped him with a little ges-
ture of Impotence.
Tell me what it is you Cont know
and I'll turn traitor and betray my
sex"
At that his gaze went beyond her
again and he said: Il wonder if you
would?"
TRY me and see."
He hesitated a moment and then
plunged into the depths of it.
Then tell me this: If Rathbone
should go on and do all the hard
things you say his character calls
for-things which Priscilla believes
to be wrong-would she put her con-
science aside and stand with him.
Miss Grierson's reply was brief and
very much to the point.
"a woman in love has no con-
science. The man she loves has to
furnish enough of that commodity
for two"
Griswold WINGED. "What a merci-
less little cynic you are" he de-
| clared.
ut is true. and when you are say
| ing true things where is the use Of
taking the roundabout way. l don't
say the woman wouldn't be hurt.
| She would be, and the hurt might
turn up afterward in way to make
the man sorry. But that has moth
| ing to do with the fact that a wom-
| ans conscience can't hold it's own
against her love-"
Griswold shook his head in depre-
cation. 81 don't like to believe that.
I'd like to believe that a man NAV
go on making a good woman's con-
science the touchstone by which his
own conceptions of right and wrong
may be corrected"
| Margery laughed lightly. "And SO
| you may, if you don't first go about
to make the woman love you. But
| you can't eat your cake and have it
| too"
| Griswold folded his manuscript and
put it back in the envelope. Then
| he said what was in his mind.
these are generalities. Margery.
Would you be that loyal to the man
you loved?"
Miss Grierson's shrug was barely